:03:01
My three friends and I
were inseparable...
:03:04
Happy and content in the closed
world of Hell's Kitchen.
:03:07
The west side streets
of Manhattan
:03:09
were our private playground,
:03:10
a cement kingdom
:03:11
where we felt ourselves nothing
less than absolute rulers.
:03:16
Hell's Kitchen was populated
:03:18
by an uneasy blend
of Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican,
:03:21
and Eastern European labourers.
:03:22
Hard men living hard lives.
:03:32
Shut the fuck up!
:03:34
We lived in railroad apartments
:03:36
inside red brick tenements.
:03:38
Few mothers worked,
:03:39
and all had trouble
with the men they married.
:03:41
Get the fuck out and shut up!
:03:46
Shut the fuck up!
:03:48
I buried one fucking wife,
:03:49
I can bury another one!
:03:55
Domestic violence was a cottage
industry in Hell's Kitchen,
:03:59
yet there was no divorce
and few separations.
:04:01
The will of the church
was forceful.
:04:03
For a marriage to end,
:04:05
someone usually had to die.
:04:08
Yet despite
the harshness of life,
:04:10
Hell's Kitchen offered
the kids on its streets
:04:13
a safety net enjoyed by
few other neighbourhoods.
:04:16
Crimes against neighbourhood
people were not permitted.
:04:19
When they did occur,
:04:21
the punishment doled out
was severe,
:04:23
and in some cases final.
:04:25
A drug dealer
from an uptown neighbourhood
:04:27
moved heroin
into Hell's Kitchen.
:04:28
Packet killed a 12-year-old son
:04:30
of a Puerto Rican
numbers runner.
:04:31
It was the last packet
the dealer ever sold.
:04:35
Hell's kitchen was a place of
innocence ruled by corruption.
:04:41
My friends and I spent lots
of time inside Holy Angels.
:04:44
We each served as altar boys.
:04:46
Everyone wanted
to work funeral masses
:04:48
since the funeral
included a $3.00 fee -
:04:50
and more if you looked
sufficiently sombre.
:04:53
There was an active competition
between the four of us
:04:56
to come up with
the best and boldest prank.
:04:59
Two weeks
into the new school year,