Hook Gang
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Hook Gang
The Hook Gang was a street gang, and later a band of river pirates, active in New York City in the 1860s and 1870s. The gang was prominent in the Fourth Ward and Corlear's Hook districts immediately after the American Civil War, until their breakup by the New York City Police Department in 1876. History The Hook Gang was formed during the mid-1860s following the American Civil War. Based from New York's Corlear's Hook waterfront on the East River, the gang numbered between 50 and 100 members including James Coffee, Terry Le Strange, Suds Merrick and Tommy Shay. The gang became known for attacking and hijacking shipping. One early robbery took place when James Coffee and Tommy Shay forced a local eight-man rowing club at gunpoint to row the boat to the Brooklyn shore. Within 50 yards of the shore, the rowing team were ordered to jump out and swim to the beach while Coffee and Shay escaped with the boat. One gang member, Slipsey Ward, was arrested and imprisoned at Auburn Pr ...
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River Pirates
A river pirate is a pirate who operates along a river. The term has been used to describe many different kinds of pirate groups who carry out riverine attacks in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. They are usually prosecuted under national, not international law. Asia China In Asia, river piracy is a major threat even today. The "Yangtze Patrol", from 1854 to 1949, was a prolonged naval operation, protecting American treaty ports and U.S. citizens along the Yangtze River from river pirates and Chinese insurgents. During the 1860s and 1870s, American merchant ships were prominent on the lower Yangtze, operating inland up to the deepwater port of Hankou . In 1874, the U.S. gunboat reached as far as Ichang, at the foot of the Yangtze gorges, from the sea. In this period, most US personnel found a tour in the Yangtze to be uneventful, as a major American shipping company had sold its interests to a Chinese firm, leaving the patrol with little to protect. ...
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East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens on Long Island from the Bronx on the North American mainland, and also divides Manhattan from Queens and Brooklyn, also on Long Island.Hodges, Godfrey. "East RIver" in Jackson, pp.393–93 Because of its connection to Long Island Sound, it was once also known as the ''Sound River''. The tidal strait changes its direction of flow frequently, and is subject to strong fluctuations in its current, which are accentuated by its narrowness and variety of depths. The waterway is navigable for its entire length of , and was historically the center of maritime activities in the city. Formation and description Technically a drowned valley, like the other waterways around New York City, the strait was formed approximately 11,000 years ago at the e ...
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Herbert Asbury
Herbert Asbury (September 1, 1891 – February 24, 1963) was an American journalist and writer best known for his books detailing crime during the 19th and early-20th centuries, such as ''Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld'', ''The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld'', ''Sucker's Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America'' and ''The Gangs of New York''. ''The Gangs of New York'' was later adapted for film as Martin Scorsese's ''Gangs of New York'' (2002). However, the film adaptation of ''Gangs of New York'' was so loose that ''Gangs'' was nominated for "Best Original Screenplay" rather than as a screenplay adapted from another work. Early life Born in Farmington, Missouri, he was raised in a highly religious family which included several generations of devout Methodist preachers. His great-great uncle was Francis Asbury, the first bishop of the Methodist Church to be ordained in the United States. When ...
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George Gastlin
George W. Gastlin born George Washington Gastlin (October 1, 1835 – October 2, 1895) was an American law enforcement officer and police captain, with the New York City Police Department, who founded the " Steamboat Squad" and served as its commander, during the 1870s and 80s. Early life Gastlin joined the 82nd New York Infantry Regiment as a corporal on May 21, 1861. He was promoted to sergeant before being discharged for disability on May 20, 1862. Police career He joined the NYPD on May 19, 1864, less than a year after the New York Draft Riots, and gradually rose up the ranks over the next few years being promoted to roundsman on February 15, 1868, and then sergeant on July 6, 1870. On June 9, 1876, Gastlin was appointed as head of the "Steamboat Squad", a special police unit formed to combat River pirates and street gangs active on the New York waterfront, Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf ...
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Sadie Farrell
Sadie FarrellO'Kane, James M. ''The Crooked Ladder: Gangsters, Ethnicity and the American Dream''. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1994. (pg. 49, 52); (fl. 1869) was an alleged semi- folklorish American criminal, gang leader and river pirate known under the pseudonym Sadie the Goat. Criminal career She is believed to have been a vicious street mugger in New York's "Bloody" Fourth Ward. Upon encountering a lone traveler, she would headbutt like a charging goat a man in the stomach, and her male accomplice would hit the victim with a slungshot and then rob him. Sadie, according to popular underworld lore, was engaged in a long-time feud with a tough, six-feet-tall female bouncer known as Gallus Mag, who finally bit off Sadie's ear in a bar fight, as Mag was known to do, albeit usually with male trouble-makers. Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf (1928), pp. 58-60; Batterberry, M ...
