Murder in the Garment District: The Grip of Organized Crime and the Decline of Labor in the United States

by David Witwer, Catherine Rios (Contributor), Jonathan Yen (Narrator)

The thrilling and true account of racketeering and union corruption in mid-century New York, when unions and the mob were locked in a power struggle that reverberates to this day

“The murder had taken place ‘in one of the most congested areas of the city,’ the District Attorney noted. And yet, he told the press, ‘Not a single witness came forward.’”
— from 'MURDER IN THE GARMENT DISTRICT'

In 1949, in New York City’s crowded Garment District, a union organizer named William Lurye was stabbed to death by a mob assassin. Through the lens of this murder case, prize-winning authors David Witwer and Catherine Rios explore American labor history at its critical turning point, drawing on FBI case files and the private papers of investigative journalists who first broke the story. A narrative that originates in the garment industry of mid-century New York, which produced over 80 percent of the nation’s dresses at the time, 'MURDER IN THE GARMENT DISTRICT' quickly moves to a national stage, where congressional anti-corruption hearings gripped the nation and forever tainted the reputation of American unions.

Replete with elements of a true-crime thriller, 'MURDER IN THE GARMENT DISTRICT' includes a riveting cast of characters, from wheeling and dealing union president David Dubinsky to the notorious gangster Abe Chait and the crusading Robert F. Kennedy, whose public duel with Jimmy Hoffa became front-page news.

Deeply researched and grounded in the street-level events that put people’s
lives and livelihoods at stake, 'MURDER IN THE GARMENT DISTRICT' is destined to become a classic work of history—one that also explains the current troubled state of unions in America.




RUNNING TIME ⇒ 10hrs. and 42mins.

©2020 David Witwer and Catherine Rios (P)2020 Tantor

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, Labor, The United States Of America, Mystery

Audible Audio

First published May 5, 2020

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

My workplace is in Year 5 of a union fight. Last year, we got a super-majority of workers to sign union cards, and we filed for recognition. Then an entire saga happened. When a union petitions for recognition, 33% of bargaining-eligible employees must sign union cards to move on to the next stage. The letter from the neutral third party that confirms the union has reached the 33% threshold apparently ONLY confirms that 33% have signed, even though we have about double that number of cards.

In the next phase, the union has to prove somehow that a majority (50% +1) of eligible employees are on board with unionizing. Our board had a choice. One option was trusting that the majority workers are in favor and signed cards, vote to recognize us, and then have the neutral third party verify the cards. The other option was to bypass verifying the cards and force a union election, where eligible employees have to case actual ballots to confirm that 50% +1 of us are on board. Of course, they chose election. Of course, unanimously.

No members were surprised the board chose the hard way. (The union also has to pay for the entire election, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.) But I was not prepared for the amount of misinformation that they would use to rationalize their votes. The one that really got my goat was the implication that there could be duplicate cards and even that some could have been submitted by fake staff members. First of all: if there were, in fact, fraudulent union cards, then verification would have failed. The onus is on the union to submit impeccable cards and cutting corners on verifying them internally before filing our petition would fail third-party verification AND make us look really bad to absolutely everyone involved: board, management, membership, FUTURE MEMBERSHIP.

I'm used to hearing our union spoken of like it's not made of our actual employees. Management constantly uses the name of our national affiliate instead of our unit. But what exactly were these board members picturing? Jimmy Hoffa and his entourage filling out cards with made-up names? A square-jawed guy named Knuckles saying, "nice cubicle you got here, it would be a shame if something were to happen to it"? For that matter, even just our local's staff menacing our coworkers? Coercion from fellow staff would actually break the code of conduct, not to mention the law.

Enter: Murder in the Garment District. There is a murder of a union organizer at its center, but I'm still surprised at to see it in True Crime. It's a historical account that untangles mainstream misconceptions about labor I've grown up with: rampant corruption, mafia involvement, racketeering run amok, greed, the so-called "gangs and goons" of the Teamsters. Labor doesn't come out of it squeaky clean, but neither does anyone else. And yet, the mark on Labor seems indelible, when it was one component of an entire ecosystem permeated by corruption, including police and politicians also in league with organized crime. I can't say reading this helped ease the jaw-clenching problem I've developed, but it was probably the right thing to read at the right time.

