running his business, McSpedon served as an elected Alderman in NYC and as appointed City Fire Marshall during the mid-19th century. Eastman worked as a paper hanger. By the 1900 census, Mary Eastman lived in Queens on Curtis Avenue, with her daughters Elizabeth and Francine and their families. Edward Eastman is listed in the same census as a "bird salesman" residing on East First Street in Lower Manhattan, living with and married since 1896 to Margaret Eastman. Going by the nickname "Monk", Eastman was not recorded as having been arrested until after his grandfather died. At some point, Parks helped his grandson set up a pet shop on Broome Street. For years after being widely known as a gangster, Eastman listed "bird seller" as his occupation on government forms. At some point, he returned to live on the Lower East Side and became involved with the neighborhood gangs made up of poor, young men, often children of immigrants. Operations included a bike rental racket. Ethnicity Monk Eastman's ancestry has been a subject of debate by reporters and historians. Because his criminal enterprise involved so many members of Jewish-American organized crime, Eastman is frequently depicted as being Jewish (including by some newspapers of his period). But researchers have documented that he appears to have been of ethnic Protestant English descent. Records suggest that he was Christian and Protestant, if non-practicing. In his book The Jews of Sing Sing, the writer Ron Arons notes that none of Monk's sisters (nor his parents) were married in Jewish ceremonies. His maternal grandfather George Parks died in a Baptist rest home. When Eastman was buried, his service was performed by a Methodist pastor. Criminal career In 1898 Monk Eastman was arrested and convicted of larceny under the alias William Murray (one of the many Irish aliases which he used). He was jailed for three months on Blackwell's Island. During this time, he belonged to a gang of pimps and thieves known as the Allen Street Cadets. The writer Herbert Asbury described Eastman as having a messy head of wild hair, wearing a derby two sizes too small for his head, sporting numerous gold-capped teeth, and often parading around shirtless or in My This tatters, always accompanied by his cherished pigeons. He had a broad five-foot-six inch frame. In time, Monk's reputation as a tough guy earned him the job of "sheriff" or bouncer at the