Hell’s Kitchen and the Capeman Murder Hell’s Kitchen is the section of Manhattan that is between 34th and 59th Streets and from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River. It was the home of New York’s most dangerous criminals from the early tenement days to Prohibition to the Westies. The population consisted of poor people who lived in a disorderly fashion and expressed themselves with a demanding spirit. Mayhem and reports of criminal homicide from the late nineteenth century on supply a good idea of daily life in Hell’s Kitchen. These reports illustrate a neighborhood full of crime, poverty, religious worship, hard work and family commitment. “ Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings divided by race, ethnicity, and neighborhood boundaries but united by common styles, slang, and codes of honor. They fought and sometimes killed to expand their territory. The youth gangs were a colorful and controversial part of the urban landscape made famous by the West Side Story and infamous by the media” (Schneider, 1959). The violence and the gangs on the streets formed ethnic ties as well as disparities among the people that led to a great amount of hostility and extreme violence.But before the gang wars began, there were some contributing factors that led to this hostility among the society. The first major change, in 1851, was due to the construction of a Hudson River Railroad station at the future site of 30th Street and 10th Avenue. Many Irish and German immigrants (the latter escaping the Great Potato Famine) filled the area and went to work in the Railroad yards, West Side breweries, factories, slaughterhouses, warehouses, backyards and on the docks. The soaring population reached over 350,000 by the start of the Civil War, most were divided by ethnic backgrounds, most of which lived in rows of tenements that were situated in the middle of the slaughterhouses and factories that gave off an awful sme...
