Owney Madden: Irish Beer Racketeer Of Prohibition Era New York City

Owney Madden controlled the supply of beer in New York City in the early 1930s. He owned a large stake in the city's most famous nightclub until 1935, i.e. the Cotton Club in Harlem. Madden was of Irish descent and was born in Leeds, England. He was raised in Liverpool until he followed his mother and her sister to New York City. As a teenager Owney headed the Gophers, one of several rival gangs that operated in New York's Hell's Kitchen. Owney the Killer, as he was called by others, was jailed 144 times according to his own count. My e-book looks at Owney Madden and the era in which he lived. A different era from our own, for sure, it was a time when a single organized crime figure wielded immense control over the lives of numerous people in America's largest metropolis.