Mercy Row

Mercy Row is a novel set in 1920s and ’30s Philadelphia. It is the story of the rise of a North Philadelphia crime family that was also responsible for building the homes and factories that make up this blue-collar area of the city. Despite the violent trials and tribulations caused by rival gangs from South Philadelphia and Chicago, Jacob Byrne and Franklin Garrett, with the help of the Irish immigrants who settled the Kensington area, build a formidable Irish mob.

Mercy Row is a novel set in 1920s and ’30s Philadelphia. It is the story of the rise of a North Philadelphia crime family that was also responsible for building the homes and factories that make up this blue-collar area of the city. Despite the violent trials and tribulations caused by rival gangs from South Philadelphia and Chicago, Jacob Byrne and Franklin Garrett, with the help of the Irish immigrants who settled the Kensington area, build a formidable Irish mob. This legal and criminal enterprise kept North Philadelphia free from the mafia for two generations. Jacob's and Franklin's organization was built on the blood of those who opposed them, the sweat of the laborers who built North Philly and the tears of the wives and mothers whose loved ones were lost in the struggle.

Author’s Biography Harry Hallman Hallman wrote this book in 2012, when he was 68 years old. This is his first novel. Hallman was born in 1944 and raised in the Kensington section of North Philadelphia. His father was Harry Hallman, Sr., a champion billiards player who also owned a poolroom called Circle Billiards, located at Allegheny Avenue and Lee Street. The younger Hallman spent many hours after school at his father's pool hall. These youthful experiences laid the groundwork for his novel Mercy Row, including the colorful language in the text. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force, including two tours in South Vietnam as a photographer. He is married to Duoc Hallman, whom he met in Vietnam, and has two children, Bill and Nancy, and one grandchild, Ava. Hallman is a serial entrepreneur who has created several marketing services companies and continues to work as a marketing consultant. "My favorite possession, from my childhood, is a baby book my sister gave my mother (Florence) when I was born. There is a passage in this book, written by my mother in 1991 when I was 47, that seems to sum up what I have endeavored to be all my life. It reads, ‘Bud [my childhood name] grew up to be a great boy and man. Gruff, but a heart as big as could be.’ “This is what a man from the Kensington section of Philadelphia is." "In all things, endeavor not to be average." HH