Pickpockets, extortionists, armed robbers, bootleggers, gamblers, and hitmen cropped up not only in the Five Points neighborhood but also in the growing Jewish Lower East Side. Take to the streets and learn the story of organized crime in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in New York City, from robbed and torched pushcarts to illegal whiskey and drugs. 

Highlights:

• Learn about the famous gangsters on the Lower East Side including Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Arnold Rothstein
• Meet the lesser known personalities like “Dopey” Benny Fein, “Big” Jack Zelig, “Lepke” Buchalter, and the notorious Samuel “Red” Levine
• Walk the streets with an expert guide and visit where these Jewish Gangsters lived and conducted their business

Meet in front of the Ottendorfer Library at 135 2nd Avenue between St. Marks Place and 9th Street.

Tours run about two hours in length, although this may vary.

Image Credit: Bugsy Siegel center with lawyers Jerry Giesler (left) and Byron Hanna (right), Everett Collection Inc.