Stories
Notorious
McGurks Suicide Hall – The Bowery
McGurks Suicide Hall located at 295 the Bowery in New York was a notorious dive bar and hotel run by John McGurk a native of County Antrim, Ireland. McGurk owned a string of saloons, each one closed down by the police, however his saloon at 295 Bowery would become his...
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....
Mad Dog Coll v Borrelli
February 12, 1930, the Schultz-Coll war began with the shooting of Carmine Borelli, one of Dutch Schultz’s top lieutenants, and Mayme Layton aka Mary Smith, on Inwood Ave, the Bronx. Apparently Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll believed Borelli knew of Coll’s war plans against...
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...
Henry Hill – The Goodfella Informant
Henry Hill, best known to most people as the character played by Ray Liotta in Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece Goodfella's, which itself was based on Henry Hill's life story as told by Nicholas Pileggi in his book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family. Born in New York...
The Ballymount Bloodbath
The Ballymount Bloodbath is an incident that happened between two groups in a warehouse in Dublin on the 6th October 1999 and would lead to a series of tit for tat revenge killings between the groups. The Ballymount Bloodbath was a day when six men were kidnapped,...
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,...
William “Big Bill” Dwyer – Bootlegger
William Vincent "Big Bill" Dwyer was born and raised Hell’s Kitchen, although he would avoid the temptations of quick money and the gangster lifestyle. Bill Dwyer was a hard-working young man. He finished school and then went to work for a time as an usher before...
Lucky Luciano & The Rothstein Questioning
November 19, 1928, just thirteen days after Arnold Rothstein’s murder, “Charlie Lucky” Lucania aka Charles Luciano was arrested along with George Uffner, a narcotic associate of Charlie and Rothstein, and Thomas “Fatty” Walsh. They were accused of a payroll robbery of...