Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront is the fascinating account of one gangster's ascension from altar boy to the leader of New York City's violent Irish Mob.
Eddie McGrath's life and crimes are traced through the tail-end of Prohibition, the gang warfare of the 1930s that propelled him into the position of an organized crime boss, the sordid years of underworld control over the bustling waterfront, McGrath's involvement in dozens of gangland murders, and finally the decline of the dock mobsters following a period of longshoremen rebellion in the 1950s.
Like walking into the backroom of a smoky West Side tavern, the book also features all the other unsavory characters who operated on the waterfront, including McGrath's brother-in-law, John "Cockeye" Dunn; the gang's hitman of choice, Andrew "Squint" Sheridan; racketeers such as Mickey Bowers, Timothy O'Mara, Charlie Yanowsky, Joe Butler and Albert Ackalitis; as well as a plethora of corrupt union officials, robbers, enforcers, shakedown artists, loan sharks, boss loaders, and bookies.
This is the real-life story of the preeminent racketeer on Manhattan's lucrative waterfront and the bloodshed that long haunted the ports of New York City.
Using newly uncovered primary sources, this extensively researched book also features the following:
* An eight page insert containing rare photographs.
* Previously unpublished picture charts of New York City's waterfront gangs.
* A complete history of New York City's Irish Mob after Owney Madden and before the Westies.
* A never-before-discussed 1930s gang war for control over the West Side of New York City's waterfront, which resulted in eleven murders, six near-killings, and dozens of shootings.
* Details of the FBI's secret twenty-year investigation into the International Longshoremen's Association and the shadowy mobsters that manipulated the union's affairs.
* The story of the sensational murder trial that almost brought down McGrath and his gang.
* The complete and authoritative history of Eddie McGrath- one the longest serving Irish Mob bosses in American history.