Aileen Gallagheris an editor at New York magazine’s website, nymag.com. She was a founding editor of the online magazine The Black Table and has written for the New York Law Journal, New York Post, New York Press, Bust, Maxim, and New York magazine. A native of suburban Philadelphia, she resides joyously in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Dennis Hawkins,formerly Chief of Rackets, retired from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office on April 1, 2001. Since then he has taught, written, and circumnavigated the globe as an anticorruption advisor. He is currently working on a novel about the down and dirty office politics of a large, urban prosecutor’s office.
Robert Knightlyspent his youth in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, leaving for Manhattan at the tender age of forty-four. During his Brooklyn years, he was an NYPD patrol officer and sergeant in the Brooklyn North neighborhoods of Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene — Clinton Hill, and Williamsburg. He has published three stories in the Akashic Noir Series, one of which was selected for Best American Mystery Stories 2007.
Jess Kormangrew up in Brooklyn and left at age twelve. He later wrote plays for off-Broadway and regional theater, comedy for TV shows, and he did time as a creative director on Madison Avenue. His pieces have appeared in National Lampoon and other publications. His one-man shows as a satirical singer-songwriter-pianist are often performed in Greenwich Village.
Robert Leuciworked for twenty years as an NYPD detective assigned to narcotics and organized crime. Many of those years were spent working the streets of Brooklyn. Since retirement, he has published six novels and one memoir, as well as various TV scripts, book reviews, and magazine pieces. Leuci is currently an adjunct professor in the English department of the University of Rhode Island.
Errol Louishas been a columnist for the New York Daily News since June 2004. He lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife, Juanita Scarlett, and their son, Noah Louis. His father, Edward Louis, is a retired NYPD inspector whose assignments included a stint as commanding officer of the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville.
Tim McLoughlinis the editor of the multiple — award winning anthology Brooklyn Noir and its companion volume, Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics . His novel, Heart of the Old Country , won Italy’s Premio Penne award and is the basis for the Serenade Films motion picture The Narrows . His short fiction and essays have appeared in Confrontation, A Public Space , and the Brooklyn Rail , as well as the anthologies The Subway Chronicles, New Orleans Noir, and Best American Mystery Stories 2005.
Patricia Mulcahyhas lived in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, for almost twenty years, and has owned the coffee bar and arts space Tillie’s of Brooklyn in Fort Greene since 1997. A former book publisher, she edited crime writers such as Michael Connelly and James Lee Burke. She now operates an editorial consulting company called Brooklyn Books, and is at work on a novel.
Christopher Musellahas been living and writing in Brooklyn with his wife Anne (and now their daughter Gianna) for more than twelve years.
C. J. Sullivanhas worked as an associate court clerk in the Brooklyn Supreme Court since 1994. He is also a crime reporter for the New York Post and the author of Wild Tales from the Police Blotter.
Kim Sykesis an actress and writer who regrets not living in Brooklyn. She is also a contributor to Queens Noir and is at work on her first novel.
Rosemarie Yuis a New York — based writer. She is a former legal journalist and a graduate of the New York University School of Law.
Some of the information in this essay was originally reported in “The Nine Lives of a Topless Bar: Complaints Hit a Wall of Law” by Michael Brick (New York Times, May 31, 2006) and “Strip Parlor Closes as Part of Plea Deal” by Michael Brick (New York Times , June 21, 2006).
The author of this report, Jess Korman, is a shy person. He is of the same quirky generation of television writers as Neil “Doc” Simon, with whom he shares two impulses: recounting life experience comedically, as a means of relieving pain through laughter; and hiding behind alter egos. In writing his memoir, Jess Korman employs assorted aliases. In the case of “The Creamflake Kid,” a true tale (though some names have been changed), the character Larry Sloan, né Scharfsky, a.k.a. Loo-Loo, is indeed the alter ego of a shy person .