Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century

They called it the Tenderloin, a.k.a. Satan's Circus-a square mile of Midtown Manhattan at the turn of the twentieth century where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. Murder was so common there that few people were surprised when a loudmouthed casino owner was gunned down. But when an ambitious district attorney charged handsome police lieutenant and decorated hero Charley Becker with ordering the murder, even the Tenderloin's denizens were surprised.

Chronicling Charley Becker's rise and fall, the book tells of the gaudy and utterly corrupt city that made him and recounts not one but two sensational murder trials that landed him in the electric chair. With appearances by Big Tim Sullivan, the election-rigging vice lord of Tammany Hall; future president Theodore Roosevelt; beloved gangster Jack Zelig; and the newly famous author Stephen Crane, Satan's Circus brings to life an almost-forgotten Gotham.

About the Author:
Mike Dash is the author of five previous books, including Tulipomania and Batavia's Graveyard