How It All Began....

I was going through some old sketchbooks the other day and came across these drawings. Gazing at these I realized this is where the genesis of the project really began; idle sketches simply to pass the time some cold winter night a few years back. They seem kinda primitive to me now, dating back almost five years, but there is a raw energy that I still like about them, and I thought it would be of interest to share them....

Author Rose Keefe's The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster is set for release in February 2008. I'm quite excited as this remains perhaps my favorite era in the annals of Jewish mobster history and the subject matter continues to fascinate writers and historians 95 years later. Keefe's book should uncover many unrevealed layers to the case, but is also specific to the life of Big Jack Zelig as well, which is the first to do so.....