What if the world of the old New York waterfront was as violent and mob-controlled as it appears in Hollywood movies? Well, it really was, and the story of its downfall, told here in high style by Nathan Ward, is the original New York mob story.
New York Sun reporter Malcolm “Mike” Johnson was sent to cover the murder of a West Side boss stevedore and discovered a “waterfront jungle, set against a background of New York’s magnificent skyscrapers” and providing “rich pickings for criminal gangs.” Racketeers ran their territories while doubling as union officers, from the West Side’s “Cockeye” Dunn, who’d kill for any amount of dock space, to Jersey City’s Charlie Yanowsky, who controlled rackets and hiring until he was ice-picked to death.
Johnson’s hard-hitting investigative series won a Pulitzer Prize, inspired a screenplay by Arthur Miller, and prompted Elia Kazan’s Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront. And yet J. Edgar Hoover denied the existence of organized crime - even as the government’s dramatic hearings into waterfront misdeeds became mustsee television.
Nathan Ward tells this archetypal crime story as if for the first time, taking the reader back to a city, and an era, at once more corrupt and more innocent than our own.
Dark Harbor: The War for the New York Waterfront
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Review
“Meticulous reporting, a keen eye for detail, and an elegant writing style...terrific.” —Jonathan Eig, The New York Times Book Review
“True crime done right, sharply researched and written with an economy of language...as atmospheric as a two a.m. stroll down the wharf on a late October night.” —Allen Bara, The Daily Beast
“Brilliant.” —New York magazine
“Riveting.” —New York Post
“This gritty examination of the corrupt New York City waterfront...has all of the local color, rich detail, and notorious gangland figures of Elia Kazan’s film masterpiece, On the Waterfront. Extremely valuable to all interested in twentieth-century New York City.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Nathan Ward's elegant and affectionate visit to gangster New York in the 1940s is excellent true crime and true histroy. Dark Harbor goes on the shelf next to Joseph Mitchell and A.J. Liebling.” —Alan Furst, author of Night Soldiers“Carefully researched, Nathan Ward's Dark Harbor nonetheless reads as if it were ripped from the day's headlines. Here is the real—and fascinating—story of the waterfront.” —Kevin Baker, author of Strivers Row
“True-crime and film fans alike will be engrossed by Ward's street-savvy research into the original waterfront.” —Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
About the Author
Nathan Ward, who was an editor with American Heritage, has written for The New York Times and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, not far from the Red Hook piers.
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Amazon.com:
3.2 out of 5 stars
10 reviews
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A History of the Dying Gasps of Corruption on the New York Waterfront
Jun 16 2010
By Frederick S. Goethel
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Beginning the book with the murder Pietro "Pete" Panto, a disillusioned hiring boss on the piers in Brooklyn who was causing trouble for powers above, the author weaves a fascinating tale of the life and times of the waterfront in New York from the 1930s to the 1950s. The book is centered primarily around a few major players in the rackets on the docks and the men who investigated and exposed the corruption.
Featured among the major players is Malcolm "Mike" Johnson, a reporter for the New York Sun that wrote a series of newspaper articles that exposed the corruption and caused the investigation of the docks and those who were major players in the corruption. Joe Ryan, the "President for Life" of the International Longshoreman's Association is heavily featured as are a number of New York mayors and district attorneys that failed to do their jobs. The names are too numerous to list, but most will be very familiar to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of New York history.
The author also writes about the numerous commissions that were set up to investigate, with little results, the crimes that were being committed. He reveals the major players and what the motivations of these people were. And he details the making of a famous movie that was written based on the stories published in the Sun.
One of the major ironies is that the investigations continued until the time that the jobs on the docks in New York were beginning to disappear (along with the corruption) as container freight started to become the popular mode of the movement of goods, which seriously cut into the ability to operate rackets on the piers.
The book is very well written and captures well a time that has long since past. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in New York history or of the history of the longshoremen. It is also recommended for the sheer ability of the book to entertain; much of the time reading like a 1940s detective novel.
Featured among the major players is Malcolm "Mike" Johnson, a reporter for the New York Sun that wrote a series of newspaper articles that exposed the corruption and caused the investigation of the docks and those who were major players in the corruption. Joe Ryan, the "President for Life" of the International Longshoreman's Association is heavily featured as are a number of New York mayors and district attorneys that failed to do their jobs. The names are too numerous to list, but most will be very familiar to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of New York history.
The author also writes about the numerous commissions that were set up to investigate, with little results, the crimes that were being committed. He reveals the major players and what the motivations of these people were. And he details the making of a famous movie that was written based on the stories published in the Sun.
One of the major ironies is that the investigations continued until the time that the jobs on the docks in New York were beginning to disappear (along with the corruption) as container freight started to become the popular mode of the movement of goods, which seriously cut into the ability to operate rackets on the piers.
The book is very well written and captures well a time that has long since past. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in New York history or of the history of the longshoremen. It is also recommended for the sheer ability of the book to entertain; much of the time reading like a 1940s detective novel.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could have been more effective
Nov 19 2010
By M. Heiss
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
"Dark Harbor" tells the story of how Mike Johnson, a reporter for the New York Sun newspaper in the 1940's, exposed the corruption and crime of the New York harbor under Joe Ryan's International Longshoreman's Association. Nathan Ward does a good job fleshing out the prrsonalities of the people involved, but in the end, you crave more of the scandal -- more reprints from Johnson's own articles would have been welcome.
Ward does a good job discussing the high profile trials that followed Johnson's Pulitzer-winning exposé and adding suspense to death-row clemency-in-exchange-for-secrecy deals, but in the end, the corruption went unchecked.
After you read this, read "The Box" by Marc Levinson -- the only way to get past the criminals in the Port of New York was to invent an entirely new way of shipping, one which made longshoremen and dockworkers practically obsolete.
Ward does a good job discussing the high profile trials that followed Johnson's Pulitzer-winning exposé and adding suspense to death-row clemency-in-exchange-for-secrecy deals, but in the end, the corruption went unchecked.
After you read this, read "The Box" by Marc Levinson -- the only way to get past the criminals in the Port of New York was to invent an entirely new way of shipping, one which made longshoremen and dockworkers practically obsolete.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A vivid picture into NYC/Brooklyn's past
Jun 15 2010
By G. P. Keim
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I really enjoyed this book. I was amazed at how NY's waterfront has evolved over the past decades, especially living in Brooklyn myself. Ward really brings the people and the streets to life with wonderful, in-depth stories and interviews with the people who lived on the streets of Brooklyn. He really did his legwork on this and it shows. Wrap it in with a story of a reporter working to break a remarkable story and you've got a winner.
I found this to be a really engaging and ultimately a fun read. Definitely worth picking up and checking out.
I found this to be a really engaging and ultimately a fun read. Definitely worth picking up and checking out.
›
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3.2 out of 5 stars
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