Truthfully, I had a little trouble parsing all the complexities of this book even though I had print to consult while listening to the audio, but I purchased a cheap copy to revisit it. I have like three books checked out about Jimmy Hoffa, so I'm hoping adding more context for myself will help me make better sense of it upon revisiting.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

Witwer and Rios open this account of corruption in the union movement with the 1949 murder of unionist William Lurye in broad daylight in New York's packed Garment District. Despite abundant witnesses and an allegedly intense investigati0n, the organised crime figures identified as the perpetrators were never caught.


The authors detail the exact processes by which mobsters managed to infiltrate trade unions using protection rackets and physical violence, leading to a situation where union leaders did not have much choice other than to accede to their demands. This lay the foundation for the corruption uncovered in the 1950s by Robert Kennedy and the Senate Labor Rackets Commission, including Kennedy's spectacular clashes with Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa.


While the corruption and the resulting decline in union power is undeniable, the book makes it clear that, in the beginning, unions were victims of organised crime, but the authorities refused to help them. Essentially, the law drove them into the arms of the lawless, and then punished them for the result. This book is also a sobering reminder of just how much ordinary people risked in order to win for us rights at work that we all now take for granted.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It took me forever to get through this one, I just could not get into it. And usually all things mob-related is right up my alley. But it was dry and could not hold my attention for long periods of time. There is an audience for this book, it is well-researched and incredibly detailed. History is my thing, I LOVE research and details, so my boredom surprised me. An engaging delivery of the material was lacking.

[Greg Guma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noir Exit in the Garment District: The sudden death of my grandfather, patriarch on my mother’s side, has been a nagging question since it shook the family tree in early 1953. Less than a year before, he had been a successful manufacturer of women’s clothing in New York’s thriving garment district. His company, established in the 1920s, was called Metro Coat & Suit, and by then had a showroom at 500 7th Avenue in Manhattan.

But sometimes in 1952 Bruno Lupia suddenly sold the family business and retired to Florida. At age seven, I was visiting him in Miami with mom in early 1953. One day, however, he didn’t show up for playtime. Mom eventually told me he was dead, and later that it had been a heart attack.

It made sense for a while. After all, he was in his sixties, overweight, a cigar-smoker. But later mom changed her story. “The unions killed him,” she claimed, “they broke his heart.” What could she possibly mean? The only clarification ever provided was that grandpa, who supposedly treated his employees like members of family, had also asked them for some short-term concession due to hard economic times. When turned down, presumably by their union rep, there was no choice but to shut the business down.

This has long felt a bit simplistic. I finally get a plausible, deeper explanation in a new labor history by David Witwer and Catherine Rios. Murder in the Garment District suggests several other factors, some right there in the subtitle: The Grip of Organized Crime and the Decline of Labor in the United States.

Unions had considerable power after World War II, representing up to a third of the workforce. But by the late 1940s crime figures were making inroads, especially in the garment industry and trucking.

At the most basic level, some gangsters collected payments for protecting firms willing to comply. Some of that money was used to help garment center gangsters serving time in prison. And that pool was managed by Joseph Stracci and Ben Kutlow, both former members of Louis “Lepke” Buchalter’s gang. Stracci also ran a clothing firm, one of many with an office in the same building as my grandfather’s showroom and women’s fashions “knock off” factory.

More to the point, Witwer and Rios chronicle the rise of “paper locals,” unions that exploited exployees and put gangsters in covert alliances with both manufacturers and unions. They also expose how politicians confused the issue, conflating earlier Communist organizing with criminal syndicates and corrupt figures like Jimmy Hoffa, ultimately using both strikes and congressional hearings to discredit union leadership in general.

