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Join our licensed, native NY educators on a journey you will never forget.
 TOUR RESERVATIONS |
| Saturdays |
| 12:00pm - East
Village
2:00pm - Gangsters
|
| Sundays |
|
2:00pm - Chinatown/Five
Points
|
| Mondays |
| Tuesdays |
| Wednesdays |
12:00pm - East
Village 2:00pm - Fourth
Ward
|
| Thursdays |
| 12:00pm - Lower East Side
2:00pm - Beat
Literature |
| Fridays |
12:00pm - Lower East Side
|
The Lower East Side History Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to researching, documenting and preserving the history of the greater Lower East Side of New York City.
Our guides are:
|
Through multi-generation community roots, extensive in-house research, partnerships with local museums, cultural institutions and preservation societies, LESHP is able to provide truly unique, educational, and authentic excursions that are unforgettable.
| Gangsters: Birth of Organized Crime |
|
Saturdays @ 2:00pm - $25
Fee: $25 Duration: 2.5 hours Dissect the myths and learn about how the Italian Mafia was established in America; visit the sites of Black Hand headquarters, Prohibition era speakeasies, shootouts and assassination attempts, and the homes and headquarters of some of the most powerful and infamous criminals in American history. This tour examines the birth of organized crime in America and provides insight into the often overlooked early days of the nation's criminal heavyweights. How did Lucky Luciano rise to power? How did Meyer Lansky meet Bugsy Siegel? How did the Five Families of the American Mafia originate? Some of the sites visited and discussed include the headquarters of Paul Kelly's notorious Five Points Gang, the gang responsible for breeding the likes of Al Capone, Johnny Torrio, Lucky Luciano, and hundreds more; the home of their rivals, the Jewish Eastman Gang; the home of prohibition era's "Boss of Bosses"; the childhood homes and teenage haunts of Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky; the headquarters and hang outs of John Gotti; and so much more. The tour is conducted by Eric Ferrara, founder of the Museum of American Gangster at 80 St. Marks Place. Eric is also a published author, founder and executive director of the Lower East Side History Project and founder of the East Village Visitors Center. He is a fourth-generation, native New Yorker whose family immigrated to Little Italy from Sicily in the 1880s. Eric is the official Historian of the E.4th Street Cultural District, (the only official cultural district in Manhattan), a licensed tour guide, educator at Brooklyn College, and consultant on several movie, tv, and media projects world wide. Eric's new book, A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side, based on the tour, is published by The History Press. He provides first-hand accounts combined with over four years of researching original source material, public records, archived articles, personal interviews, police department records, and published accounts. Some Press:
"... offered by East Village Walking Tours include the must do, "Gangsters tour..." "What Hollywood has done its part to bring the Italian Mafia to life, but nothing gets you closer to the real thing than this tour. Let Eric Ferrara, executive director of the Lower East Side History Project, separate myth from fact as you trace the roots of organized crime. Walk the same streets and alleyways where mob legends Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel held court." On the popular Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos tour, you'll learn all abut the golden age of the American gangster, as well as the arts and religious scene in the '60s and '70s." "...(The tour) takes you on a journey from the golden age of the American gangster to the bohemian arts and drug culture of the 1960s. Eric guides you to historic hotspots like 57 Jones Street – the Five Points gang headquarters – and to Second Avenue at 12th Street, the scene of a famous mob shootout." "All the legendary bad guys did time on the Lower East Side: Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel. Instead of trying to figure them out with movies-on-demand and pulp bios, follow in their footsteps, literally." |
This exciting and popular walking tour covers 150 years of crime and vice in NYC. Trace the steps of criminal legends like Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel -- who earned their criminal stripes on the streets of the Lower East Side -- and explore the roots of organized crime in America.
Get the LESPASS!
| Thu Mar 11 @06:00PM Panel: Preservation efforts on the LES at Ottendorfer Library |
| Thu Mar 18 @06:00PM Presentation at Mid-Manhattan Library w/ Andrea Coyle |
| Thu Mar 25 @03:00PM Women Movers & Shakers: Special Triangle Shirt Waist Fire Anniversary Tour |
| Thu Apr 08 @06:00PM Panel: Social Service & Spirituality on the LES at Ottendorfer Library |
| Thu May 06 @06:00PM Movie & Discussion: "Pull My Daisy" at Ottendorfer Library |
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