Stories
Early Characters
Brooklyn’s Battle Row Gang Kill Officer Donoghue
Long before Brooklyn became incorporated into New York and became one the Borough's it was just as notorious as other parts of Manhattan, although the Gangs of Brooklyn wouldn't have been as well known as the Gangs of New York. The Battle Row Gang were one such gang,...
The First Gang – The Forty Thieves
The Forty Thieves were formed in 1825 and said to be the first known and oldest New York City criminal street gang. At least officially they were the first ones to have an established leadership and to be caught and recorded. The Five Points was a neighborhood in the...
Thomas Egan – Co Founder of Egans Rats of St. Louis
Thomas Egan was a St. Louis saloon keeper, politician and gangster involved in bootlegging, illegal gambling, voter intimidation, labor slugging and a whole lot of other criminal activities. The infamous Egan's Rats gang from St. Louis, Missouri was named after him,...
“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 notoriously bad reputations, and the sailors around the town gave these captains a wide berth. The three captains desperate to get sailors onto their...
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 neighborhoods in the world, the Five Points, Fourth Ward & the Bowery. At the time, America was not a friendly place for animals, dog fighting and...
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 years of age he started to work on river boats, starting at first as a deckhand, then eventually working his way up to becoming Captain of a sloop, a...
“Old Smoke” John Morrissey
"Old Smoke" John Morrissey was born in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1831. Around 1833 his parents emigrated to the U.S and settled somewhere near Troy, New York. In 1848 Morrissey moved to New York City and married the daughter of a ship's captain, Sarah...
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 to hide in the cellars of buildings in the neighbourhood. The Gophers formed in the 1890s and went on to rule the West Side between Ninth and Eleventh...
The Fatal Shooting of Beezy Garrity
In 1886 Danny Driscoll, who was co-leader of the Whyos gang was approached by 18 year old Bridget "Beezy" Garrity, who claimed she had been cheated by the owner of a bar operating within the Whyos territory in the Five Points in Lower Manhattan. Daniel "Danny"...