Was "The Gangs of New York" based on any historic fact?

[barneysdad]

Was "The Gangs of New York" based on any historic fact?

[Donquixote]

Yeah, to a certain degree. It was based mainly on a book by Herbert Asbury, and many of the characters and reference points in the film were historical fact. Bill The Butcher was real, for example, as was the Five Points and Tammany Hall. However, as usual, the Hollywood effect embelished the truth with a liberal sprinkling of fairy dust too! Go to www.wikipedia.org and type in a few keywords (like Five Points, Dead Rabbits, Bill The Butcher, etc)...there's some good stuff on there.

[Drusilla]

This is a very interesting piece and shows how historical events and characters were used, even though some, like Bill the Butcher, had been murdered ten years before the period portrayed in the film and that Brendan Gleason's character was really Jewish and lived 60 years after the events portrayed.

http://www.herbertasbury.com/gangsofnewyork/

[lionelhutz]

yeah the five points bit and the whole amsterdam thing is real.