The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum:’ America’s first gangster
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The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum:’ America’s first gangster

They were branded the “Jewish Mafia,” or the “Kosher Nostra” — four violent street-tough Jews with lots of criminal smarts who dominated tabloid headlines and the wanted posters that festooned the bulletin boards of US post offices across the land: The Lower East Side of Mrs. Mandelbaum’s era was a…