The First Vice Lord

The First Vice Lord PDF Author: Arthur J. Bilek
Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
ISBN: 9781581826395
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
THE FIRST VICE LORD is the story of the life and death of Big Jim Colosimo and Chicago's infamous segregated red-light district--the Levee. For the first time, the true story is told of the colorful characters who peopled the Levee from the time of the Columbian Exposition to the Roaring Twenties, clearly the most colorful period in Chicago's history. The product of five years of research through Chicago daily newspapers, magazines, and periodicals, and books on the city's history, it documents the story as it occurred, with all of the sights, sounds, and smells of that lusty, unruly era. THE FIRST VICE LORD is the story of an immigrant Italian lad who grew up in the tenements of Chicago, where he worked first as a lowly street sweeper, then as a brothel operator and vice lord, and finally as the owner of the most famous restaurant of his day. His story is told against the backdrop of an open red-light district so famous it was known to the crown heads of Europe.

The First Vice Lord

The First Vice Lord PDF Author: Arthur J. Bilek
Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
ISBN: 9781581826395
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
THE FIRST VICE LORD is the story of the life and death of Big Jim Colosimo and Chicago's infamous segregated red-light district--the Levee. For the first time, the true story is told of the colorful characters who peopled the Levee from the time of the Columbian Exposition to the Roaring Twenties, clearly the most colorful period in Chicago's history. The product of five years of research through Chicago daily newspapers, magazines, and periodicals, and books on the city's history, it documents the story as it occurred, with all of the sights, sounds, and smells of that lusty, unruly era. THE FIRST VICE LORD is the story of an immigrant Italian lad who grew up in the tenements of Chicago, where he worked first as a lowly street sweeper, then as a brothel operator and vice lord, and finally as the owner of the most famous restaurant of his day. His story is told against the backdrop of an open red-light district so famous it was known to the crown heads of Europe.

A Nation of Lords

A Nation of Lords PDF Author: David Dawley
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
This book tells about the streets of West Side, Chicago, from the times when shotguns were as vital as pants to the times when street fighters opened stores, art studios and tenant's rights programs. It is the story of the evolution of the Vice Lords from street fighting to street corporation, an organizational form of the emerging nation of Black youth.

The Vice Lords

The Vice Lords PDF Author: R. Lincoln Keiser
Publisher: Case Studies in Cultural Anthr
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
This study of a Chicago street gang provides an insightful picture of gangs of similar age and composition operating in depressed areas and ghettos of large American cities.

The Gang Book

The Gang Book PDF Author: Franco Domma
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692951910
Category : Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
A detailed overview of street gangs in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Encyclopedia of Gangs

Encyclopedia of Gangs PDF Author: Louis Kontos
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031334891X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
In light of Los Angeles' gang state of emergency, ethnic and minority gangs are arguably more high profile now than at any other time in our history. News media typically focus on the crime and violence associated with gangs, but not much else. This encyclopedia seeks to illuminate the world of gangs, including gang formations, routine gang activities, aberrations and current developments. One hundred essay entries related to gangs in the United States and worldwide provide a diffuse overview of the gang phenomenon. Each entry defines and explains the term, provides an historical overview, and explains its significance today. As the following entries demonstrate, gangs are part of the fabric of American society. They are not only in our communities but also our schools and other social institutions. Understanding the world of gangs is therefore needed to understand American society. Entries include: Bikers, Bloods, Cholas, Crips, gang mythology, gang warfare, graffiti, Hell's Angels, Hong Kong Triads, Latin Kings, law enforcement, occultic gangs, mafia, media, prison gangs, rites, Skinheads, Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act, tattoos, trafficking, Wanna-bes, West Side Story, Witness Protection programs, and youth gangs.

