Monk Eastman
The Eastman Gang were a major Jewish crime syndicate from Manhattan that were best-known for their supremacy over the early 20th-century criminal underworld, fighting the Five Points Gang for power. It lasted from 1901 until 1912, when Jack Zelig was killed by many other factions of the gang.
History[]
After leaving the Allen Street Cadets in 1901, Monk Eastman founded his own organization, at first being used as a strong-armer gang for Tammany Hall politicians. Soon, he led a powerful street gang that fought Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang and in 1903, killed two of them on Rivington Street in a gun battle involving dozens of gangsters.
The gang ran fencing operations, and when Eastman was arrested one day in 1904, all of the fencers made their own factions, and Kid Twist and his outfit became the gang that succeeded the Eastman organization. Monk Eastman was a petty criminal until he was killed by corrupt cop Jerry Bohan in 1920.
Members[]
- Monk Eastman
- Kid Twist
- Jack Zelig
- Red Phil Davidson
- Tommy Dyke
- Richie Fitzpatrick
- Vach Lewis
- Charles Livin
- Chick Tricker
- Kid Dahl
- Jack Sirocco
- Chris Wallis
- Charley Torti
- Julie Morrell
- Diamond Charley
- Carroll Terry