Thomas Hunt's Blog - Posts Tagged "mcgrath"

Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront by Neil G. Clark

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In his first book-length project, Neil Clark takes aim at the mobsters of New York's West Side waterfront and scores a hit.

His selection of subject, puts Clark in the footsteps of giants. An early account of waterfront corruption and racketeering by Malcolm Johnson of the New York Sun won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. On the Waterfont, a fictional film about gang rule along the wharves, won a trunkload of 1954 Academy Awards. More recently, historian Nathan Ward revisited the Hudson River docks for his 2010 book, Dark Harbor, examining Malcolm Johnson's groundbreaking effort to bring waterfront organized crime to light.

While much of the material in Dock Boss is familiar, Clark expands on earlier work with information drawn from court and prison files, FBI archives and other state and federal agency records. He delivers an informative and intriguing history. The Greater Toronto Area resident strays just a bit from the beaten path and approaches the subject through the life and career of a real-world "Johnny Friendly," Eddie McGrath.

McGrath's life story is a virtual Who's Who of Gotham outlaws. On his way to boss status, he benefited from alliances with such figures as "Big Joe" Butler, "Peck" Hughes, "Red" McCrossin, "Farmer" Sullivan, Andrew "Squint" Sheridan, John "Cockeye" Dunn and James "Ding-Dong" Bell. The résumés of his associates and his underworld rivals featured service with some of New York's most notorious gang chieftains, including Dutch Schultz, "Legs" Diamond, "Mag Dog" Coll and Owney Madden. Working relationships with Joey Rao, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo and Giuseppe "Joe Adonis" Doto, eventually brought McGrath into contact with syndicate bosses Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello.

While exploring in detail the bloody gang wars, assassinations and brutalities of McGrath's career, Clark takes a bit of time to explain the unique features of New York City's docks and the rackets used by gangsters, union leaders and politicians to profit from them.

This reviewer can manage only a few minor complaints about Clark's work:
- Chapters are unusually short and sometimes break up logical units of the story. While I offer it as a criticism, it is likely that many readers will appreciate the short chapters.
- There are occasional typos and a bit of indecision over whether to use U.S.- or Canada-preferred spellings for some terms.
- The author may have been overly accepting of earlier histories. Some small Dock Boss flaws can be traced to Malcolm Johnson's work and reports based on Johnson's articles.
- Dock Boss but does not include source citations for statements of fact in the text. This seems due to publisher policy. While it may be mildly frustrating for researchers, it should not be interpreted as a lack of documentary support. Clark provides an extensive bibliography and proves that he has command of the available sources in this subject area.

[Note: Author provided a review copy of the ebook.]



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