What is the human heart like? Theologians and philosophers have attempted to address this question, not just in the abstract, but concretely in personal, as well as social and political, dimensions. Patrick Downey explores the biblical writings of Genesis and the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah, the Greek tragedies, Plato, Aristotle, and political philosophers--such as Rousseau, Hobbes, Nietzsche and Ren? Girard--to seek answers to this profound question.

Recognizing our resistance to know the truth about our own hearts, Downey calls his readers to join with these thinkers in the search for truth and serious self-reflection. Not for the faint of heart, this book courageously addresses the most foundational question of our existence as individuals in community. What is the nature of the human heart and can we, will we, know it?...

Gangster City is an illustrated treasure trove of information about crime in New York from 1900 through the 1930s. During these years, some six hundred mob-connected individuals met their deaths by being shot, stabbed, garroted, or hacked into pieces. Told in depth are the exploits of such notorious killers are Jack Legs Diamond, cabaret entrepreneur Larry Fay, the sadistic Dutch Schultz, and the cold-blooded Coll gang....

"I didn't have anything better to do. That's why I went around bumping off cops." So said Francis "Two-Gun" Crowley after shooting it out with dozens of policemen in the most spectacular siege in New York City history. For ninety minutes, authorities poured hundreds of bullets and chucked tear-gas bombs into the gunman's fifth-story apartment as thousands of people swarmed below, watching the drama unfold. Finally, bleeding from several wounds and choking on the gas, the nineteen-year-old desperado surrendered, bringing an end to a three-month-long crime spree that included two murders.

Crowley was just one of a vast number of outlaws--male and female--who terrorized New York City in the years between World Wars I and II. The lawlessness during that era was unprecedented in American history.

Bad Seeds in the Big Apple is the first book to profile New York City's notorious bandits, gunmen, and desperados of the Prohibition and Depression eras. While numerous books have been written on the city's organized-crime scene, this book completes the picture by introducing readers to infamous New Yorkers such as Richard Reese Whittemore, leader of a gang of jewel thieves; extortion queen Vivian Gordon; bandit and Sing Sing escapee James Nannery; Al Stern and his gang of kidnappers, the men behind the ill-fated 1926 Tombs Prison break; the marauders behind the 1934 Rubel Ice Plant armored car robbery; and dozens of other law breakers who have never before been covered in book form. Patrick Downey also includes a fresh look at a few characters of the era who have received individual book-length treatments.

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