The Whyos or Whyos Gang, a collection of the various post-

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 policies ...

street gangs of

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 ...

, was the city's dominant street gang during the mid-late 19th century. The gang controlled 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 ...

from the late 1860s until the early 1890s, when the

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 Jos ...

Gang defeated the last of the Whyos. The name came from the gang's cry, which sounded like a bird or owl calling, "Why-oh!"

Origins

Consisting largely of criminals ranging from pickpockets to murderers, the Whyos were formed from what remained of the old Five Points street gangs following the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

campaigns against gang activity, particularly from 1866–1868. Originally forming from members of the

Chichesters The Chichesters also known as the Chichester Gang, along with the Forty Thieves, Shirt Tails, and Kerryonians, were one of the oldest early 19th century Irish Five Points street gangs during the mid 19th century in New York City. The Chichester ...

, the gang began absorbing other former rivals and soon dominated New York's Fourth Ward, an Irish slum notorious for its crime, by the early 1870s. The Whyos had several leaders, but longest reigning were

Danny Lyons Danny Lyons (1860 – August 21, 1888) was, along with Danny Driscoll, the leader of the Whyos street gang during the 1870s and 1880s. Whyos Gang A prominent member of the Whyos, Whyos Gang, a New York City street gang, Lyons led the gan ...

(arrested for the murder of gangster

Joseph Quinn Joseph Quinn ( – July 5, 1887) was a New York clerk, amateur wrestler and murder victim of Danny Lyons, a co-leader of the Whyos street gang. Early life Although reportedly described as a pimp and rival Five Points thug, Quinn is described in ...

), his girlfriend ("Pretty" Kitty McGowan) and

Danny Driscoll Daniel "Danny" Driscoll also known by his alias George Wallace (1855 – January 23, 1888) was an American criminal and co-leader of the Whyos Gang with Danny Lyons. The two held joint control over the street gang following the death of Mike M ...

(hanged at

Tombs Prison A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immuremen ...

for the death of Beezy Garrity during a gunfight with rival Five Points gangster Johnny McCarthy). The member

were predominantly Irish but, unlike the previous Irish gangs, victimized anyone, not just

white Anglo-Saxon Protestant In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPs are an ethnoreligious group who are the white, upper-class, American Protestant historical elite, typically of British descent. WASPs dominated American society, culture, and politics ...

s. Driscoll and Lyons eventually decreed that in order to be a real Whyo, the person must have killed at least once. They were so powerful that most of the other gangs at the time had to ask their permission to operate.

Early years

The headquarters shifted many times throughout the years: "Dry Dollar" Sullivan's

Chrystie Street Chrystie Street is a street on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Chinatown, Manhattan, Chinatown, running as a continuation of Second Avenue (Manhattan), Second Avenue from Houston Street, for seven blocks south to Canal Street (Manhattan), Canal ...

saloon, a churchyard at Prince and

Mott Street Mott Street () is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is regarded as Chinatown's unofficial " Main Street". Mott Street runs from Bleecker Street in the north to ...

s, and its original headquarters the notorious

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 ...

dive known as The Morgue. The tavern was the scene of at least 100 violent murders in its early years, as hour-long gunfights between drunken gang members would frequently occur. During the 1870s, the gang would include some of the most notorious gangsters of the era, including

Red Rocks Farrell John "Red Rocks" Farrell (–?) was an American criminal, thief and member of the Whyos, a prominent New York street gang during the mid-to late 19th century. One of the more colorful members of the gang at the height of its power, he spent ne ...

, Clops Connolly, "Big" Josh Hines,

Hoggy Walsh Matthew James Hoggard, (born 31 December 1976) is a former English cricketer, who played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000 to 2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day Internationals. The 6' 2" Hoggard was a right arm ...

