Ron Chepesiul - Gangsters of Harlem: The Gritty Underworld of New Yorks Most Famous Neighborhood

M ANY INDIVIDUALS STEPPED forward and generously provided their time, resources, and sage advice to make this project doable. First, I would like to thank all the knowledge sources I interviewed. Those who agreed to talk on the record are listed in the bibliography. Many sources provided valuable documents or assisted in finding them. They include Lew Rice, Sterling Johnson, Lou Diaz, Tom Sears, Leslie Atkinson, Sean Griffin, Brendan Leddy, Bob Mazur, Joseph Kowalski, Jack Toal, Chuck Lutz, and David Higgins. The following people assisted me in arranging interviews: Robert Nieves, Jack Toal, Lew Rice, Gerard Miller, Bill Callahan, Joseph Walsh, Robert Fiske, Bruce Carroll, Camille Cologne, Sheriff Danny Diggs, and Sean Griffin.

My wife, Magdalena, and friends and colleagues, David Weeks and Martin Hope, took the time to proofread the manuscript and offered valuable suggestions. Thank you, and I look forward to your help with future projects.

Thanks to Carrie Volk and Ann Thomas of the Winthrop University Library Reference Department for their help with inter-library loan and to Patricia Stafford and Jackie McFadden of Winthrop Library Government Documents Department for their assistance in using microfilm and finding rare materials. One of the pleasures of doing research for my books is working with the library professionals like these folks. Thanks also to Dean Mark Y. Herring of the Winthrop Library for his support over the years.

Erin McKenzie and Jim Angelo, DEA Public Relations, and Ernest Porter, Brenda Glick, and Michelle Cmkovich, FBI Public Relations, were helpful with arranging interviews and pointing me in the right direction. Sam Katz of the Detectives Endowment Association was helpful to arrange interviews with retired officers of the New York Police Department. Russ Crawford and Bill Manto, two of Americas Finest, took me to see the changing Harlem so I could compare the timeline with the new. Thank you, my friends. Willie Hryb, my lifelong friend, helped out while I made an extended trip to Thunder Bay, my old stomping ground. Someday I hope to reciprocate as Willie pursues his promising writing career.

The staffs of two great research institutions, the New York Public Library and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, were extremely helpful during my research trips to New York City. Vince Lutes of the DEA Archives helped locate photos for the book, while Warden Patricia Stansberry and Deputy Warden Chris Naylor took the time to arrange interviews at the Butner Federal Facility in Butner, North Carolina. I appreciate their help.

Thanks to Carole Stuart of Barricade Books for the opportunity to write this book and to her staff, especially Ivy McFadden, for helping to put it together. Finally, thanks to Dorri Jacobs for accommodating me on my research trips to New York City. It was great to work on a book while making a new friend.

Dominic Amorosa, Don Ashton, Leslie Atkinson, Barry Brown, Mary Z. Zebra Buckley, William Callahan, Bruce Carroll, Camille Cologne, Bill Cook, Russ Crawford, Joe Crocitto, Lou Diaz, William Doheney, Robert Fiske, Roger Garay, David Higgins, Walter Huthansel, Sterling Johnson, Joseph Kowalski, Brendan Leddy, Frank Lucas, Chuck Lutz, Bill Mante, Peter Mancuso, Phil Massina, Gerard Miller, Bob Mazur, Robert Nieves, William Rawald, Lew Rice, Fred Sandler, Tom Sears, and Donald Whalen

Anderson, Jervis. This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, 19001950. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983.

Anderson, Patrick. High in America: The True Story of NORML and the Politics of Marijuana. New York: The Viking Press, 1981.

Anechiarico, Frank, and James B. Jacobs. The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Anonymous. Caspar Holstein, in Notable Black American Men. Ann Arbor: Gale Research, 1978.

Bergreen, Laurence. Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life. New York: Broadway, 1985.

Booth, Martin. Cannabis, A History. New York: St. Martins Press, 2004.

Bourgois, Philippe. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Boyd, Herb. The Harlem Reader. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003.

Calloway, Cab, and Bryant Rollins. Of Minnie the Moocher and Me. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1996.

Carothers, Ian, et al. Jazz: The Essential Companion. Cambridge: Prentice Hall, 1987.

Charyn, Jerome. Gangsters and Gold Diggers. New York: Four Walls, Eight Windows, 2003.

Collier, James Lincoln. Duke Ellington. New York: MacMillan/McGraw Hill, 1993.

. Louis Armstrong: an America Genius. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Courtwright, David, et al. Addicts Who Survived: An Oral History of Narcotics Use in America, 19231965. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984.

. The Drug Experience: Personal Accounts of Addicts, Writers, Scientists and Others. New York: The Orion Press, 1981.

Downey, Patrick. Gangster City: The History of the New York Underworld, 19001935. Fort Lee: Barricade Books, 2004.

Ellis, Arthur J. The Mind of Harlem. New York: R&E Associates, 1968.

English, T. J. Paddy Whacked: The Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: Regan Books, 2005.

Erickson, Patricia G., et al. The Steel Drug: Cocaine and Crack in Perspective. New York: Lexington Books, 1984

Finkleman, Paul. The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2004.

Giddins, Gary. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001.

Goddard, Donald. Joey. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.

Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn. Or Does it Explode: Black Harlem in the Depression. London: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Griffin, Sean Patrick. Black Brothers: The Violent Rise and Fall of the Black Mafia. London: Milo Books, 2005.

. Philadelphias Black Mafia: A Social and Political History. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publications, 2003.

Hall, Sadie. Caspar Holstein. Biographical Research Studies, Writers Program, Works Project Administration, ca. 1938.

Hansen, Axel C. From These Shores. Nashville: Hansen and Francois, 1996.

Haskins, Jim. The Cotton Club. New York: Plume, 1984.

Hasse, John Edward. Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Megan and Tingley, 2004.

Huet, John, and Pee Wee Kirkland. Soul of the Game: Images of Street Basketball. New York: Workman, 2004.

Ianni, Frances. Black Mafia. New York: Pocket Books, 1975.

Jewell, Derek. A Portrait of Duke Ellington. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1977.

Jerving, Ryan. The Cotton Club. In The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, edited by Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman. London: Taylor and Francis, 2004.