Publisher's Synopsis
The Coves - San Francisco's first organised-crime gang - were Australians: men and women with criminal careers in Australia who had come to the US, mostly illegally, during the gold rush. The Coves had come not to dig for gold but to unleash a crime wave the likes of which America had never seen. Robbery, murder, arson and extortion were the Coves' stock-in-trade, and it was said that the leader of the gang, Jim Stuart, had killed more men than any man in California. The gang's base, in the waterfront district, came to be known as Sydney Town. The area was a no-go zone for police - many of whom were in Stuart's pocket anyway - so, just as Capone would one day rule Chicago, the Coves ruled San Francisco. And more than once, just to make sure there was no doubt that Frisco was their town, they burnt it down. The Coves were hated and feared by the respectable citizens of San Francisco - who derisively called them 'Sydney Ducks' but never
