The Chichesters also known as the Chichester Gang, along with the
Forty Thieves Forty Thieves or 40 Thieves may refer to:
* the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Groups of people
* the Forty Thieves (New York gang), an 18th-century New York street gang
*The Forty Thieves (New York City Common Council 1852–1853)
* the ...
,
Shirt Tails
The Shirt Tails were a mid-19th-century street gang based in the Five Points slum in Manhattan, New York, United States, who wore their shirts on the outside of their pants as 19th-century Chinese laborers would dress as a form of insignia an ...
, and
Kerryonians
The Kerryonians were the second oldest criminal street gang in New York City
but may have been the first gang in the city. The members were made up of recent Irish immigrants from County Kerry, Ireland. There was also a 19th-century Philadel ...
, were one of the oldest early 19th century Irish
Five Points street gangs during the mid 19th century in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The Chichester Gang was organized by its founder
John Chichester. The gang got their start by stealing from stores and warehouses and selling the stolen goods to local fences in the 1820s and later became involved in illegal gambling and robbery. An ally of the
Dead Rabbits
The Dead Rabbits was the name of an Irish American criminal street gang active in Lower Manhattan in the 1830s to 1850s. The Dead Rabbits were so named after a dead rabbit was thrown into the center of the room during a gang meeting, prompting s ...
against the
Bowery Boys, the Chichesters maintained between 50-100 members lasting for more than 50 years before being absorbed by the
Whyos
The Whyos or Whyos Gang, a collection of the various post-Civil War street gangs of New York City, was the city's dominant street gang during the mid-late 19th century. The gang controlled most of Manhattan from the late 1860s until the early 1 ...
, much like many of the early gangs, following the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
in 1865.
References
*
Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld'', New York, 1928.
*Mohl, Raymond A. ''The Making of Urban America''. Rowman & Littlefield, 1997.
*Prime, Samuel.
Life in New York'. New York, 1847.
*Smith, Barbara. ''Radical History Review Volume 52''. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
*Trumbull, Jonathan and Nancy F. Cott. ''Prostitution: Volume 9 of History of women in the United States''. Walter de Gruyter, 1993.
*Wilentz, Sean. ''Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850''. Oxford University Press, 2004.
*''New-York Commercial Advertiser'' July 11, 1835.
*''New York Herald'' 1835-1836.
{{Organized crime groups in New York City, state=collapsed
Former gangs in New York City
Irish-American gangs