Stories
Early Characters
Patrick “Burly” Bohan & The Doctors Saloon
Patrick "Burly" Bohan was a saloon keeper and owner of The Doctor's, a popular Park Row dive bar, which was also a hotel of sorts and hangout for panhandlers and professional beggars known as the "Bowery Bums" The dive bars around the Bowery, Five Points & Hells...
The White Hand Gang at war with itself
The White Hand Gangs internal feud was a lot greater than any feud they had with the Italian Black Hand Gang, its said the White Hand Gang, who were mostly Irish were named as a play on the the Italian Black Hand Gang who had been dominate around Brooklyn at the time....
Big Tim Sullivan – As corrupt as the rest of Tammany Hall
Big Tim Sullivan was just as corrupt as you would expect from Tammany Hall whose influence back then reached deep into the corners of city government. Big Tim Sullivan along with his brother Paddy "and a truck full of Sullivan cousins" controlled everything, including...
Red Kane kills the Yellow Kid in court – Egans Rats St. Louis
Red Kane or Thomas Kane as he was known as, was a leading figure in one of the most vindictive gang wars to have ever happened in St. Louis. Red Kane was sentenced to serve a 12 year term in prison for the murder of Fred “Yellow Kid” Mohrle, who Kane had shot and...
George C. Parker – The Man Who Sold Brooklyn Bridge
George C. Parker also known as James J. O'Brien, Warden Kennedy, was a con artist born in New York to Irish immigrant parents in 1860, Parker would become best known for selling property he didnt own, notably the Brooklyn Bridge and many other national landmarks,...
John McKane Brooklyn’s very own Boss Tweed
John Y. McKane became Brooklyn's answer to Tammany Hall's Boss Tweed although McKane wouldnt be as quite well known, but his exploits were just the same. Back in the 1800's in the days when New York's Five Boroughs were still separate John Y. McKane was known as the...
Sophie Lyons – Queen of Thieves
Sophie Lyons was called the queen of thieves but while she was under the guidance of Frederika "Marm" Mandelbaum she was known as the princess of thieves. Sophie Lyons was one of Marm's best and brightest, almost like a daughter to her. Lyons would become one of the...
Boss Tweed – The Most Corrupt Politician of his Time
Boss Tweed or William Magear Tweed was legendary for his total corruption & his enormous financial takings throughout his political career in the mid 1800's and in all honesty could probably put the politicians of today to shame. Some estimates say in today's...
Ragen’s Colts – A Southside Chicago Gang
Ragen's Colts were a street gang which dominated the Chicago underworld during the early twentieth century. Made up of mainly Irish gangsters but there were also Italian, Polish and Jewish gangsters in their ranks. By the late 1920s and early '30s, the gang became...