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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...
Joseph Sullivan The Only Man To Escape From Attica
Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan, not to be confused with another Mad Dog, Vincent Coll, was a contract hit-man who worked for the Mafia, who prosecutors believe may have killed up to 20 people or more, he was also the only man to have ever escaped from Attica Maximum...
Diamond Jack & His Many Aliases
Diamond Jack had a fascination and love for the Western lifestyle and made his way out to Denver, Colorado to become “a peaceful rancher with persons of culture around me,”. Hank Bosco who was a young boy at the time, would take gum and rides in the passenger seat of...
Dennis “Dinny” Meehan – The Leader of the White Hand Gang
Dennis "Dinny" Meehan became leader of the White Hand Gang around 1910 and led the gang up until his death in 1920 when he was murdered, as is the occupational hazard when you choose that way of life. He was born in Brooklyn in 1889 and ran with the Warren Street Red...
Coll ambushes Carmine Borelli
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...