James "Spike" O'Toole was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts to Irish parents, who were both from County Cork, Ireland....
Spike O’Toole
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“Shanghai” Kelly’s Birthday Bash in the Barbary Coast
In the mid 1850's three ships sat stationary on San Francisco Bay with no crew on board. The captains of the ships had...
John Connolly – When the good guys go bad
From the bad guys to the really bad guys and what makes this bad guy bad is that he was supposed to be a good guy, a...
Jimmy whacks Whitey Whitehead in the Plaka Bar
Harold "Whitey" Whitehead was a native of Queens but knew many of the Hell's Kitchen crowd, he was 38 years and had...
Henry Bergh Shuts Down The Rat Pit
Henry Bergh was born on the Lower East Side in 1813, the Lower East Side in the 1800's had some of the most notorious...
Charlie & Carol Gasko Your Average Elderly Neighbors
Charlie & Carol Gasko, according to neighbors were nothing special just an average elderly couple living an...
Captain Isaiah Rynders – The First Political Boss
Isaiah Rynders was born in January 1804 in Waterford, New York to an Irish mother and German father. At around 12...
“Old Smoke” John Morrissey
"Old Smoke" John Morrissey was born in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1831. Around 1833 his parents...
The Gopher Gang of Hell’s Kitchen
The Gopher Gang were one of Hell’s Kitchen’s most brutal gangs. They were given the name "Gophers" because they used...