East 14th Street should have settled into a cycle of decline and upshift. Instead it was counted on 120-year skid that hasn't bottomed out yet.

"Legs, you asshole," I said. "I am not doing this story on you. I am not taking the responsibility for making you famous."

Nicky Louie is the leader of the Ghost Shadows, Chinatown’s most powerful youth gang. Every night, he paces Mott Street, wary of incursions from the White Eagles and the Flying Dragons, rival gangs. At stake is affiliation with Chinatown’s richest tong, the On Leong.

“The belief that nothing in the universe happens by chance strikes me as essentially theological. Trilateral Committee, Rockefeller, God, Satan, Reverend Moon — it’s all the same kettle of Prime Movers to me.”

“The paragons of excellence we got stuck with were the nark look-alikes Ford and Mantle. Now they call them Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and paint them lovable, but they still could ruin a pot party. They’re so blond.”