How I Came to Write This Story: "THE CAPE"

This story, included in the HISTORY AND MYSTERY, OH MY anthology started out as a quick little flash fiction story about Caruso's entanglement with the law when he fondled a woman at the Bronx Zoo.
In enlarging it for this anthology, I wanted to look at the incident more closely from the viewpoint of the tailor who made the fur coat (with slits for Caruso's hands) that he wore on the fateful day. How he saw the fur coat as his opportunity to increase his wealthy clientele and perhaps eventually move uptown.
It was fun looking into life on the lower east side at the turn of the last century and what a shop like his might be like.The story is true except for the parts about the tailor. It is very possible the coat was made uptown and not downtown at all. But I like to think my little tailor was responsible.

You can find this available on kindle and soon it will also be in print.