Edward J. McGrath (born January 31, 1906 – 1994) was an
Irish-American
, image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png
, image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state
, caption = Notable Irish Americans
, population =
36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...
crime boss from
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 ...
, who controlled the
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 ...
Irish Mob
The Irish Mob (also known as the Irish mafia or Irish organized crime) is a collective of organized crime syndicates composed of ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia, and have been in ...
and the lucrative waterfront throughout the 1940s.
Criminal career
Born to
Irish immigrant parents, McGrath grew up in the
Gashouse District on the
Lower East Side 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 ...
. In contrast to other gangsters of his era, whose childhood typically consisted of street crime and juvenile detention, his upbringing was stable. McGrath served as an
altar boy
An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helps bring up the gifts, brings up the book ...
and sang in the choir at St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Church on East
29th Street. He dropped out of school after the 10th grade to work as an
office clerk.
[How this ‘normal’ kid took over NYC’s docks through murder, intimidation](_blank)
Nick Poppy, ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' (June 20, 2017)
McGrath worked as a truck driver for
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 ...
and
Bill Dwyer. He was arrested numerous times throughout the 1920s and 1930s for offenses ranging from burglary to murder.
After serving a lengthy stretch in
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...
, McGrath ended up as an organizer for the
International Longshoremen's Association
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is a North American labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways. The ILA h ...
on the Hell's Kitchen waterfront. With the notorious Joseph P. Ryan in control of the ILA, McGrath became the primary muscle on the waterfront, with gangsters like
John "Cockeye" Dunn (who was McGrath's brother in law) and
Andrew "Squint" Sheridan as his enforcers. He became a close ally of powerful organized crime figures such as
Joe Adonis
Joseph Anthony Doto (born Giuseppe Antonio Doto, ; November 22, 1902 – November 26, 1971), known as Joe Adonis, was an Italian-American mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families in New Y ...
,
Albert Anastasia
Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (, ; ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organizat ...
, and
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...
.
Eddie McGrath was forced to abscond from New York after Dunn and Sheridan were executed for the murder of a hiring
stevedore
A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes.
After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number ...
named Andy Hintz in 1949, and the investigation of waterfront criminal activity subsequently began to escalate.
He left New York in the early 1950s and was living in Miami in 1970, when mobster Hugh Mulligan was reported to be McGrath's "on-premises manager."
McGrath's biography, ''Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront'', was written by Neil G. Clark and published by
Barricade Books
Barricade Books is an independent publishing company specializing in non-fiction titles and featuring biography, memoir, including holocaust memoirs, and true crime and Mafia titles.
History
The genesis for Barricade Books was Lyle Stuart Inc. ...
in 2017.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
1906 births
Year of death missing
American gangsters of Irish descent
American crime bosses
Gangsters from New York City
Criminals from Manhattan
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from the Lower East Side
Date of death missing
{{US-crime-bio-stub