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The last pirate of New York : a ghost ship, a killer, and the birth of a gangster nation / Rich Cohen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Spiegel & Grau, [2019]Edition: First editionDescription: 235 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780399589928 (hbk : alk. paper)
  • 0399589929 (hbk : alk. paper)
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Once upon a time -- The ghost ship --The shore line -- The trial -- The confession -- The execution -- Burial and resurrection.
Summary: Documents the story of underworld legend Albert Hicks, chronicling his mid-nineteenth-century crime spree and the plot gone wrong that culminated in an onboard massacre and manhunt in 1860 Coney Island.Summary: "The story of Albert Hicks, the most notorious criminal on the New York waterfront, unfolded in the course of three bloody months in the summer before the Civil War. There was a massacre, a flight, a manhunt, and a trial, all of which kept the nation riveted and remade Hicks, the last pirate of New York, into a celebrated antihero. Handsome and charismatic, Hicks had long been known in the dive bars and gin joints of the Five Points, the most dangerous neighborhood in maritime Manhattan. For years, he operated out of the public eye, rambling from crime to crime, working on the water in ships, sleeping in the nickel-a-night flops, drinking in barrooms where rat-baiting and bear-baiting were great entertainments. His criminal career reached its peak in 1860, when he was hired, under an alias, as a hand on an oyster sloop. His plan was to rob the ship and flee, disappearing into the teeming streets of lower Manhattan, as he'd done numerous times before, eventually finding his way back to his nearsighted Irish immigrant wife (who, like him, had been disowned by her family) and their infant son. But the plan went awry--the ship was found listing and unmanned in the foggy straits of Coney Island--and the voyage that was to enrich him instead led to his last desperate flight. Long fascinated by gangster legends, Rich Cohen tells the story of this notorious underworld figure, from his humble origins to the wild, globe-crossing, bacchanalian crime spree that forged his ruthlessness and his reputation, to his ultimate incarnation as a demon who terrorized lower Manhattan, at a time when pirates anchored off 14th Street."--Dust jacket.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library Biography Hicks, A. C678 Available 33111009364007
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography Hicks, A. C678 Available 33111009671708
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Was he New York City's last pirate . . . or its first gangster? This is the true story of the bloodthirsty underworld legend who conquered Manhattan, dock by dock--for fans of Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire .

"History at its best . . . I highly recommend this remarkable book."--Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God

Handsome and charismatic, Albert Hicks had long been known in the dive bars and gin joints of the Five Points, the most dangerous neighborhood in maritime Manhattan. For years, he operated out of the public eye, rambling from crime to crime, working on the water in ships, sleeping in the nickel-a-night flops, drinking in barrooms where rat-baiting and bear-baiting were great entertainments.

His criminal career reached its peak in 1860, when he was hired, under an alias, as a hand on an oyster sloop. His plan was to rob the ship and flee, disappearing into the teeming streets of lower Manhattan, as he'd done numerous times before, eventually finding his way back to his nearsighted Irish immigrant wife (who, like him, had been disowned by her family) and their infant son. But the plan went awry--the ship was found listing and unmanned in the foggy straits of Coney Island--and the voyage that was to enrich him instead led to his last desperate flight.

Long fascinated by gangster legends, Rich Cohen tells the story of this notorious underworld figure, from his humble origins to the wild, globe-crossing, bacchanalian crime spree that forged his ruthlessness and his reputation, to his ultimate incarnation as a demon who terrorized lower Manhattan, at a time when pirates anchored off 14th Street.

Advance praise for The Last Pirate of New York

"A remarkable work of scholarship about old New York, combined with a skillfully told, edge-of-your-seat adventure story--I could not put it down." --Ian Frazier, author of Travels in Siberia

"With its wise and erudite storytelling, Rich Cohen's The Last Pirate of New York takes the reader on an exciting nonfiction narrative journey that transforms a grisly nineteenth-century murder into a shrewd portent of modern life. Totally unique, totally compelling, I enjoyed every page." --Howard Blum, New York Times bestselling author of Gangland and American Lightning

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-235) and index.

Documents the story of underworld legend Albert Hicks, chronicling his mid-nineteenth-century crime spree and the plot gone wrong that culminated in an onboard massacre and manhunt in 1860 Coney Island.

"The story of Albert Hicks, the most notorious criminal on the New York waterfront, unfolded in the course of three bloody months in the summer before the Civil War. There was a massacre, a flight, a manhunt, and a trial, all of which kept the nation riveted and remade Hicks, the last pirate of New York, into a celebrated antihero. Handsome and charismatic, Hicks had long been known in the dive bars and gin joints of the Five Points, the most dangerous neighborhood in maritime Manhattan. For years, he operated out of the public eye, rambling from crime to crime, working on the water in ships, sleeping in the nickel-a-night flops, drinking in barrooms where rat-baiting and bear-baiting were great entertainments. His criminal career reached its peak in 1860, when he was hired, under an alias, as a hand on an oyster sloop. His plan was to rob the ship and flee, disappearing into the teeming streets of lower Manhattan, as he'd done numerous times before, eventually finding his way back to his nearsighted Irish immigrant wife (who, like him, had been disowned by her family) and their infant son. But the plan went awry--the ship was found listing and unmanned in the foggy straits of Coney Island--and the voyage that was to enrich him instead led to his last desperate flight. Long fascinated by gangster legends, Rich Cohen tells the story of this notorious underworld figure, from his humble origins to the wild, globe-crossing, bacchanalian crime spree that forged his ruthlessness and his reputation, to his ultimate incarnation as a demon who terrorized lower Manhattan, at a time when pirates anchored off 14th Street."--Dust jacket.

Once upon a time -- The ghost ship --The shore line -- The trial -- The confession -- The execution -- Burial and resurrection.

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