Page 87 - All About History - Issue 19-14

THE AL-LIFE GANGS OF EW YORK

New York’s affairs and would, if it could, strip the
Living space in the
Irish of US citizenship. His men would frequently KERRYONIANS Five Points was
rig elections and seize ballot boxes, so Isalah inhospitably crowded
Rynders employed Morrissey and the Dead
WHY WERE THEY CALLED THAT? The gang’s
Rabbits to prevent this from happening. The two
members predominantly came from County
groups became sworn enemies and, inflaming the Kerry in Ireland.
situation further, was a personal grudge between
Morrissey and Poole that stemmed from the MEMBERS: Irish immigrants
butcher placing a bet against Morrissey in his fight
MAIN ENEMY: Anyone of British descent.
against Sullivan in 1853.
The feud reached a climax in 1854, when they GANG BRUTALITY: Much of their time was spent
agreed to settle their differences as they believed beating up and mugging British people.
real men should; in a boxing match. During the
DID YOU KNOW? They frequently gathered at
fight Poole beat Morrissey to such an extent that
Rosanna Peers’ grocery store, rarely venturing
sight in one of his eyes was irreparably damaged. much further.
In retaliation Morrissey’s friend, Lew Baker, blasted
Poole in the chest with a gun some months later, DOMINANT YEARS: 1825-1830s
causing a wound so deep that he died following
two weeks of agonising pain.
Many gang members
These bloody events and the subsequent ongoing ended up in Manhattan’s DAYBREAK BOYS
skirmishes between the Dead Rabbits and the detention centre
Bowery Boys were mere child’s play compared to
the evening of 4 July 1857. Just a short while after WHY WERE THEY CALLED THAT? They operated
before dawn.
the battle with the Metropolitan cops, the Dead
Rabbits raided a saloon run by the Bowery Boys MEMBERS: Teenage Americans
and another city gang called the Atlantic Guards.
They assaulted the building with stones, bricks MAIN ENEMY: Five Points Gang.
and clubs, smashing windows to fragments and
GANG BRUTALITY: Police suspected them
pummelling at the doors with such force that they
of stealing up to $200,000 of goods and
began to give way. The Bowery Boys and Atlantic murdering between 20 and 40 people.
Guards retaliated with fury, and hell was unleashed.
Fights spilled on to the city’s streets as hundreds of DID YOU KNOW? They often operated on the
East River on boats as pirates.
gang members tore into each other, fists pounding
faces; clubs battering bodies; bullets cracking over DOMINANT YEARS: 1840s-1850s
the tremendous noise of shouting and bravado. The

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