Little Italy and Chinatown Gangsters -- PRIVATE Walking Tour

The tour starts promptly at 11am, Saturdays and Sundays at the Southwest corner of Columbus Park (Mulberry & Worth), near the basketball courts, but the story begins at the roots of gang activity in New York City in what used to be its most notorious slum: The Five Points. The history from the 1840s to the 1890s focuses on how the Irish immigrant class rose from the lowest rung of the city's social strata to powerful figures in the police & fire departments and in New York's corrupt political circles.

The 1890's is where the Italian and Chinese influence began. A 20-minute walk through New York's old Chinatown is centered around the Tong Wars of the 1890's and the rise of the Chinatown criminal and political class which still run the Chinatowns of New York Today.

From there, we transition into the ever-shrinking Little Italy where the story of the first Mafiosi made their way to American streets and established numerous powerful rackets including extortion (or "protection"), prostitution, Union & Labor influence and manipulation and counterfeit cash rings. This era was also the start of New York's fight against the rising Sicilian criminal class, embodied by one unflinching crusader and New York's first Italian-American police officer: Lieutenant Joe Petrosino

Amidst this voyage through NYC crime history are numerous other significant anecdotal stops about the most notorious Mafiosi to walk the streets of New York, as well as other lesser known citizens on either (or both!) sides of the law throughout New York's long, fascinating immigrant crime story.