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But He Was Good to His Mother by Robert A. Rockaway offers a fascinating look at a little-known chapter of American Jewish history: the Jewish gangsters who became major figures in organized crime during the early twentieth century.
Drawing on FBI files, newspapers, books, and interviews with former mobsters and people who knew them, Rockaway explores figures such as Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, and members of Detroit’s notorious Purple Gang.
Rather than focusing solely on their crimes, Rockaway reveals the personalities behind the headlines, including their families, Jewish identities, communities, loyalties, and contradictions. Lively, often humorous, but firmly grounded in historical research, the book presents an unconventional portrait of men who were ruthless criminals yet also part of the complex Jewish immigrant experience in America.
Also available in Hebrew.