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The Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties. The Prohibition Laws, the Eighteenth Amendment & Volstead Act, had just been passed banning the sale of alcohol across the United States but it was largely ignored in the cities, New York, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis etc.Before Prohibition...
George Cassiday – The Bootlegger to Congress
George Cassiday was born in 1892 and fought in the First World War and a founder of the Irish Veterans Association upon his return after the war, he found employment difficult after the war and almost by accident he became a bootlegger, he would also become known as...
“Jelly Roll” Hogan & The Hogan Gang – St. Louis
Edward "Jelly Roll" Hogan was the leader of the Hogan Gang and arch enemy of the Egan's Rats Gang in St. Louis, Hogan and his gang strong armed their way into the illegal alcohol business and had many running battles with members of Egans Rats along the way. And like...
Martin Cahill “The General” – Godfather of Crime
"The General" Martin Cahill was a criminal from Dublin, a burglar, armed robber & art thief, who was eventually assassinated in 1994 by the IRA. This story was the subject to a book by Paul Williams and a highly acclaimed 1998 movie starring Brendan Gleeson and...
Jacob Riis – Photographed The Gangs of New York
Jacob Riis was born in Denmark in 1849 and emigrated to the US in the 1870's, he was a pioneer in photography, a social reformer and journalist. He pioneered his use of photography and journalism to bring social changes in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where...
Dandy Johnny Dolan – More Than a Comic Book Character
Dandy Johnny Dolan was the subject of a Simon & Kirby comic book in the 1940's, based on the life and crimes of the real John Dolan, who was born in 1849 in Lower Manhattan, he became the leader of one of the most notorious gangs in the mid to late 1800's, The...
The Dead Rabbits & The 1857 Riot
The Dead Rabbits were a street gang in Lower Manhattan in the 1850s, whose members were mostly Irish. The were also named the "Mulberry Boys" and the "Mulberry Street Boys" by the NYPD because they did also operate along Mulberry Street in the Five Points. They were...
The hit on Johnny Torrio
On the afternoon of January 24, 1925, the Czar of bootlegging and vice in Chicago, Johnny Torrio and his wife Anna pull up to their apartment building, 7011 Clyde Avenue, in a black chauffeured Lincoln around 4.30pm. Anna stepped out of the car and walked to the...
Little Augie Orgen’s Fatal Mistake
It’s believed the partnership between Jack “Legs” Diamond and Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen started when Jack cut Little Augie into his narcotic and bootlegging business, for a slice of Little Augie’s Labor Union racket. This deal didn’t sit well with Little Augie’s top...