The Daybreak Boys was a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
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 gunfights in 1858. By the end of 1859 the gang, having lost much of its membership, was eventually broken up. Many of its members later became prominent criminals during the next several decades.
Depictions in fiction
The Daybreak Boys, under the leadership of "Nick Saul and Billie Howlett," are brought to life in Chapter XVIII of
MacKinlay Kantor
MacKinlay Kantor (February 4, 1904 – October 11, 1977), born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded th ...
's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ''
Andersonville'' (1955). The execution by hanging of Saul and Howlett is also depicted.
See also
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B'hoy and g'hal
''B'hoy'' and ''g'hal'' (meant to evoke an Irish pronunciation of ''boy'' and ''gal'', respectively) were the prevailing slang words used to describe the young men and women of the rough-and-tumble working class culture of Lower Manhattan in the ...
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Bowery Boys
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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 ...
*
Plug Uglies
The Plug Uglies were an American Know Nothing, Nativist criminal street gang, sometimes referred to loosely as a political club, that operated in the west side of Baltimore, Maryland, from 1854 to 1865. The Plug Uglies gang name came from the en ...
*''
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 ...
''
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Sadie Farrell
Resources
*Sifakis, Carl. Encyclopedia of American Crime, New York, Facts on File Inc., 1982
1840s in New York City
1850s in New York City
Organizations established in the 1840s
1840s establishments in New York (state)
Organizations disestablished in 1859
1859 disestablishments in New York (state)
Former gangs in New York City
American pirates
19th-century pirates
{{Organized crime groups in New York City