Once upon a time, back in the 1920s and 1930s, in Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who exist now only in legend and in the memories of a few old men. Their names were Louis Lepke, Abe Reles, Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky, and they were Jewish gangsters: Jews with guns; tough, fearless Jews who roamed the streets in a time when a Jewish boy could fashion a future that was murderous, daring, and wide open.