Bleecker Street Blues

The time is 1920. The place is Greenwich Village in New York City. John Ballard is a young reporter for the New York Herald. His assignment is the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants accused of killing two guards during a payroll robbery in Massachusetts. The case has become a great cause celebre. The Attorney General is determined to stamp out all left-wing organizations. The Russian revolution has taken place in 1917, and communism is spreading to other countries, including America. There are anarchist attacks, such as the bombing on Wall Street that killed 34 people. Earlier, an anarchist assasinated President McKinley. Violence of another kind comes from mob wars and prohibition. New York is filled with newly arrived foreigners, many of them Italians. John and his Irish friend, Sean, are caught up in all these upheavals, and with them the two daughters of a wealthy political figure.