The Five Points

Two gritty tales from gas lamp era New York.

The Five Points finished in the top five, out of over 7,000 entries, in the 1997 HarperCollins Best Seller Contest. The Five Points neighborhood of 19th Century New York City was undoubtedly the most crime-ridden, impoverished, and dangerous place of its day. While people tend to think of this era as a glossy, golden age, it was, unfortunately, a world of unparalleled corruption, intrigue, and violence. Dominated by thieves, murderers, swindlers,...