Kleid Uncovers Original Gangster Life in Brownsville

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on April 4, 2006 Sign up now!

by Chris Arrant, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 4/4/2006

In the 1930s, the central Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville was known for the radical political views of its residents. Primarily a Jewish community, it often elected Socialist and American Labor Party candidates to the state assembly. But there was more to Brownsville than its public political side; beneath its radical exterior, there lived and breathed a burgeoning gangster community. Xeric Award-winning writer Neil Kleid, along with artist Jake Allen, seeks out these true tales of a bygone Brooklyn age in the hardcover graphic novel Brownsville from NBM Publishing.

Although the stereotype of gangsters is now Italian, Jewish gangsters were a staple of Brooklyn in the years before World War 2. Brownsville follows the lives of two such gangsters, Albert "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum and Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, as they rise through the Mafia's ranks and eventually become part of the deadliest hit operation in Mafia history, famed gangster Louis Lepke Buchalter's Murder Incorporated. Both deadly and alluring, it is this lifestyle that brings these two together and eventually tears them apart. "[Albert and Abe were] two sides of the gangster coin," explains writer Neil Kleid. "In the 'life,' you had the guy who got into it because of the adventure, the glamour, the glitz and the danger and the guy who had no other choice."

Tannenbaum's father was the owner of a well-known Catskills resort, and Albert was gainfully employed in a hat store and could have lived the straight and narrow. "Some guys could have been successful legit businessmen had they gone the straight and narrow and applied themselves in living that kind of lifestyle. Albert Tannenbaum, would have been one of those," Kleid says. "Allie got sucked into the life after meeting Louis Lepke Buchalter and crew up at his dad's resort, and from there it was the road more often traveled by younger Jews looking for a leg up."

But Abe Reles was of the other variety. "[Abe was] a guy nobody liked but everyone feared enough to pay attention to," explains Kleid. "Stuck in the ghetto, eking cash where you can to afford a slice of bread or a bed to sleep in. Want to live? Need the money to do so? Go clip a car. Beat someone up. Steal some boxes off the Brooklyn docks." Reles turned his hard-knock upbringing to his advantage as he evolved into one of the most feared gangsters nationwide.

To depict a story pulled not from their imagination but the real world, Kleid and artist Jake Allen went to extensive lengths for accuracy. From such nonfiction books as Tough Jews, Murder, Inc. and Kill the Dutchman to meticulously map out the different lives and stories and their connections with each other, this project was measured in years, not months. "[I picked up] every book I could find on New York or classic cars or even old bathroom fixtures," said Allen. "I tried to watch as many movies as I could find on not just gangsters but the time period, as well."

The genesis of this retelling flowered from Kleid's relationship with his father. "My dad had been haranguing me for years to watch [the movie] Once Upon a Time in America, and I fell in love with it." Inspired by that movie, Kleid went on to explore the history of Jewish gangsters. The most prominent names were those like Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel and Lepke, but as his research progressed some lesser-known figures came to the surface. "With the right amount of books and right movies, you see names like Abe Reles, Allie Tannenbaum, Longy Zwillman and the like pop up again and again, little-known gunmen and gangsters hiding in the background of movies like Lepke, Once Upon a Time in America, The Godfather and more. These smaller stories really end up creating a larger tapestry of honor, codes, evil, betrayal and eventual justice."

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