How A Brooklyn Neighbourhood Gave Rise To The Dreaded New York Mafia

Red Hook, a neighbourhood in southwestern Brooklyn famous for its diverse community and unique geography today, was once among the most stigmatised places for its crime and extreme violence, according to a new book. The hardscrabble dock area played a pivotal part in Brooklyn's history, emerging as a place from where goods and contraband entered the city, the New York Post reported.

“When I was a kid, I not only dreamed of growing up to be a gangster; it was the only ambition I had, the only life path I could envision,” Frank Dimatteo, who grew up as a youngster in the region, wrote in ‘Red Hook – Brooklyn Mafia, Ground Zero' (Citadel), which he has co-authored with Michael Benson.

Shockingly, Dimatteo mentioned that he witnessed his first mob murder when he was just five and was quick enough to learn in life that killing people “is just business”. During the early 20th century, the docks in Red Hook were under the control of an Irish gang -- the White Hand. 

“At first they robbed everyone blind, but there was little violence,” Dimatteo wrote in the book. 

But "things got rough" with time. "Young, savage White Hand goons, chips on their shoulders, fists clenched and ready to bust," they wrote.

Later, the Irish gang was outnumbered by the Italians, while greater violence was witnessed in the region due to intense competition, especially at the time of 'Prohibition' when both groups worked their way to move illicit liquor. 

“In later years, there was cooperation between Italian and Irish mobs, but at the turn of the twentieth century, they couldn't be in the same room,” read the book.

A problem for the Irish was that they couldn't match their rivals. The writers said the Italian takeover of the piers was "inevitable”.

The number rulers in Red Hook came to be known as 'la Mano Nera' – or the Black Hands.

Soon, local youngsters got involved in the underworld. A major reason behind this was that any alternative jobs, like labouring, meant working for long hours for little compensation. “Better to rob cargo trucks...It was more lucrative and a hell of a lot easier on the back," Dimatteo stated.

Among the five boroughs of New York City, Red Hook had the worst percentage of juvenile delinquency.

Today, Red Hook is left with abandoned warehouses as well as underdeveloped tracts of land. While 'gentrification' is believed to have taken hold of the region, its process has been slow, the authors said.