Grey, Harry, (The Hoods [originally published in 1952, hc, Buccaneer Books, 1991]) 978-0899665498 [pb, Black Mask, 2008] 978-1596543461 [See related film] [ - a gritty, semi-autobiographical crime novel that revolves entirely around Jewish gangsters growing up in New York City. The book serves as the direct source material for Sergio Leone’s iconic 1984 epic film, Once Upon a Time in America. [See the entry on this movie in the companion filmography on Movies and films about Jews and crime/espionage.]
United States · Fiction author
Harry Grey
Harry Grey (pseudonym of Herschel Goldberg, 1901–1980, born in Kyiv, former Russian Empire, now Ukraine, died in New York City) [ - Goldberg immigrated to the United States as a child with his family. He eventually fell into a life of crime, operating as a real-life gangster and enforcer during the Prohibition era. In his fifties, after being hospitalized by an accident, he decided to write about the syndicates that controlled New York. He adopted the pseudonym “Harry Grey” to protect his wife and children. He wrote his famous debut, The Hoods, while serving time in Sing Sing prison. Following the massive success of The Hoods, Grey authored two subsequent crime novels based on his firsthand underworld experiences, though neither achieved the same level of mainstream fame.
The novel chronicles the lives of four street-tough childhood friends from Manhattan’s Lower East Side: David “Noodles” Aaronson (the narrator, known as “Noodles the Shiv”), Maximilian “Maxie” Bercovicz, Patsy, and Cockeye. The story begins with the boys juggling grade-school attendance with juvenile delinquency along Delancey Street. They start with petty theft, running errands for local drug dealers, and committing assaults. As Prohibition begins, the group transitions into full-blown organized crime. They specialize in lucrative heists, bootlegging liquor, breaking labor strikes, and systematic execution. They eventually graduate from an independent street gang to elite, cold-blooded enforcers for “The Combination” (the national crime syndicate). Unlike the romanticized film adaptation, the book reads like a raw, episodic, and procedural instructional manual on mob tactics. It details how to dispose of bodies, hijack rival shipments, and navigate underworld politics. It paints a brutal, grim picture of capitalism taken to an illegitimate, violent extreme.
Jewish identity and the specific immigrant experience are fundamental backdrops to the entire narrative. It is deeply rooted in the Jewish ghetto of the Lower East Side during the early 20th century. It captures the specific socio-economic realities of first-generation Jewish immigrants looking for a way out of extreme poverty. All the core characters—including Noodles, Max, and their families—are Jewish. The book highlights real-world history by illustrating how Jewish street gangs formed alliances and rivalries with neighboring Italian and Irish syndicates during the Prohibition era.
Grey, Harry, (Call Me Duke [pb, Graphic Books, 1956] B000EA6SUM [Set in the grim, unforgiving slums of New York City, the novel shifts perspective to a small-time criminal and anti-hero named Duke Romero. Duke decides to leave petty street crime behind to enter the private detective racket—which, in Grey’s universe, is just as corrupt and dirty as the mob. The plot takes a massive turn when Duke attempts to track down and steal a legendary hidden fortune. This treasure belongs to none other than David “Noodles” Aaronson, the main character of The Hoods. The book serves as a stealth sequel, providing the narrative conclusion to Noodles’ story and revealing what happened to the money hidden away by the old gang. Because the core motivation of the book connects directly to the fallout of The Hoods, it remains tethered to the Jewish gangster network of New York. The book heavily explores the intersection of Jewish, Italian, and other immigrant youths being corrupted by the “teeming bowels of a big-city slum”, continuing Grey’s exploration of how environment drove immigrant children into organized crime. - Google/AI]
Grey, Harry, (Portrait of a Mobster [pb, Signet, 1958]) B000VZEY24 [See related film] [This book is a highly stylized, fictionalized biography of the notorious Depression-era gangster Arthur Flegenheimer, better known to history as Dutch Schultz. The novel tracks Schultz’s meteoric and exceptionally violent rise to power in New York. He starts by embedding himself with the “Legs” Diamond gang during Prohibition before aggressively breaking away to form his own empire. Schultz takes over the illegal beer supply in the Bronx and masterminds massive illegal gambling rackets. The story explores his intense paranoia, his brutal policy of killing anyone who stands in his way (including rivals like “Mad Dog” Coll), and his ultimate assassination in a New Jersey chop house. Unlike The Hoods (which features a fictionalized amalgamation of gangsters), this book profiles one of the most famous real-life Jewish mobsters in American history. The book heavily highlights Schultz’s background as a Jewish kid from the East Bronx. It explicitly covers how he adopted the tough, non-Jewish-sounding alias “Dutch Schultz” to command fear on the streets, while navigating an underworld dominated by the Jewish and Italian syndicates of the 1920s and 30s. – Google/AI] See the entry on the 1961 movie adaptation of this book in the companion Filmography.