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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 12 page paper discussing T.J. English's nonfiction book about the famous twentieth-century Hell's Kitchen gang. It particularly looks at the women behind the scenes in the all-male gang, and analyzes the way these women reflect traditional values. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
12 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Westies.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
English points out right up front that this isnt a novel; these people are real and the stories are true. "While much of the dialogue is taken directly from court
transcripts, legal wiretaps, and electronic eavesdropping devices, in many cases it was based on interviews with the actual participants," he notes. ". . . In addition, certain scenes have been
dramatically-recreated . . . to provide clarity" (English, 11). What English has produced is a book that is not only clear, but riveting. Essentially what the Westies did to
get ahead is kill people, generally followed by dismemberment. They got their money from loan sharking and extortion. They "owned" politicians, union bosses, and businessmen, and they had numerous connections
with other branches of organized crime such as the Mafia. These were not nice guys, and for three-quarters of this book they do not finish last. But a particularly fascinating
aspect of this book is a look at the women behind the men. While the Westies clearly operated in a mans world, many of the key figures were married, and
the complex dynamics of their relationships with the women in their lives impacted their behavior as part of the gang. This paper, in addition to providing an overview of the
book as a whole, will take a special look at the role of these women, and how they affected -- or were affected by -- the sordid lives of their
men, and to what extent they retained traditional American values in the process. The structure of Westies is admittedly a little difficult to follow in the first fifty pages; it
jumps from one character in a federal penitentiary in 1987 to a shooting victim in New York City in 1966 to the background of one of the gunmen. The point
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