When the arguments fail, use a blackjack.

That was the advice of one Edward Spicodonel,

one of the rare breed of gangsters from the probation era

to retire from the rackets, maintain his political clout,

and incredibly for a gangster of his time,

actually die of natural causes.

So many of his fellow Irish mobsters would not be so lucky.

They were just as violent as he was

and oftentimes that violence eventually would come back on them.

Existing since the middle of the 19th century

when Irish immigrants suffering from famine and disease

began to search for new lives in America

and needed all the help they could get in the face

of rising anti-Irish sentiment,

the Assorbidist street gangs collectively referred to

as the Irish mob grew and thrived,

becoming a force that would help shape America's

criminal underworld for centuries.

It would also shape a lot of pop culture.

From the movies that starred James Cagney

who got many of his mannerisms from the Irish mobsters he knew

like angels with dirty faces to Martin Scorsese

...