The Kosher Capones

The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago's Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin "Zuckie the Bookie" Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate's "Jewish wing."

These two men linked the early Jewish gangsters of the neighborhoods of Maxwell Street and Lawndale to the notorious Chicago Outfit that emerged from Al Capone's criminal confederation. Focusing on the murder of Zuckerman by Patrick, Kraus introduces us to the different models of organized crime they represented, a raft of largely forgotten Jewish gangsters, and the changing nature of Chicago's political corruption. Hard-to-believe anecdotes of corrupt politicians, seasoned killers, and in-over-their-heads criminal operators spotlight the magnitude and importance of Jewish gangsters to the story of Windy City mob rule.

With an eye for the dramatic, The Kosher Capones takes us deep inside a hidden society and offers glimpses of the men who ran the Jewish criminal community in Chicago for more than sixty years.

Joe Kraus is Chair of the Department of English and Theatre at the University of Scranton. He is co-author of An Accidental Anarchist, and his scholarly and creative work has appeared widely. He lives in Shavertown, PA, with his wife and three sons.

Included are rich depictions of the families and lone actors involved, the rules they were expected to play by — and how those characters and motivations intertwined with political intrigue.

When the story moves forward in time, Kraus focuses on Lenny Patrick, "the central figure in Chicago Jewish organized crime," who eventually became a cooperating witness whose testimony took down the syndicate

Elizabeth Dale, University of Florida, author of The Chicago Trunk Murder:

An engaging story about the history of Jewish gangsters in Chicago.

Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune:

[Kraus's] generalizations are graced with a nice feel for language. The story of Chicago's Jewish mobsters is like a challah. Their story has several strands that twist and turn around each other. [The Kosher Capones] traces those strands from Maxwell Street to Lawndale on the West Side and on to Albany Park.