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Patsy Conroy
Patrick Conway (c. 1846– ????), commonly known by his alias Patsy or Patsy Conroy, was an American burglar and river pirate. He was the founder and leader of the Patsy Conroy Gang, a gang of river pirates active on the New York waterfront in the old Fourth Ward and Corlears' Hook districts during the post-American Civil War era. Two fellow members of his gang, Denny Brady and Larry Griffin, later assumed control but he participated in their raiding towns in Westchester County. He and Larry Griffin were eventually convicted of robbing the home of Robert Emmet in White Plains in 1874, as well as Denny Brady in Catskill the same year, resulting in the gang's breakup. Biography Conroy was described in Philip Farley's ''Criminals of America, Or, Tales of the Lives of Thieves: Enabling Every One to be His Own Detective'' (1876) as being "of Irish origin and a burglar. He is 30 years of age, five feet seven inches high, has black hair, gray eyes, several India-ink marks on h ...
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Daybreak Boys
The Daybreak Boys was a New York City street gang during the mid nineteenth century. History Formed in the late 1840s, by 1852 the teenaged Daybreak Boys were suspected by police to have been responsible for 20 to 40 murders between 1850 and 1852 as well as stealing goods estimated at $200,000. The gang was said to have a prospective member kill at least one man as a requirement for joining. Newspapers at the time report, perhaps with some exaggeration, that many gang members may have been as young as 12. Under the leadership of members such as Nicholas Saul, Bill Howlett, Patsy the Barber, Slobbery Jim, "Cowlegged" Sam McCarthy, and Sow Madden, the gang was known for its reputation of unprovoked murder and sabotaging ships and other property, regardless of value, along the New York waterfront. The gang's actions would soon force police to take action against them. Led by New York police officers Blair, Spratt, and Gilbert, over 12 gang members were killed in several gunf ...
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Charlton Street Gang
The Charlton Street Gang was a group of river pirates on the Hudson River in New York City during the mid-19th century. The Charlton Street Gang were one of the earliest river pirate gangs. They raided small cargo ships in the North River of New York Harbor during the post-Civil War period of the 1860s. After a time the ocean liners and major shipping vessels around the Manhattan west side dockyards became so well protected that the gang moved upriver. In 1869, under the leadership of Sadie the Goat, the gang stole a sloop, and soon began raiding merchant ships and homes along the Hudson River, from the Harlem River as far as Poughkeepsie, New York. Flying the flag of the Jolly Roger, the gang was extremely successful. They became known for kidnapping wealthy men, women and children for ransom. According to newspapers of the period, Sadie the Goat allegedly had forced several male victims to walk the plank. However, after several victims had been murdered by the g ...
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Auburn Prison
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility. History Constructed in 1816 as Auburn Prison, it was the second state prison in New York (after New York City's Newgate, 1797–1828), the site of the first execution by electric chair in 1890, and the namesake of the "Auburn system," a correctional system in which prisoners were housed in solitary confinement in large rectangular buildings, and performed penal labor under silence that was enforced at all times. The prison was renamed the Auburn Correctional Facility in 1970. The prison is among the oldest functional prisons in the United States. In its early years, the prison charged a fee to tourists in order to raise funds for the prison. Eventually, to discourage most visitors, the fee was increased. Auburn system In contrast with the purely reformatory type pris ...
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Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behind New York County (Manhattan). Brooklyn is also New York City's most populous borough,2010 Gazetteer for New York State
. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
with 2,736,074 residents in 2020. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, Brooklyn is located on the w ...
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Tommy Shay
Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 film), a British operetta film based on the Who's album ''Tommy'' * ''Tommy'' (2015 film), a Telugu drama film * ''Tommy'' (TV series), a 2020 American drama series Literature * ''Tommy'' (King poem), by Stephen King, 2010 * ''Tommy'' (Kipling poem), by Rudyard Kipling, 1892 Music * ''Tommy'' (The Who album), 1969 ** ''Tommy'' (London Symphony Orchestra album), 1972 ** ''Tommy'' (soundtrack), a soundtrack to the 1975 film ** ''The Who's Tommy'', a stage production, premiered 1992 * ''Tommy'' (The Wedding Present album), 1988 * ''Tommy'' (Dosh album), 2010 * ''Tommy'' (EP), a 2017 EP by Klein * ''Tommy'', a 2022 EP by Kiesza * ''Tommy'', a 1965 album by Tommy Adderley * ''Tommy'', a 1970 EP by The Who * "Tommy", a 1991 song by ...
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