Beadle's Dime Library No. 740

This 1892 dime novel serial, "Against Terrible Odds: A Romance of the Wolves of New York," depicts a detective crime story set in New York's Bowery. Captain Clew, a celebrated detective, arrests One-Eyed Thompson on counterfeit charges while secretly investigating the notorious "Black Star Gang"—a sophisticated criminal organization comprising professional criminals, forgers, and corrupt lawyers, politicians, and judges. The gang targets wealthy, heirless real-estate owners for murder, using fraudulent mortgages and forged documents to seize their properties. Clew rescues a wealthy gentleman, Emil Lestrange (the "Count"), from an assassination attempt in an alleyway and warns him that his lawyer, Isaac Bat, and real-estate agent Tony Goebling are gang members. The detective outlines the organization's scheme, explaining how they obtain victims' signatures and orchestrate deaths to appear natural before executing fraud.