Page 88 - All About History - Issue 19-14

THE AL-LIFE GANGS OF EW YORK

THE BOWERY
BOYS

WHY WERE THEY CALLED THAT? They staked
their territory around the Bowery, north of
Five Points.
MEMBERS: Americans
MAIN ENEMY: Catholics and Irish immigrants;
The Dead Rabbits were their main rivals.

GANG BRUTALITY: They would guard polling
stations and brutally intimidate Irish-Catholic
immigrants to vote for their candidates.
DID YOU KNOW? They were middle-class men,
obsessed with their appearance, believing
themselves to be better than the more recent
immigrants. They ran a fire department and
were allied with the Metropolitan Police.
DOMINANT YEARS: 1840s-1860s

THEREALBILLTHEBUTCHER a highly fictionalised film
Daniel Day Lewis played
version of Bill the Butcher
“Readyforactiononalloccasions”
William ‘Bill the Butcher’ Poole was an imposing, tough Although he was a violent, strong-willed, physically fit
gangsterwhohadafirmgripontheBoweryBoysandused man described by The New York Times as “ready for action
them to further his own political ambitions. A butcher by on all occasions”, he is not believed to have killed anyone.
trade, he was a leader of the Know Nothing movement and He was no angel, though; he gouged the eyes of opponents
he was strongly against the influx of foreign immigrants, when fighting them and was part of a gang, which savagely
whichcausedhimtoclashwithJohnMorrissey,headofthe beatthebarkeeperoftheFlorence’sHotel.Hediedofashot
Dead Rabbits. woundon8March1855,aged34.

88