Crime on the Lower East Side

Two deeply researched books tell the history of Jewish involvement in the crime scene on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Read about a biography of of Fredericka Mandelbaum, who spent several years as an impoverished street peddler before becoming a fence (buyer and seller of stolen goods) and mastermind of bank burglaries. Another story focuses on a book titled The Incorruptibles by Dan Slater, which details the immense scale of crime on the Jewish Lower East Sid

e, and how well-to-do German Jews uptown tried to turn things around.