My father was a barber and my mother a seamstress, both immigrants to the country where I was born. We lived in a squalid tenement, little more than a slum, near the navy yard. It was a tough place, given over to the vices sought by sailor characters that frequented the surrounding bars. Our family was a regular, law abiding, clan.
I showed promise as a student, but I had trouble with the rules at my strict, inadequate and brutal parish Catholic school. I dropped out of school at the age of fourteen, after being expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face.
I worked at odd jobs, including one in a sweet shop and another in a bowling alley. I then took up more regular employment as a barman in a dance hall called the ‘Harvard Inn’ and also worked the door at a night club. There, I inadvertently insulted a woman and was attacked by her brother. My face was slashed three times. I apologised to the brother and later hired him as a security guard.
I joined various associations including the ‘Junior Forty Thieves’ and ‘the Bowery Boys’, ‘the Brooklyn Rippers’ and ‘the Five Points Gang.’ Among my closest friends I acquired the nickname of “Snorky,” a term for a sharp dresser.
I provided substantial support for a mayoral candidate who won by a huge margin. When, a few weeks later, he announced that he would run me out of town, I met with him and knocked him down the town hall steps. The victory was also marred by the death of my older brother at the hands of the police. As a mark of respect, I called for the closure of all the drinking establishments in the town for a day.
I believed my life to be under threat. I never went anywhere without at least two bodyguards. Even when travelling by car I was sandwiched between bodyguards. I also preferred to travel under cover of night, risking travel by day only when absolutely necessary.
I became a celebrity and garnered attention from the media, to which my favorite responses were “I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want,” and “All I do is satisfy a public demand".” I also said “I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man.”
Who was I?