By this time, my grandfather was long gone. Based on this new research, however, my suspicion is that he found himself caught somehow between union locals and the mob, and was forced out as their grip tightened.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The subtitle “The Grip of Organized Crime and the Decline of Labor in the United States” made me interested in this book because I don’t know much about unions and I was hoping to get a better understanding. In the introduction I sensed it was a pro-union book and since I’ve generally not been in favour of unions I looked forward to reading the book to see the arguments on the other side. Instead I found myself googling to make sure that the book actually was pro-union partway through because they were not doing a good job of advocating for unions. They discuss at length all the racketeering and the connections with organized crime in the unions but they don’t explain how the connections began. It’s as if they jumped into the history halfway through with no context. When talking about the racketeering they just end the section saying the union really had no choice and they are being misrepresented but not elaborating on why that’s the case at all. The final sentence says that “without [labor] revival America’s continued slide down toward worsening inequality and working-class alienation seems destined to continue.” This is an extremely powerful statement that has literally never been elaborated on or mentioned anywhere in the previous 250 pages. I’m shocked that they provided so much history about racketeering but never provided a single fact or statistic apart from one in the introduction on the advantages of unions. It seems as though they are trying to make an emotional argument for the unions while making a fact based argument for the other side. So they did a huge disservice to their pro-labor/union argument.

Overall, I ended up feeling pretty confused about what the point of the book was. I think they told fascinating stories about the connections of the unions with organized crime and the range of crimes that were committed related to unions which would have made a great story. But connecting it to a pro-union argument is how I ended up confused and feeling like the book was really lacking a purpose.

[Sharon Colarusso Roarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murder in The Garment District refers to the murder of Wiliam Lurye, brother of union organizer Min Matheson, and an organizer himself in the ILGWU, who was stabbed to death in a Manhattan phone booth by two anti union mob criminals, Ben Macri, associate of crime boss Albert Anastasia, and Johnny Giusto, in 1949. Both Min and Bill were the offspring of Max Lurye, a labor organizer in Chicago in the 1920s and was, himself, a victim of violence when he was shot by gang members of Al Capone. Although he would survive his wounds, he would evenually die seven days after his son was murdered from a heart attack but, more likely, from a broken heart. The Lurye family was just one of many targeted by organized crime in their effort to win better working conditions for the American worker. Organizing Labor in the United States was a violent business and it resulted in numerous beatings, bombings and murders. Murder in The Garment District is an interesting human condition story which traces the valiant efforts of men, but mostly women, striving to eek out a decent living in what amounted to sweatshops with horrible working conditions and low wages. This was the fight of the American worker and how courageous men and women fought back against corruption while facing the threat of death against themselves and their families. However, the book loses it's grip once Ben Macri is aquitted. You feel like the story is over. The rest of the book follows the congressional hearings on labor racketeering pitting Robert F. Kennedy against Teamster head Jimmy Hoffa. I eventually lost interest. All in all, it was an interesting book and, for me, served as a segue into my next book, Fighting For The Union Label, which delves deeper into Min Matheson and her fight to unionize Northeaster Pennsyvania.

[Stewart Ehly · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Witwer and Catherine Rios: Murder in the Garment District: The grip of organized crime and the decline of labor in the United States. 2020. The New Press

The authors provide a deep probe into the economic and political forces that affected the influence of labor unions through the 1950s. Although events later in the century are noted, the focus is on activities in the garment industry between 1930 and 1960. Best coverage is during the 1950s and might be approached after reading “The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s” Simon & Schuster, 2019 by William I. Hitchcock. Hitchcock emphasizes the impact of Cold War politics on a broad range of matters, including labor unrest. Witwer and Rios provide a broader and richer examination of that unrest. Readers will encounter politicians (e.g., Barry Goldwater and Robert F. Kennedy), union leaders (e.g., Walter Reuther, George Meany, Jimmy Hoffa), mobsters (an abundance!), and local members of unions to flush out the many levels of conflict that affected the growth and suppression of union activity. The role of the press is explored, as well as examination of police and criminal court activities. Relying on an extensive array of source materials and images of key figures, the authors provide a text well worth exploring. An interest in labor unions is not required and anyone willing to gain insight to the political dynamics during the middle third of the century will be rewarded. Additional analyses of issues that would link the text to current day labor matters would have enhanced the authors’ commentary.

