This exciting NYC walking tour covers everything from the Golden Age of the American gangster at the turn of the century to prohibition-era gang wars to the bohemian arts and drug culture of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Some of the most influential and colorful criminals and characters in American history have called the East Village home -- organized mobsters, social-political organizations, radical activists, religious cults, and everything in-between.

Schedule: Saturdays at 2:00pm
Reservations: Not required
Fee: $15
Duration: 1.5 - 2 hours, Distance: 14 blocks
Meet: East Village Visitors Center, 308 Bowery (btwn E. Houston & Bleecker)
Directions: F, or V train to 2nd Avenue/Lower East Side or 6 train to Bleecker/Lafayette

subway map | subway, bus, walking directions | driving directions

Trace the steps of everyone from Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, John Gotti, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, to The Hells Angels, GG Allin, and and even Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, among many others. Riots, squatter evictions, cannibals, street gangs, kidnappings, shoot outs, assassinations, grave-robbers, hangings, bombings; this tour covers it all, much of it previously undocumented.

This tour examines the birth of organized crime in America and provides insight into the often overlooked early days of the nation's criminal heavyweights. How did Lucky Luciano rise to power? How did Meyer Lansky meet Bugsy Siegel? How did the Five Families of the American Mafia originate? Some of the sites visited and discussed include the headquarters of Paul Kelly's notorious Five Points Gang, the gang responsible for breeding the likes of Al Capone, Johnny Torrio, Lucky Luciano, and hundreds more; the home of their rivals, the Jewish Eastman Gang; the home of prohibition era's "Boss of Bosses"; the childhood homes and teenage haunts of Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky; the headquarters and hang outs of John Gotti; the home of famous radical activists who set off eight bombs around NYC in 1969; the home of an infamous cannibal; the sites of multiple shootouts, bombings and assassination attempts; and so much more.

The tour is conducted by Eric Ferrara, executive director of the East Village History Project and the East Village Visitors Center. Ferrara is a fourth-generation, native Lower East Side/New Yorker, a licensed tour guide, and a published author on the subject; his book, A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers & Weirdos of NYC's Lower East Side, based on the tour, is published by The History Press. Ferrara's family immigrated to NYC from Sicily in the 1880s and he provides first-hand accounts combined with over four years of researching original source material, public records, archived articles, personal interviews, police department records, and published accounts.

Some Press:

"On the popular Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos tour, you'll learn all abut the golden age of the American gangster, as well as the arts and religious scene in the '60s and '70s."
Toronto Star

"...(The tour) takes you on a journey from the golden age of the American gangster to the bohemian arts and drug culture of the 1960s. Eric guides you to historic hotspots like 57 Jones Street – the Five Points gang headquarters – and to Second Avenue at 12th Street, the scene of a famous mob shootout."
-NBC

"All the legendary bad guys did time on the Lower East Side: Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel. Instead of trying to figure them out with movies-on-demand and pulp bios, follow in their footsteps, literally."
-Staten Island Advance

"... offered by East Village Walking Tours include the must do, "Gangsters, Murderers, and Weirdos" tour..."
-Frommer's Travel Guide