But-He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters

If you want to know about Jewish gangsters this is the book for you. It is well written and well researched.

Robert A. Rockaway, an historian and a member of the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, wrote this engaging, often funny history of several dozen Jewish American gangsters from the beginning of Jewish settlement in the US until the end of World War II when the number of Jewish criminals declined sharply. Jews have been known to have made a significant positive contribution to American and world life, far larger than their representation in society, but being human, there were also Jews at the nether end of the social spectrum. In 1928, Rabbi Mortimore J. Cohen bemoaned the shame "that has come to all Israel in the crimes of a lawless few. What disgrace is ours through these men, less than human, who have, without let or hindrance, dragged the Jewish name in the mud and filth of murder and corruption." When Jews first came to the United States, they were praised for being among the country's most law-abiding and least violent citizens. This situation changed around 1880 when there was a large influx of Jews into the United States due to pogroms and other oppressions in Europe and Russia. These new arrivals were forced to live in slum-like conditions. In 1886, a chief of detectives published a compendium of "America's leading professional criminals" most of whom lived in New York. Over four percent of the men on the list were Jewish, but this figure is low; Jews represented ten percent of the New York population. Rockaway shows that virtually every one of these criminals was Jewish in heritage only. They knew nothing or close to nothing about Judaism and also lacked a secular education. Some could not even read. Rockaway's stories are fascinating. For example, a leading rabbi of the Agudat Israel, an ultra Orthodox political party in Israel, convinced an American gangster to invest $100,000 to build homes for young, strictly Orthodox couples. Instead, the rabbi ripped off the gangster and used the money to build himself a hotel. The gangster sued the rabbi and won. One gangster killed people, but when a friend of his died, he "religiously" stood outside of the funeral parlor because he was a kohen, a descendant of Aaron the first priest, who is not allowed under Jewish law to come near a dead body. Another murderer, with a similar twisted concept of Judaism, tried not to kill anyone on the Sabbath. If he had no choice, he would put on a tallit, a prayer shawl, over his shoulders and pray before killing the person. Needless to say, the misguided criminal did not understand that the wearing of the tallit was designed to teach the Jew not to violate the law. Unlike the Italian mafia, the Jewish gangsters had a semblance of conscience and generally did everything to assure that their family - siblings and children - would not become involved in crime. Thus Rockaway could relate that there was no instance where a Jewish criminal's child followed in his footsteps. Rockaway tells rather remarkable tales of how the gangsters showed the

The title of this book comes from the fact that Jewish gangsters took a very protective attitude towards their mothers, and did everything they could to keep them and other family members in the dark regarding their unsavory behavior. Gangsters may have led immoral lives regarding their so-called profession, but would turn weepy when the subject of their mother came up. Perhaps this was due in part to the fact they knew their mother would be disappointed in them. Unlike those in the mafia the offspring of Jewish gangsters did not intermarry with others so their profession did not extend beyond one generation. I found the book to be well written, and what I especially liked was the number of photos of gangsters I have read about in previous books, but of which photos have been scanty. Gyp the Blood (square name Harry Horowitz), Irving Wexler (Waxey Gordon), Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, Abe Reles, Harry Strauss (Pittsburgh Phil), and a family photo of the Purple Gang were all included in addition to photos of Dutch Schultz (square name Arthur Flegenheimer), Jack Guzik, Lepke Buchalter, and numerous others. This book is a worthy addition to my gangster library, and you can purloin this book for only $10.00.

I love authors who revise their work instead of just recycling it. The first edition of But He Was Good to His Mother was good but marred by one embarrassing error: it repeated as fact the fictional murder of Moe Dalitz from the late William Roemer's novel War of the Godfathers. Rockaway was not the first author to make this mistake--Roemer and his publisher should have made it clearer their book was fiction--but the Dalitz murder is rightfully deleted from this edition and there is expanded, factual, and accurate information throughout on Jewish gangsters, including such legendary figures as Meyer Lansky (whom Rockaway interviewed), Bugsy Siegel, Lepke and Gurrah, Kid Cann, Dutch Schultz, Waxey Gordon, Longy Zwillman, Big Jack Zelig, Boo Boo Hoff (who introduced the tommy gun to Philadelphia's Prohibition underworld), Mickey Cohen, the Purple Gang and others. The rise and fall of the Jewish gangsters, their relationships to the Jewish community (roles in "upward mobility" and even as sometime defenders of their people); to the Italian mob; and to 20th Century urban America are explored wonderfully and insightfully. Rounding out the book are ample source notes and an excellent bibliography. This book is a labor of love by an author who likes to get his facts straight.

This is absolutely the best book on Jewish gangsters that I have read. I just received the copy of this newly published version of But-He Was Good To His Mother and I found it to be fast paced, very enjoyable as well as factual and well researched. I found the authors interviews with old-time Jewish mobsters especially fascinating.

After reading more than fifty books by crime experts, I was thrilled to find this pick. This is in my opinion, one of the best accounts of jewish gangsters. More than sensational headlines Mr. Rockaway dives into the soul of the gangster. I was especially proud of the reference to my father, Allen Smiley, and the ancedote that went with it.