Handsome and charismatic, Albert Hicks had long been known in the gin joints of the Five Points, the most dangerous neighborhood in 1860s Manhattan. Hired as a hand on an oyster sloop, Hicks planned to rob the ship and flee, as he'd done numerous times before, eventually finding his way back to his Irish immigrant wife and their infant son. But the plan went awry—the ship was found listing and unmanned in the foggy straits of Coney Island—and the voyage that was to enrich him instead led to his last desperate flight. Long fascinated by gangster legends, Rich Cohen tells the story of this notorious figure, from his humble origins to the wild, globe-crossing crime spree that forged his reputation as a pirate.