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Monk Eastman: Gangster to Hero
Neil Hanson discusses one of NY’s most famous gangsters
Monk Eastman
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Going from feared gangster to war hero isn’t the career path of most, but most aren’t Edward “Monk” Eastman. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, Eastman was one of the toughest guys in New York; while working as a “sheriff,” or bouncer, at New Irving Hall, he would put a notch in his wooden club for every head he bashed in with it. Once, to settle a feud between Eastman and Paul Kelly, leader of the Five Points Gang, Tammany Hall actually set up a boxing match between the two to hopefully end the bloodshed; the fight ended in a draw.
There are thousands more fascinating stories about Eastman (didn’t even mention his time in the military), and tonight at the Tenement Museum, it’s a night dedicated to the old school gangster. “Monk Eastman: The Gangster Who Became a War Hero” is hosted by Neil Hanson, who just wrote a book of the same new, and begins at 6:30 p.m. RSVP here.