The Iron Will Of Shoeshine Cats by Hesh Kestin

Summary

Russell Newhouse was a bright boy, who turned out to be less bright in matters other than his studies. He was generally pretty good at working out the whole business of choosing his women, but he had no idea about sorting out a good exit strategy.  Moving on from Celeste Callinan showed what a problem that could be. She had three Irish brothers who thought they would show Russell their displeasure in the traditional way. Nothing like a good beating and the spilling of blood to uphold the family honour.

Helping out a notorious Jewish hoodlum, Shoeshine Cats, wasn’t the wisest thing a college boy could have done either. Russell was left with no choice in what happened after that.  At least he had Ira-Myra Kaminsky to make sure he stayed safe. Then, although he hadn’t realised he would need one, a lawyer by the name of Fritz von Zeppelin turned up to keep him out trouble, even before he knew District Attorney Dolores Gray had it in for him. But having the hots for Shoeshine’s sister, Esther Cats, was just a complete frustration.