, Piker Ryan, Dorsey Doyle, Bull Hurley, Fig McGerald, and Googy Corcoran. Many of the gangsters were among the first to use present day methods that would later be adopted by rival gangs, and eventually organized crime organizations in the early twentieth century. One notable example is Josh Hines, often seen wearing a pair of pistols, who would regularly arrive at illegal gambling dens and faro games demanding a percentage of the night's profits from the owners. While being questioned by a police detective regarding the extortion activities, possibly when several owners complained, Hines was said to have replied, "Those guys must be nuts! Don't I always leave 'em somethin'? All I want is me fair share." Another prominent member, "Dandy" Johnny Dolan, is noted for inventing several unique gang weapons including a set of shoes in which pieces of an ax blade were embedded and a copper eye gouger (worn on the thumb), first used in a robbery in the summer of 1875. As he attempted to rob a local jewelry store, the owner James H. Noe attempted to stop Dolan and was beaten with an iron crowbar. Dolan then proceeded to use the eye gouger on Noe, taking the eyes with him. Often showing them off to friends, the eyes were found in Dolan's possession while being interrogated by Police Detective Joseph M. Dorsey. He was eventually convicted of murder, and hanged at Tombs Prison on April 21, 1876.

Rise to power

The Whyos, at their peak by the late 1870s and early 1880s, were led by

Mike McGloin Michael E. "Mike" McGloin ( – March 9, 1883) was a 19th-century criminal and leader of the Whyos, a New York City street gang. Overview An early member of the Whyos, McGloin would rise to become leader of the gang by the late 1870s, in h ...

who began moving the gang into extortion, prostitution, and murder for hire (although this had been practiced earlier by members such as "Big" Josh Hines, "Dandy" John Dolan, and Piker Ryan). McGloin also implemented one requirement for prospective members to commit at least one murder stating in 1883: "A guy ain't tough until he has knocked his man out!" Aside from committing many crimes, the Whyos also offered specific criminal services for a price. The following list was found on Piker Ryan when he was arrested by the

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

in 1884. *Punching $1 *Both eyes blacked $3 *Nose and jaw broke $7 *Jacked out (knocked out with a

Blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

) $15 *Ear chewed off $15 *Leg or arm broke $19 *Shot in the leg $20 *Stab $22.00 *"Doing the big job" (murder) $100 and up In 1884, McGloin was arrested for the murder of saloon owner Louis Hanier and hanged at

on March 8 of that year. Danny Driscoll and Danny Lyons eventually jointly led the gang by 1887. In 1888 Driscoll was hanged on January 23 for a murder, and Lyons was hanged for another murder on August 21.

Decline

With the deaths of Driscoll and Lyons, the gang never regained its former status, as its members were eventually imprisoned or killed. As

and 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 ...

came to prominence in the mid-1890s, many gangs began working with

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

, providing considerable political protection. However, the Whyos continued their violent activities, ending in their last great battle between fellow Whyos as members Denver Hop and English Charley began fighting over shares of a recent robbery. As they began shooting at each other, a major gunfight began, involving at least 20 other members. No one was injured however, as all had been intoxicated, as the press reported that the Morgue's owner had felt the gangs had been silly to think they would hit anything after drinking his liquor. The last of the Whyos were eventually broken up by the Monk Eastman Gang, who maintained control over Manhattan for the next decade.

In popular culture

The term Whyo is frequently used to describe the organized crime characters throughout the television series ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

''. The Whyos were featured, in a fictionalized form, in

Elizabeth Gaffney Elizabeth Gaffney (born New York City, December 22, 1966) is an American novelist. She graduated from Vassar College and holds an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College. She is the founder of the virtual writers spacThe 24-Hour Room the editor a ...

's 2005 novel ''Metropolis''. A story featuring the Whyos Gang was published in the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

''Real Clue Crime Stories'' in July 1947.
A contemporary version of the Whyos appear in issues #16 and #23 of Marvel Comics, Marvel's ''

Moon Knight Moon Knight is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in ''Werewolf by Night'' #32 (August 1975). The son of a rabb ...

'' volume 2. Whyos and Monk Eastman in PC-game ''EMPYRE: Lords of the Sea Gates'' (2017).

References

* Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. *Kelly, Robert J. ''Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Encyclopedia of American Crime''. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005. {{Authority control Former gangs in New York City 19th century in New York City