Wild Cowboys: Urban Marauders and the Forces of Order

by Robert Jackall

Book Overview

Bullet-torn bodies in a South Bronx alley, a college boy shot in the head on the West Side Highway and a wild shootout in the streets of Washington Heights, home of New York's immigrant Dominican community and hub of the eastern seaboard's drug trade. All seemingly separate acts of violence. But investigators discover a pattern to the mayhem. In this bloody urban saga, Jackall recounts how street cops, detectives and prosecutors pieced together a...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067495310X
• ISBN13: 9780674953109
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

"Like some Wild Cowboys coming 2 get me at highnoon": Jay-z

This book is an eye-opener 2 the underworld's violent reality for those from and not from the streets. The "Wild Cowboys" aka "Lenny's Boys"the legendary notorious street icons from "Washington Heights" aka "Home of the Haze" are shown in detail 4 the most part seperating fact from fiction.To some this book, based on the "Cowboys," can justify their criminal exploits through the rebellious determination to achieve the status most minorities are denied, the Real American Dream, through sheer force and brutality by what all young and ambitious Dominicans, and minorities in general, can relate to which is The Code of the Streets.This book gives you a taste of the legend the next generation Dominican hears growing up now in Washington Heights. This book can villafy The Cowboys legendary criminal enterprise and unmerciful murederous tactics by showing the "priveleged" side of American society what must be done to "Live" as opposed to survive in the on-going struggle to achieve what the "Brady Bunch" etc. take 4 advantage. But all in all this book gives the reader a startling look in2 a ruthless "gang" and the grim reality of these New York streets. Where Hustlerz and killaz are the most visible successful role-models youngsterz get they can relate to. I hope this review shows you the realness contained in this book. P.S. the negative role-model answer is not getting rid of them because thats impossible, btw the war on drugz has not and will never work. The answer requires 2 much non-racist politics 2 exist in a social structure dominated by a race that will not sacrifice their luxury 4 our equality. So sadly the answer is in Sex, Drugz, and entertainment until we're even. "dafabls1@aol.com" if u got a response holla.

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS WARS

This book tells the story in full detail and in murder after excruciating murder of how one gang of Dominicans in New York's Washington heights section brought primal fear and lawlessness to the northern tip of Manhattan back in the bad old days.

WILD COWBOYS , URBAN MARAUDERS AND THE FORCES OF ORDER

In WILD COWBOYS mr. Jackall has captured a very accurate portrait of the world I work in every day. As a law enforcement officer working in New York City I can confirm that based on my own experiance, the confusing list of actors and aliases that some editorial reviewers have complained of are, in fact,common in complex criminal conspiracies and I feel that Mr Jackall has done a fair job of trying to present a clear picture of the Red Top crew. His portrayal of a world where lethal violence is commonplace and telling someone your real name is the highest form of trust is unequalled.A reader who wants a picture of the difficulties involved in the investigation of an actual complex criminal conspiracy rather than the neat melodramas wrapped up in an hour of television would do well to to read Wild Cowboys.