Louis Malley was born and raised in New York City. He lived in Harlem, the Bronx and Little Italy neighborhoods, where he got involved with the gangs. He eventually left the streets to take on various jobs including writing political slogans and working as a bouncer at a 125th Street bar. Malley wrote four gritty novels set in the world he grew up in, beginning with the hardback publication of Horns for the Devil in 1951, which received the French Grand Prix de Littèrature Policièrein in 1953. His last novel, The Love Mill, appeared in 1961. According to a newspaper report, Malley was shot and killed in 1962 at age 40.