[Andrew Malekoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, thorough, and very informative book on the garment industry from the 1940's - 1960''s, with an emphasis on the relationship between unions, organized crime, business owners, law enforcement and laborers, and the effort to put an end to corruption in labor. The book demonstrates that there are no simple answers, that while corruption was widespread, it was an accommodation that was necessary to do business. How it was managed, and how toxic, was key. The book includes some colorful union and mob characters and is punctuated by the McClellan Committee's work to investigate and bring reform to labor. This is not a typical mob-true crime , shoot-em-up book. There is violence, as the title promises, but it is more presented as "here is what happened," more so than sensationalizing murder and mayhem. It's more of a history book than a typical organized crime book. The book does not go into a great deal of detail about Jimmy Hoffa. Other notables, though, are David Dubinsky, Johnny (Johnny Dio) Dioguardi George Meany and Walter Reuther. Min Matheson, a union leader for the ILGWU, is a powerful and unforgettable character, a bold and brave woman - a union organizer, who seems to have no fear in taking on either management and the mob; and carries on job actions with "reckless," but thoughtful abandon.

[Maria-Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lot of research went into this book.
It gives back the true history of the Unions in the US and probably will be an eye opener for many of us who only have a minor understanding of the struggle.
I had to smile when at the beginning of the book the author described some company tactics these days how there is no need for a Union and that a Union will only cost the worker with added benefits. A lot of us have encounter that scenario in or work lives.
The book brings to light how the mafia got involved on both sides (Unions and Non Unions).
In a lot of case the police was on the side of the ones trying to breakup the Union support. FBI and politicians were of very little help.
This book is not written as a novel but I would say rather as a documentary of the struggles of the Unions and workers in the USA. It might be more information that you wanted to know but for anybody that wants a better understanding this is a good book even if you might like to skip some pages here and there. Don't skip to many. A better option would be to take a break with another book when you feel you are getting an overload and go back to it afterwards which is what I did.

[Karenbike Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is two pages about the murder and 230 pages about the union history in the Garment District in NYC and elsewhere. Boiled down, the unions failed because the police were incompetent and corrupt and the mob and racketeering moved in to fill the void. The organizers and leaders sometimes worked with the mob to get their goals fulfilled. But after so many years the union's reputation was so tarnished that it lost its power. Now there are many laws to protect workers so unions became less meaningful. The book is thorough and well researched.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that really shows people how the mob got into the unions and began destroying businesses. Here people standing up to them or wanting to be killed stops people from wanting to fight back. When Kennedy and others fight back they become bigger and stronger on both sides. Really a good book. You see how the mafia gets into a place and can destroy from the inside out. You also begin to see the beginning fight between Kennedy and Hoffa and other Mafia members. This is a good book.
I received this book from Netgalley.com

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway but could not get through it. I know I’m getting old but the font was way to small for me to read.
Then there was the issue of the content. I could not agree with the biased way information was shared, so I just gave up. I usually give a book 50 pages but I couldn’t get that far to decide to quit reading. Too bad, I usually like books about actual events in history so that I can learn more about what really happened.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaways.

This is a short but dense look at the fall of union power in America, which uses the murder of union organizer William Lurye as the jumping in point. There’s a lot of information packed into a relatively short number of pages, but for a person not that familiar with the history of labor it’s a great primer. Occasionally it can be a little dry and a little hard to keep the characters straight, but all in all it’s a good basic primer.

[Angel Hatfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a straight-forward history of unions and the mafia and early police forces. It took me some time to really get into it but I think anyone interested in this topic would find it interesting.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

[Heidi B · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of the book is misleading. It would have been more accurate had the "Murder in the garment district" part been left off since the focus of the book was about union corruption. The murder was barely mentioned.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good mystery and having just read about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire I was up for a murder set in the Garment District. That murder literally took up less than a chapter in this book which was really about unionization in the US and the raw deal it has seen, at least in the eyes of the author. The book was well-researched but skewed and had very little to do with the title. There were some interesting passages but overall not an enjoyable read for me.

[Divyesh Sheth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good history of unions in America. However it is somewhat repetitive and drags on quite a few times with unnecessary details. It does paint a complex picture of how labor unions lost their age and the mob connection drove it there.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was hard for me to get into. It's a good book but, I feel like the author was kind of all over the place. It was hard to follow exactly what was going on.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating!

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another book that fell into the DNF pile. I love history and always looking for a great book on things not covered in school. But I can't get into books that do not make an effort to draw you in.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Billed as a "thrilling and true account of racketeering and union corruption," this reads more like the transcript of a tedious poli-sci lecture.

[Joe Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dry, tough read