1. Edward "Monk" Eastman was an American gangster who founded and led the Eastman Gang in the late 19th and early 20th century; it became one of the most powerful street gangs in the city.
21 Facts About Monk Eastman
1. 2.
Edward Monk Eastman is listed in the same census as a "bird salesman" residing on East First Street in Lower Manhattan, living with and married since 1896 to Margaret Monk Eastman.
3.
For years after being widely known as a gangster, Monk Eastman listed "bird seller" as his occupation on government forms.
4.
Monk Eastman's ancestry has been a subject of debate by reporters and historians.
5.
When Monk Eastman was buried, his funeral service was performed by a Methodist pastor.
6.
In 1898, Monk Eastman was arrested and convicted of larceny under the alias William Murray.
7.
Monk Eastman was jailed for three months on Blackwell's Island.
8.
The writer Herbert Asbury described Monk Eastman as having a messy head of wild hair, wearing a derby hat two sizes too small for his head, sporting numerous gold-capped teeth, and often parading around shirtless or in tatters, always accompanied by his cherished pigeons.
9.
At the New Irving Hall and Silver Dollar Smith's Saloon, Monk Eastman became acquainted with Tammany Hall politicians, who were powerful in New York and deeply involved with the ethnic immigrant communities.
10.
In 1900, at the turn of the 20th century, Eastman lived at 221 E 5th Street, about two blocks from Kelly's New Brighton Social Club at 57 Great Jones Street.
11.
Some 18 members of the Monk Eastman gang were reported as arrested.
12.
Tammany Hall worked closely with both Kelly and Monk Eastman to mobilize their members in elections and patronage schemes.
13.
On February 3,1904, Monk Eastman tried to rob a young man on 42nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan.
14.
Monk Eastman shot at them while escaping, but was caught by policemen responding to the shooting.
15.
Later that year, Monk Eastman was convicted of attempted assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison at Sing Sing penitentiary.
16.
In 1909, Monk Eastman was released after serving five years in prison.
17.
When Bohan left, Monk Eastman followed him and accused him of being a rat.
18.
Monk Eastman was buried with full military honors in Cypress Hills Cemetery in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York.
19.
Eastman's life and exploits were fictionalized in the Jorge Luis Borges short story "El proveedor de iniquidades Monk Eastman", included in the Borges collection Historia universal de la infamia.
20.
Monk Eastman is a recurring character in the Molly Murphy mystery series by Rhys Bowen.
21.
Wodehouse's 1914 novel Psmith, Journalist the author mentions the real Monk Eastman in passing while giving Eastman's personality, physical appearance, and underworld prominence to the fictional gang leader Bat Jarvis.