Wild Cowboys: Urban Marauders & the Forces of Order

by Robert Jackall

Four bullet-torn bodies in a drug-ridden South Bronx alley. A college boy shot in the head on the West Side Highway. A wild shootout on the streets of Washington Heights, home of New York City’s immigrant Dominican community and hub of the eastern seaboard’s drug trade. All seemingly separate acts of violence. But investigators discover a pattern to the mayhem, with links to scores of assaults and murders throughout the city.

In this bloody urban saga, Robert Jackall recounts how street cops, detectives, and prosecutors pieced together a puzzle-like story of narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and murders for hire, all centered on a vicious gang of Dominican youths known as the Wild Cowboys. These boyhood friends, operators of a lucrative crack business in the Bronx, routinely pistol-whipped their workers, murdered rivals, shot or slashed witnesses to their crimes, and eventually turned on one another in a deadly civil war. Jackall chronicles the crime-scene investigations, frantic car chases, street arrests at gunpoint, interviews with informants, and knuckle-breaking plea bargaining that culminated in prison terms for more than forty gang members.

But he also tells a cautionary tale—one of a society with irreconcilable differences, fraught with self-doubt and moral ambivalence, where the institutional logics of law and bureaucracy often have perverse outcomes. A society where the forces of order battle not just violent criminals but elites seemingly aligned with forces of disorder: community activists who grab any pretext to further narrow causes; intellectuals who romanticize criminals; judges who refuse to lock up dangerous men; federal prosecutors who relish nailing cops more than crooks; and politicians who pander to the worst of our society behind rhetorics of social justice and moral probity. In such an up-for-grabs world, whose order will prevail?

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime, Police

448 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 1997

About the author

Robert Jackall has done several years of fieldwork with New York City police detectives and prosecutors, among whom he is known as “The Professor.” He is Class of 1956 Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Williams College.

Reviews

[Ray Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing narrative of the rise and fall of Dominican drug gangs in Washington Heights in the 1990s. The complexity of this intertwined world was at times hard to follow, which logically captured the difficulty of law enforcement's efforts to investigate, apprehend and prosecute gang members. The story of the political and social forces at work in New York City caste a large net over the system, making it difficult to carry out justice. My parents grew up in Washington Heights in 30s and 40s, which brings this story of the decline of a city community close to home. I hope someday the U.S. can enter into an extradition treaty with the Dominican Republic.

[Miguel garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in Washington heights witnessing a few accounts, heard the names of some of the hood heroes. This book fills in the why it happened

[Amar Pai · Rating 3 out of 5]

my brother gave me this book. it chronicles the attempts of nyc policemen (&women) to bust up mid-level crack dealing organizations in washington heights. similar subject matter to "the wire" if you're familiar with that TV show. (if you're not, you should go rent the dvds because it is the best show ever to appear on television, and i mean that literally.)

the book's writing isn't the best-- it can be bit hard to follow, tons of names that blend together-- but i'm enjoying it nevertheless because I'm a sucker for this genre of nonfiction-- details of drug distribution at the mid level, high level, low level.

The war on drugs is a war on the laws of economics, which is exactly as futile as it sounds.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was intriguing and hard to put down. My only complaint is the large amount of characters in this book makes it are hard to keep track of who is who at times. This is one of the most brutal American drug gangs I've ever read or heard about. There are so many interesting sociopathic characters. I always enjoy reading how drug dealers try to justify their actions. It lets you see into the minds of people who kill, sell poison and risk thier lives on a daily basis. I highly recommend this book for true-crime lovers!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really fun to read...like clancy or grisham meets law and order. Despite being billed as academic, however, its neither smart nor thoughtful. The racist overtones are hard to take and the social and legal commentary is so conclusory and undeveloped it takes away from the story.

[Miguel A. Castillo Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was HARD! I loved it, maybe it's because I'm from Washington Heights, and almost more than half the Cowboys trained in my gym, but I loved it. I could taste the insides of it... every Dominican and New Yorker should read this book.

[Indiana Cano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books where you MUST pay attention to every detail in order to keep up with all the names, dates and events. Anyone who comes from the inner city can appreciate this book and those who don't will love it too!!

[Lilly Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was riveted by this book but then again I am a bit biased seeing as I grew up in the area where these events took place and was a child when this was going on.

[David Forsythe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fascinating.