During the Prohibition era many women saw a gangster husband die, or perhaps a couple of brothers. But one woman, Anna Lonergan, who's beauty was such that she was known as the "Irish Rose of the Waterfront", saw two husbands, a brother, and her father, all put on the spot.

She was born into a crime family. Her uncle was John "Yake Yakes" Brady, who led his own Lower Eastside gang known as the Yake Yakes. One of the gang members was Anna's father John Lonergan.

John Lonergan moved his family from the Lower East Side across the East River to Irish Town, where he would swear allegiance to the Jay Street Gang. Anna's mother, also named Anna, said that her husband John cheated, gambled and drank. He also physically abused the kids, of which there were 13, reportedly. "He beat the children so often, I guess it was a habit," Mrs. Lonergan said. It should be mentioned that she made this statement about her husband after she was arrested for shooting him to death on their 30th wedding anniversary.

Mrs. Lonergan would eventually be acquitted for the murder. She said she killed Mr. Lonergan to put an end to the continued cruelty to herself and her children. Anna, while visiting her incarcerated mother, struck up a relationship with another inmate, "Wild" Bill Lovett. In time, one thing led to another and after a brief courtship, the two were married. Vowing to lead a clean and sober life, Bill and his new bride moved to Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.

Saturday mornings might find the Lovetts on a trolley car headed towards Ft. Lee, to hike in the Palisades. All was blissful until, after a while, Bill made the fatal mistake of returning to the wilds of Brooklyn on a two day bender. His past caught up with him and he was killed while sleeping off a drunk in a dingy shanty.

Less then a year later Anna was back in Brooklyn and married to Mathew "Matty" Martin, another member of the White Hand Gang, now headed by her brother, Richard Lonergan.

Richard had lost the bottom of his leg in an accident involving a train. The rail road company responsible paid him $6,200, which his father quickly squandered, according to Mrs. Lonergan's testimony. Though the money was lost, the accident provided Richard with the sobriquet he would forever be remembered by, "Peg-Leg".

Peg-Leg's reign as leader of the White Hand Gang lasted slightly longer than two years before he was gunned down with some pals in a speakeasy by Al Capone. The day of his funeral Anna had additional worries when Matty was arrested on gun possession charges. As her brother was being lowered into the ground, her husband was booked at the police station. He was then shipped off to prison.

A few years later Matty was released and murdered his way to the number one spot in the White Hand Gang, the same position previously held by Anna's first husband and her brother. Knowing that there is only one outcome for the leader of the White Hand Gang, Anna could not have been surprised when word reached her that her second husband had been shot while drinking in a speakeasy.