Jack McManus (born Thomas McManus, March 24, 1862 – May 26, 1905), also known as Eat 'Em Up, was a noted

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 ...

gangster around the turn of the 20th century.

Life

Born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, he was considered one of the premier boxers of the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

, rivaled only by

Monk Eastman Edward "Monk" Eastman (1875 – December 26, 1920) was a New York City gangster who founded and led the Eastman Gang in the late 19th and early 20th century; it became one of the most powerful street gangs in the city. His aliases included Jose ...

, McManus started off as a

prize fighter Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

only to begin work in as a bouncer in the dives of

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

, including "Suicide Hall" and "New Brighton". Eat 'Em Up Jack became known as the right-hand man of Paul Kelly, leader of the

Five Points Gang The Five Points Gang was a criminal street gang of primarily Irish-American origins, based in the Five Points of Lower Manhattan, New York City, during the late 19th and early 20th century. Paul Kelly, born Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, was an It ...

. Always dressed in the finest clothes, McManus cut a fearsome figure around New York until May 1905, when he met his end after a brawl with gangster

Chick Tricker Frank "Chick" Tricker (died April 13, 1913) was an early New York gangster who, as a member of the Eastman Gang, served as one of its last leaders alongside Jack Sirocco. A longtime member of the Eastmans, Tricker made a name for himself as a Bo ...

. After shooting Tricker in a street brawl outside the New Brighton dance hall, Eat 'Em Up Jack was beaten to death in the

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...

by an underworld character known as Sardinia Frank, who crept up behind the gangster and bashed in his skull with a lead pipe.

In popular culture

*Eat 'Em Up Jack McManus in a minor character in the 1994 novel ''

The Alienist ''The Alienist'' is a crime novel by Caleb Carr first published in 1994 and is the first book in the Kreizler series. It takes place in New York City in 1896, and includes appearances by many famous figures of New York society in that era, inc ...

'' by

Caleb Carr Caleb Carr (born August 2, 1955) is an American military historian and author. Carr is the second of three sons born to Lucien Carr and Francesca Von Hartz. He authored ''The Alienist'', ''The Angel of Darkness'', ''The Lessons of Terror'', ''K ...

References

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 U ...

, ''The Gangs of New York'', New York, 1928 * "Gang Kills 'Eat-'Em Up' Jack M'Manus," ''The Evening World'' (NYC), May 26, 1905 {{DEFAULTSORT:McManus, Jack 1905 deaths Deaths by beating in the United States Bare-knuckle boxers Five Points Gang Boxers from New York City American male boxers 1862 births

Life

In popular culture

See also

References