From Ken Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University; Editor, The Encyclopedia of New York City:

"On Gangs of New York, I spoke with Professor Eric Monkonnen of UCLA, the expert of violence in NYC in history, and he said that in the entire year of 1846, there were only ten homicides in New York. In the gang fight at the beginning of the movie, there seemed to be dozens of dead bodies on the field of combat."

More to come....