The Gangsters

What happens when society shuts its doors on brilliant minds?At seventeen years old, Joe and his three closest childhood friends-Bill, Tommy, and Gil-graduate high school with sharp intelligence but empty pockets. Trapped by poverty and unable to afford college, they refuse to settle for dead-end minimum-wage jobs. Desperate for a future, they make a fateful pact to become gangsters.Their first heist-a meticulously planned jewelry store robbery-nets them thousands but leaves Joe deeply conflicted with guilt. Deciding he wants out of the criminal life, Joe tries to walk away. But fate has other plans. When a chance newspaper clipping reunites Joe with Judy, his long-lost childhood sweetheart, he believes he has found a path back to happiness.That hope is violently shattered when Judy’s wealthy fiancé murders her in a rage. Consumed by grief and fueled by an uncompromising desire for vengeance, Joe tracks down the killer and executes his own brutal brand of street justice. With nothing left to lose and an education denied to him by an uncaring system, Joe breaks away from his friends to embrace a dark new identity: a cold, clinical contract killer known in the underworld as 'Blackie'.The Gangsters is a gritty, fast-paced, and raw look at crime, economic inequality, lost love, and the making of an assassin. Jack Bergon delivers a tragic crime fiction tale that explores how a lack of opportunity can turn bright students into dangerous outlaws.