Jack “Legs” Diamond — The Clay Pigeon of the Underworld

They shot him.

Then they shot him again.

And somehow, Jack “Legs” Diamond kept getting back up.

One of Prohibition-era New York’s most colorful—and most frequently ventilated—gangsters, Diamond was a thief, hijacker, bootlegger, racketeer, nightclub owner and professional pain in the ass to several extremely dangerous men.

He steals liquor from other bootleggers. He runs with Arnold Rothstein. He gets caught in the wars surrounding Little Augie Orgen and Lepke Buchalter. He survives ambushes that should have finished him, turns hospital stays into publicity campaigns, travels to Europe under an alias, and develops a remarkable habit of being acquitted just when prosecutors think they finally have him.

The newspapers eventually give him the perfect nickname:

The Clay Pigeon of the Underworld.

Everybody takes a shot.

Nobody seems able to break him.

Until Albany.

In this episode of Partners-N-Crime, Bill, Zach, Annmarie and Joshua separate the documented history from the gangster folklore and follow Jack Diamond from the streets of New York to the dark Albany room where his luck finally runs out.

Who killed Legs Diamond?

Dutch Schultz?

Old enemies from New York?

Men who believed Diamond owed them a fortune?

Or did Jack finally wander into a city where the politicians, police and underworld were all working for the same management?

Pour something illegal and join us.

This is the legend of Jack “Legs” Diamond.

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READ THE CORPSE WINKED

Like the history behind Partners-N-Crime?

Bill’s historical crime novel The Corpse Winked takes you to New York City, 1910, where funeral director Rocco Foscarini has learned that grief is currency, silence is survival, and some bodies are considerably more troublesome than others.

Life is simple.

Until the corpse winks.

The Corpse Winked by William Eckman Crooks is available in paperback, hardcover and Kindle; the Kindle edition is also currently listed through Kindle Unlimited. Amazon

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