Frank "Chick" Tricker (died April 13, 1913) was an early New York gangster who, as a member of the

Eastman Gang The Eastman Gang was the last of New York's street gangs which dominated the city's underworld during the late 1890s until the early 1910s. Along with the Five Points Gang under Italian-American Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, best known as Paul Kell ...

, served as one of its last leaders alongside Jack Sirocco. A longtime member of the Eastmans, Tricker made a name for himself as a Bowery and Park Row saloonkeeper who first came to prominence in a brawl with "Eat 'Em Up" Jack McManus, a former prizefighter and Bowery bouncer at McGurk's Suicide Hall. After insulting several dance hall girls at Paul Kelly's club New Brighton, McManus confronted Tricker at

Third Avenue Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...

and Jones Street and shot him in the leg. While Tricker was recuperating in a local hospital, McManus was ambushed and killed by Sardinia Frank only a day later. Tricker survived the gang wars of the last decade and became a prominent member under Eastman leader "Big" Jack Zelig, who was awarded control of one of the three factions of the Eastman gang. By 1910, Tricker headed his faction based at the former Stag Cafe on West 28th Street near Broadway, renaming it the Maryland Cafe. The club had a long history of violence as, only the previous year, three men had been killed in a dispute over a woman. During the so-called "Ida the Goose War", several members of his gang were killed in a confrontation with the

Gopher Gang The Gopher Gang was an early 20th-century New York street gang who counted among its members Goo Goo Knox, James "Biff" Ellison, and Owney Madden, born in England of Irish ancestry. Based in the Irish neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, the Gopher Gan ...

when Ida the Goose was abducted (or ran off with) a member of Tricker's gang. Leaving the gangs to settle the matter themselves, the Gophers eventually took her back to

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...

after a brief gunfight in the Maryland Cafe leaving six members dea

Following a failed armed robbery in 1911, Tricker and Sirocco left behind Zelig, who had been injured during the holdup, to be arrested. Instead of bailing him out, the two decided to assume control of the Eastmans. Zelig was eventually released in part to his political connections in

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

. A later attempt to murder Zelig failed when, after being informed by Ike the Plug, Zelig lured Eastman member and assassin Jules Morell into his club where he was kille

By 1912, Tricker and Sirocco were using Little Rock's pool room, at 396 Broome Street, as their headquarters. On April 13, 1913, he was shot to death by members of the "Kenmare Street Gang" in front of a factory at East 9th Street, Manhattan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tricker, Chick Year of birth missing Year of death missing Eastman Gang

Further reading

References