Series of tersely told, graphic pictures of the Prohibition era, New York City, the sordid seamy side beneath the froth. Owney Madden and his doings, an honest speakeasy proprietor under a fictitious name, ""enforcement"" and its workings, Walter Winchell, the police force, John Roach Straton and Broadway. Thumbnail sketches of Jimmy Walker, Texas Guinan, Legs Diamond, Larry Fay and various members of the underworld. Dissertation on the mob as successor to the gang. Light on the science of kidnapping. Good newspaper stuff, teeming with underworld slang, interspersed with vicious comment and a copious supply of anecdote.