History on the Hudson: 250 Years of Hudson County History

The Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, in conjunction with the New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Free Public Library, presents a lecture series in celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. For five months across the Spring and Summer of 2026, we will spend the first Thursday evening with a speaker on a wide range of Hudson County topics across our nation’s first 250 years.

First up, on May 7, Michael Maring presents:

Lawman to Kingpin: Prohibition, Power, and the Unsolved Murder of George Affuso

During Prohibition, North Bergen became a battleground for bootleggers, political power brokers, and rival gangs operating in the shadow of New York City. This lecture traces the dramatic rise of George Affuso, a North Bergen police officer turned beer-running kingpin, whose influence reshaped the local underworld before ending in a deadly shootout that remains officially unsolved. This program explores how one man’s story reveals the larger tensions of law, loyalty, and survival in Hudson County during the 1920s and early 1930s.