The First Gangster Kingpin of New York

Monk Eastman ruled the depraved streets of turn-of-the-century Manhattan with fists and absolutely zero regard for human life, commanding an army of 1,200 thugs who terrorized the Lower East Side. At the height of his power, he was pulling cash from every racket you could think of while rigging elections for Tammany Hall and overseeing street violence so extreme that cops needed reinforcements just to enter his territory. Eastman represented a true transition in the evolution of the underworld, when crime became organized. All that, and he managed to become a war hero too, before the street life finally caught up with him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to The First Gangster Kingpin of New York online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The First Gangster Kingpin of New York is an episode from The Underworld Podcast by The Underworld Podcast.

This episode is 63:35 long.

This episode was published on Feb 17, 2026.

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