The Gangster

ALSO BY CLIVE CUSSLER

DIRK PITT® ADVENTURES

Havana Storm
(with Dirk Cussler)

Poseidon’s Arrow
(with Dirk Cussler)

Crescent Dawn
(with Dirk Cussler)

Arctic Drift
(with Dirk Cussler)

Treasure of Khan
(with Dirk Cussler)

Black Wind
(with Dirk Cussler)

Trojan Odyssey

Valhalla Rising

Atlantis Found

Flood Tide

Shock Wave

Inca Gold

Sahara

Dragon

Treasure

Cyclops

Deep Six

Pacific Vortex!

Night Probe!

Vixen 03

Raise the Titanic!

Iceberg

The Mediterranean Caper

FARGO ADVENTURES

The Solomon Curse
(with Russell Blake)

The Eye of Heaven
(with Russell Blake)

The Mayan Secrets
(with Thomas Perry)

The Tombs
(with Thomas Perry)

The Kingdom
(with Grant Blackwood)

Lost Empire
(with Grant Blackwood)

Spartan Gold
(with Grant Blackwood)

ISAAC BELL NOVELS

The Assassin
(with Justin Scott)

The Bootlegger
(with Justin Scott)

The Striker
(with Justin Scott)

The Thief
(with Justin Scott)

The Race
(with Justin Scott)

The Spy
(with Justin Scott)

The Wrecker
(with Justin Scott)

The Chase

KURT AUSTIN ADVENTURES

The Pharaoh’s Secret
(with Graham Brown)

Ghost Ship
(with Graham Brown)

Zero Hour
(with Graham Brown)

The Storm
(with Graham Brown)

Devil’s Gate
(with Graham Brown)

Medusa
(with Paul Kemprecos)

White Death
(with Paul Kemprecos)

The Navigator
(with Paul Kemprecos)

Polar Shift
(with Paul Kemprecos)

Lost City
(with Paul Kemprecos)

White Death
(with Paul Kemprecos)

Fire Ice
(with Paul Kemprecos)

Blue Gold
(with Paul Kemprecos)

Serpent
(with Paul Kemprecos)

OREGON
FILES ADVENTURES

Piranha
(with Boyd Morrison)

Mirage
(with Jack Du Brul)

The Jungle
(with Jack Du Brul)

The Silent Sea
(with Jack Du Brul)

Corsair
(with Jack Du Brul)

Plague Ship
(with Jack Du Brul)

Skeleton Coast
(with Jack Du Brul)

Dark Watch
(with Jack Du Brul)

Sacred Stone
(with Craig Dirgo)

Golden Buddha
(with Craig Dirgo)

NONFICTION

Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt

The Sea Hunters
(with Craig Dirgo)

The Sea Hunters II
(with Craig Dirgo)

Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed
(with Craig
Dirgo)

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

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Copyright © 2016 by Sandecker, RLLLP

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eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-40642-1

Endpaper and interior illustrations by Roland Dahlquist

This is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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