The gangs of New York: An informal history of the underworld

Life in mid-19 century New York was tough, and violence and corruption were rife. Nowhere was tougher or more violent than the Bowery and the Five Points area. Two gangs, the Dead Rabbits and the Native Americans, were locked in a seemingly endless battle for supremacy. Amsterdam Vallon, son of the Rabbits’ murdered leader, is seeking vengeance for his father’s death at the hands of Bill ‘The Butcher’, head of the Native Americans who are in cahoots with a deeply corrupt Tammany Hall…”Gangs of New York” has long been a cult book. It is now the latest major film from Martin Scorsese.