"Kid Dropper" Nathan Caplin or Kaplan (August 3, 1891 â August 28, 1923), also known as Jack the Dropper, was an American gangster who controlled labor
racketeering and
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
during the post-
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
period into the early years of
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...
in the early 1920s.
Biography
One of seven children, Kaplan was born in New York's
Lower East Side on August 3, 1891. Kaplan began committing petty theft at an early age and later becoming a skilled