The Gopher Gang was an early 20th-century
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
street gang
A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collective ...
who counted among its members Goo Goo Knox,
James "Biff" Ellison, and
Owney Madden
Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden (December 18, 1891 – April 24, 1965) was a British-born gangster of Irish ancestry who became a leading underworld figure in New York during Prohibition. Nicknamed "The Killer", he garnered a brutal reputation within ...
, born in England of Irish ancestry. Based in the Irish neighborhood of
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 ...
, the Gopher Gang grew to control most of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
with their territory covering
Fourth to
Forty-Second Street and
Seventh to
Eleventh Avenue.
History
Origins and early years
The Gopher Gang formed from various local street gangs in the 1890s, numbering around 500 members, into what later became a committee including Marty Brennan, Stumpy Malarkey, and
Newburg Gallegher Newburg may refer to:
* Newburg, Alabama, a List of places in Alabama: N–R#N, place in Alabama
* Newburg, Arkansas, a List of places in Arkansas: N, place in Arkansas
* Newburg, California
* Newburg, former name of Fort Dick, California
* Newburg ...
. The committee met semi-regularly at their headquarters known as
Battle Row
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
, a saloon owned by
Mallet Murphy
Mallet Murphy (fl. 1890-1900) was the pseudonym of a popular American saloon keeper and underworld figure in Hell's Kitchen, New York during the late 1890s up until the start of the 20th century. His particular nickname was attributed to his use ...
, to discuss robberies and divide profits from Manhattan
bordello
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub pa ...
s and
illegal gambling
Gaming law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, ...
operations.
[ Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. (pg. 235, 321-322) ]
Murder of William Lennon
Gallagher became involved in a three-year feud with local bartender William Lennon in 1907, their dispute being over a card game, which resulted in several violent altercations between them. The first incident between the two required Gallagher to have stitches after Lennon had repeatedly slashed his face with a knife. Gallagher later claimed that Lennon had threatened to shoot him on sight and engaged him in several gunfights including an incident in December 1909 when Lennon wounded him in a gunfight between the two.
["Fails To Save His Pal; Long Term for Brennan, Though Gallagher Admits He Killed Lennon", ''New York Times''. 24 Nov 1910.]
On May 17, 1910, he and Marty Brennan entered a saloon where Lennon was working. After another argument between the two, Lennon drew a revolver and shot Gallagher in the stomach (two of these bullets were still lodged in his body at the time of his trial). Gallagher and Brennan entered another saloon at
Eleventh Avenue and Forty-Fifth Street where, according to Gallagher, they unexpectedly encountered Lennon who was now working there. Upon spotting the two gang members, he swore at them and apparently went for his hip pocket when Gallagher pulled his pistol and fired three shots, killing him. He and Brennan left the saloon and were arrested shortly after.
Charged with manslaughter, Gallagher made a full confession, taking full responsibility for the killing, and claimed that Brennan had taken no part. The two were convicted and given long jail sentences. Gallagher, this being his first criminal offense, was sentenced to serve between 9 and 19 years imprisonment by Judge Foster on November 9, 1910. Despite his efforts, Brennan was also sentenced to 19 years due to a previous prison term in
Elmira.
One Lung Curran and decline
In the early 1910s the Gophers were led by
One Lung Curran
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
[Edwards, Jay]
"From England to Hot Springs, the life of a gangster", ''Daily Record'', March 4, 2019
/ref> who was notorious for his attacks on lone patrolmen. Although most police rarely patrolled Hell's Kitchen, and only then in large groups, Curran often stole officers' uniforms and, after taking them back to his girlfriend for alterations, would wear the stolen clothes around the neighborhood. This encouraged other gang members to steal uniforms for themselves, becoming a sort of trend among the prominent gang members.[ English, T.J. ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. (pg. 111, 115-116, 118-119) ]
The gang began employing younger apprentice gang members such as the Baby Gophers
An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...
and other gangs subordinate to the Gophers. These included the Parlor Mob, the Gorillas
Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...
, and the Rhodes Gang as well as a female gang known as the "Lady Gophers", led by Battle Annie
Annie Walsh (fl. 1870–1880), known under the pseudonym Battle Annie, was an American outlaw and member of the Gopher Gang. A well-known outlaw figure described in the press as "The Queen of Hell's Kitchen" and "the most feared brick hurler of ...
.strikebreakers
A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the str ...
during the next decade. With the death of One Lung Curran in 1917, the gang declined in power, breaking up after most of the gang leaders were arrested by the end of the year.
Popular culture
The 2002 film ''Gangs of New York
''Gangs of New York'' is a 2002 American epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book '' The Gangs of New York''. The film stars Le ...
'' directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...
provided a fictionalized history of the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
-era origin of the competing Irish immigrant crime crews which dominated Five Points. The film explains the social tradition of enduring, if not actually shielding, Irish gangs in Manhattan's Irish-American neighborhoods.
References
External links
Gophers, Goose Chasers, and the Early Years of Owney Madden
by Allen May
{{Organized crime groups in New York City
Former gangs in New York City
Irish-American gangs
Irish-American culture in New York City