The Gas House Gang 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 late nineteenth century.
Founded in the 1890s, the Gas House Gang was based in the
Gas House district 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 ...
and controlled the area along Third Avenue from 11th to 18th Street. Specializing in armed robbery, the gang was estimated to have committed between 30 and 40 robberies a night as well as extorting money from local residents and operating
brothels
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 ...
. The gang continued to control the district for over two decades until it was eventually absorbed by 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 ...
in 1910.
References
;Bibliography
*
Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928.
*English, T.J. ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
*Fried, Albert. ''The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.
;Further reading
*Myers, Gustavus. ''The History of Tammany Hall''. New York: Boni & Liveright Inc., 1917.
*Werner, M.R. ''Tammany Hall''. New York: Garden City, 1932.
Former gangs in New York City
{{Organized crime groups in New York City