Clive Cussler, Justin Scott

The Gangster

CAST OF CHARACTERS

1895

Antonio Branco Immigrant Sicilian “pick and shovel man.”

The padrone Labor contractor, Antonio Branco’s boss.

Isaac Bell, Doug, Andy, Larry, Jack, Ron College freshman classmates.

Mary Clark Student at Miss Porter’s School.

Eddie “Kansas City” Edwards Van Dorn detective.

1906

White Hand

Maria Vella Giuseppe Vella’s twelve-year-old daughter.

Giuseppe Vella New York excavation contractor.

David LaCava Little Italy banker, proprietor of Banco LaCava.

Sante Russo

Giuseppe Vella’s foreman and blaster.

Black Hand

Antonio Branco Wealthy wholesale grocer, Catskill Aqueduct purveyor.

Charlie Salata Italian street gang leader; Black Hand extortionist.

Vito Rizzo Salata Gang lieutenant.

Ernesto Leone A counterfeiter.

Roberto Ferri A smuggler.

Sicilian groom

Francesca Kennedy A killer.

Irish Gangsters

Ed Hunt, Tommy McBean Cousins, Gopher Gang graduates, founders of the West Side Wallopers.

Van Dorn Agency Private Detectives

Joseph Van Dorn Founder and Chief Investigator, “The Boss,” the “old man.”

Isaac Bell Van Dorn’s top man, founder of Black Hand Squad.

Wally Kisley, Mack Fulton Explosives expert and safecracking expert, respectively; partners known as “Weber & Fields.”

Harry Warren Born Salvatore Guaragna, head of New York Gang Squad.

Archibald Angell Abbott IV

Blue-blood New Yorker, a “Princeton man,” former actor, boxer, Bell’s best friend.

Aloysius “Wish” Clarke A drinking man.

Eddie “Kansas City” Edwards Rail yard specialist.

Bronson San Francisco field office.

Grady Forrer Head of Research, New York field office.

Scudder Smith Former newspaper reporter experienced in vice.

Eddie Tobin Apprentice detective.

Richie Cirillo Underage apprentice detective.

Helen Mills Van Dorn intern, Isaac Bell’s protégée, Bryn Mawr College student, daughter of U.S. Army brigadier general Gary Tannenbaum Mills.

Friends of Isaac Bell

Marion Morgan His fiancée.

Enrico Caruso World-renowned opera tenor.

Luisa Tetrazzini Coloratura soprano, the “Florentine Nightingale,” a rising star.

Tammany Hall

Boss Fryer “Honest Jim” Fryer, political kingpin of New York City.

Brandon Finn Boss Fryer’s henchman.

“Rose Bloom”

Brandon Finn’s paramour.

Alderman James Martin Member of the “Boodle Board.”

“Kid Kelly” Ghiottone Former bantamweight prizefighter, saloon keeper, Tammany Hall’s man in Little Italy.

Plutocrats

J. B. Culp Wall Street magnate, Hudson Valley aristocrat, inheritor of steamboat and railroad fortunes, founder of the Cherry Grove Gentlemen’s Society.

Daphne Culp J. B. Culp’s wife.

Brewster Claypool J. B. Culp’s lawyer.

Warren D. Nichols Banker, philanthropist, member of Cherry Grove Society.

Lee, Barry Prizefighters, J. B. Culp’s bodyguards and sparring partners.

Cops

Captain Mike Coligney Head of the NYPD’s Tenderloin Precinct.

Lieutenant Joe Petrosino Founder of the NYPD’s Italian Squad.

Chris Lynch Secret Service Counterfeit Squad.

Rob Rosenwald New York District Attorney sleuth.

Commissioner Bingham New NYPD official shaking up the department.

Sheriff of Orange County

Cherry Grove Bordello

Nick Sayers The proprietor.

Jenny A resident.

The White House

Theodore Roosevelt “Teddy,” “TR,” President of the United States, Spanish-American War hero, former Governor of New York State, former Police Commissioner of New York City.

Chief of the President’s Secret Service protection corps

The Catskill Aqueduct

Dave Davidson Contractors’ Protective Association, superintendent of labor camps.

Contractors

Irish foreman

PROLOGUE

Murder and High Jinks

New Haven, 1895

Chest-deep in a ditch, an Italian pick and shovel man looked up at a rush of custom-made shoes and broadcloth trousers inches from his face. Rich American students were scooping handfuls from the earth pile and sifting the sandy red soil through their fingers.

The Irish foreman, seated in the shade of an umbrella, shook a fist at him.

“Back to work, you lazy dago!”