This Is My Story

This Is My Story PDF Author: ToMack D. Johnson
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1462011721
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
THIS GRITTY, BRUTALLY MEMOIR TELLS THE STORY OF AN ANGRY YOUTH WHO GOES TO PRISON AND, UPON RELEASE, BECOMES ONE OF OKLAHOMAS MOST PROMINENT DRUG DEALERS. This Is My Story is the brutally honest life story of ToMack D. Johnson. From his troubled childhood in Chickasha and Lawton, Oklahoma, to his initiation into the gang known as the Vice Lords, Johnson is brutally honest about the challenges that he faced. He describes his disturbing childhood and his rugged life as a teen gang member. In 1992, he began his ?rst prison term following his conviction for a drive-by shootingthus beginning the next troublesome period of his life as a hard head in prison. He left prison after spending over a quarter of his life there. Johnson explores his life as a businessman, street hustler, and drug dealer, trying to make money any way possible. He also talks about the battle for his life that he has fought since discovering that he had high blood pressure and devastating kidney failure. Finally, he talks honestly about his relationship with his daughter and her mother, as well as with all of the women in his life. By discussing the hardship of his abusive relationships with women, he recognizes the a?ect that being raped as a child had on his life.

A World of Gangs

A World of Gangs PDF Author: John Hagedorn
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816650667
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
"On the street with gangs in three world cities - Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown - Hagedorn discovers that many of them have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression. The mhilistic appeal of gangsta rap and its ethic of survival "by any means necessary," he argues, provides vital insights into the ideology and persistence of gangs around the world. Proposing how gangs can be encouraged to overcome their violent tendencies, Hagedorn appeals to community leaders to use the urgency, outrage, and resistance common to both gang life and hip-hop to bring gangs into broader movements for social justice."--BOOK JACKET.

The Notorious Ben Hecht

The Notorious Ben Hecht PDF Author: Julien Gorbach
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612495958
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
2019 National Jewish Book Award Finalist for Biography. Ben Hecht had seen his share of death-row psychopaths, crooked ward bosses, and Capone gun thugs by the time he had come of age as a crime reporter in gangland Chicago. His grim experience with what he called “the soul of man” gave him a kind of uncanny foresight a decade later, when a loose cannon named Adolf Hitler began to rise to power in central Europe. In 1932, Hecht solidified his legend as "the Shakespeare of Hollywood" with his thriller Scarface, the Howard Hughes epic considered the gangster movie to end all gangster movies. But Hecht rebelled against his Jewish bosses at the movie studios when they refused to make films about the Nazi menace. Leveraging his talents and celebrity connections to orchestrate a spectacular one-man publicity campaign, he mobilized pressure on the Roosevelt administration for an Allied plan to rescue Europe’s Jews. Then after the war, Hecht became notorious, embracing the labels “gangster” and “terrorist” in partnering with the mobster Mickey Cohen to smuggle weapons to Palestine in the fight for a Jewish state. The Notorious Ben Hecht: Iconoclastic Writer and Militant Zionist is a biography of a great twentieth-century writer that treats his activism during the 1940s as the central drama of his life. It details the story of how Hecht earned admiration as a humanitarian and vilification as an extremist at this pivotal moment in history, about the origins of his beliefs in his varied experiences in American media, and about the consequences. Who else but Hecht could have drawn the admiration of Ezra Pound, clowned around with Harpo Marx, written Notorious and Spellbound with Alfred Hitchcock, launched Marlon Brando’s career, ghosted Marilyn Monroe’s memoirs, hosted Jack Kerouac and Salvador Dalí on his television talk show, and plotted revolt with Menachem Begin? Any lover of modern history who follows this journey through the worlds of gangsters, reporters, Jazz Age artists, Hollywood stars, movie moguls, political radicals, and guerrilla fighters will never look at the twentieth century in the same way again.

There Are No Children Here

There Are No Children Here PDF Author: Alex Kotlowitz
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307814289
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This is the moving and powerful account of two remarkable boys struggling to survive in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect.

Chicago Assassin

Chicago Assassin PDF Author: Richard Shmelter
Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
ISBN: 9781581826180
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The city of Chicago led the nation when it came to gangland violence during the Prohibition era. As a result, many infamous, unforgettable personalities became a part of America's criminal history. Chicago Assassin is the story of "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, one of the people responsible for putting much of the roar into the Roaring Twenties. His family immigrated to Chicago from Sicily in 1906, as he grew up in the city's slums and later took up boxing as "Battling" Jack McGurn. After avenging his father's death by killing the three hit men responsible, he came to the attention of Al Capone, who invited him into his organization, known as the Chicago Outfit. There he rose to power and was one of the most feared members Capone's organizations, with more than twenty-five known kills for the mob. "Battling" Jack McGurn became so adept with the Thompson submachine gun that he quickly became known as "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn.