Dead gangster propels new story

Many years ago, my paternal grandparents ran a candy store. One day two men walked in and told my grandfather that he must charge a certain price for cigarettes and the men would get a kickback.

When the men retuned to collect their money they saw a man on one of the stools. The men never came back. The man was Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, the notorious hit man for Murder Incorporated, a gang of Brownsville, Brooklyn-based gangsters that killed for the Mafia in the 1930s and ’40s. Reles was my grandfather’s cousin.

Woodmere resident Joel W. Harris, 83, a retired insurance broker, whose father was also an insurance broker and had peripheral contact with that criminal crowd, has taken the mystery surrounding Reles’s death — he was ratting out his gangster compatriots to the district attorney — and then became the “canary who couldn’t sing” as the basis for his self-published novel “Public Parts.”
Reles either fell due to a prank or was pushed out of a sixth floor window of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island on Nov. 12, 1941. He was 35.

“When Abe Reles went out the window it was very convenient for others not to pursue the matter, I pursued it fictionally, said Harris, who began writing his novel when he recovering from back surgery in 1993. He said he wrote many versions before finishing the book last year. He self-published using the services of Xlibris, a self-publishing and on-demand printing services provider based in Bloomington, Ind.

Through extensive research that included digging into the files of the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper and even standing in the room where Reles slept at the Half Moon after the hotel became the Hebrew Home for the Aged (one of his wife’s uncles was a doctor at the facility), Harris pieced together his story.

It takes place in the early 1970s. Larry Levine is now the owner of Public Auto Parts, in Brownsville, after his father abruptly announced his retirement and heads to Florida to avoid questions about the death of his friend, Reles. Larry is aware of his dad’s link to that era’s gangster crew, but not as much as he thought when faced with questions from both the police and the Mafia.

“I read quality books and learned what the good writers do,” said Harris, adding that the book’s opening was inspired by writers such as Ernest Hemingway and James Michener. “I am very familiar with the scenery. I went into ‘what if’ mode,” Harris said.

A Brooklyn native, Harris said he always had an interest in writing and worked briefly at the New York Daily News before marrying Evvy. Needing a steady income he went into the insurance business. Some of his professional writer friends, including Avery Corman (“Kramer vs. Kramer”) might have been disappointed with Harris’s decision, but most likely not dissatisfied with this book.

“It’s a very good book and written very well,” said Sarajane Giddings, at the Blue Door book store in Cedarhurst where “Public Parts” is on sale. “I certainly would recommend it.

Richard Marek, a friend who provided constructive criticism and a former president and publisher of E P Dutton Co. said: “The writing throughout is good-to-better-than good.”

Harris will discuss his book on Tuesday, May 10 at 1 and 7 p.m. at Peninsula Public Library in Lawrence.

“Public Parts” can also be purchased online at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.