Description:Fourteen stories from New York's criminal past cover the field, from draft riots during the Civil War to prohibition, modern-day gang violence, and murder.
New York is not only a world capital of finance, fashion, and
media, but also of every imaginable variety of criminal activity from
the most brutal to the most creative. From rampaging draft rioters to
Prohibition-era beer barons, from brilliant art thieves to Wall Street
insiders, from the Boss Tweed to Dapper Don, New York's criminals
personify the dark side of the most vibrant and diverse city on earth.
Crimes of New York takes us from the tortured, violent life of David
Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam, who terrorized the city in the process of
killing six young women to the story of the Manhattan yuppie millionaire
whose marriage dissolved in drug abuse and ended in murder; from the
life of a woman struggling to stay straight in the South Bronx to the
violent childhood of teen killer Cape Man Salvatore Agron. Their crimes
reflect our common failings—greed, anger, lust for power—intensified by
the brutality and sophistication of the unique pressure cooker that is
New York.