Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set (20 page)

At Gordon's trial, Dewey was able to show that Gordon lived high on the hog, raking in almost $2 million a year and only reporting an annual salary of $8,125. One hundred and fifty witnesses testified against Gordon, and they minutely explained to the jury Gordon’s illegal moneymaking activities. As a result, the jury took only 51 minutes to come back with a guilty verdict, which sent Gordon to the slammer on a 10-year sentence.

In 1940, when Gordon was released from Leavenworth, all his properties had been seized by the government and his millions had somehow disappeared. He told reporters, “Waxey Gordon is dead. From now on it's Irving Wexler, salesman.”

Gordon became a salesman alright, but not in the conventional manner. Gordon moved out to California, and he began peddling dope on the streets. In 1951, Gordon was arrested while delivering $6,300 of heroin to a federal narcotics informant. One of the cops who arrested Gordon was Sgt. John
Cottone.

As
Cottone was putting the cuffs on Gordon, Gordon started crying “Please Johnny, don't arrest me. Don't take me in for junk. Let me run, then shoot me.”

In December of 1951, Gordon, now 63, was convicted of narcotics trafficking and sentenced to 25 years in Alcatraz Prison. Gordon, broke and a broken man, died in prison six months later of a heart attack.

W
hyos Street Gang

The Whyos were a vicious Irish street gang which ruled Lower Manhattan, starting right after the Civil War and running through the 1890's. The Whyos started out as an offshoot of a pre-Civil War gang called the Chichesters. Their headquarters was in  the 6
th
Ward on Baxter Street, formerly Orange Street, and named after Mexican War hero Lt. Col. Charles Baxter.

The Whyos got their name from the bird calls they made to each other to identify themselves as members of the gang. When they first appeared on the streets of Lower Manhattan, the Whyos cruised the area called Mulberry Bend, robbing, beating, and killing with ungodly gusto. Soon, they extended their domain to the Lower West Side, into Greenwich Village, and then further north.

Author Herbert Asbury said about the Whyos  “The Whyos were the most ferocious criminals who ever stalked the streets of an American city.”

The Whyos favorite hangout was a dive on the corner of Mulberry and Worth called “The Morgue”; an apt name, since it was estimated that over 100 murders took place on the premises. The bar owner boasted his booze was powerful and quite tasty, but could also be used an excellent embalming fluid if necessary.

Myth had it, that in order to become a member of the Whyos, an aspiring member had to kill, or at least make an attempt to kill someone. One of the Whyos early leaders was Mike McCoin, who was hanged in the Tombs on March, 8, 1883, for the slingshot murder of a saloon owner on West 26
th
  Street named Louis Hanier. The day after he killed Hanier,  McCoin announced to his gang, “A guy ain't tough until he's knocked his man out (killed).”

Some hard men took
McCoin's  remark to heart and a string of murders followed, precipitating new members being inducted into the gang.

In the 1880's, the Whyos reached the height of their power, when such miscreants as Big Jim Hines terrorized the city. Hines was the first person to hold up stuss games, which were then run by the Italian and Jewish gangs and a great source of revenue. The stuss games were played nightly at numerous locations, from east of the Bowery, up to 14
th
  Street, and then west to Broadway. Almost every night, Hines bounced from one stuss game to another, a huge gun in each hand. Using impending force, Hines extracted a fat percentage of each game, but he always left a substantial cut for the house.

Once, after he was arrested, Hines told a detective, “Them guys must be nuts. Don't I always leave '
em somethin'? All I want is me share.”

In 1884, Whyos member Piker Ryan was arrested for one of his numerous crimes. The police found a book on him, containing  prices for a laundry list of crimes the Whyos performed for monetary profit. The list read:

Punching -- $2,

Both eyes blacked -- $4

Nose and jaw broke -- $10

Jacked out - - $15

Ear chewed off -- $15

Leg or arm broke -- $19

Shot in the leg -- $25

Stab -- $25

Doing the big job (murder) -- $100 and up

Another prominent Whyos  member was Dandy Johnny Dolan, who was fastidious in dress, with oiled and plastered hair, and a penchant for wearing only the finest shoe apparel available.

Dolan was also the inventor of two gruesome weapons. The first was sections of an ax blade, embedded in the sole of his “Fighting Shoes,” which he used to stomp and stab a fallen foe. The other was an “eye gouger,” made of brass and worn on Dolan’s thumb.

On August 22, 1875, Dolan decided to rob a brush manufacturer at 275 Greenwich Street. On the premises, he confronted James H. Noe, and Dolan bashed Noe over the head with an iron crowbar. Then Dolan proceeded to rob Noe of money, a gold watch and chain, and Mr.
Noe's walking stick, which had a metal handle formed into the shape of a monkey. However, before Dolan left, he gouged out both of Mr. Noe's eyes with his “eye gouger,” and then he proudly showed Noe’s eyeballs to his pals.

Mr. Noe died a few days later, and when Dolan was soon arrested, he was walking with Mr.
Noe's distinctive cane and carrying Mr. Noe's eyeballs in his pocket. As a result, Dolan was tried and convicted of murder. He was hung in the courtyard of the Tombs Prison, on April 21, 1876.

The most famous of the Whyos leaders were a couple of
Dannys; Messrs. Driscoll and Lyons, who co-ran the Whyos in the 1880's. In 1888, Driscoll became involved in a gunfight with Five Points gang member John McCarthy, over the affections of a prostitute named Beezy Garrity. Not being the greatest of gunslingers, Driscoll accidentally shot and killed Ms. Garrity instead.

At his trial, Driscoll swore it was a case of mistaken identity, and that John McCarty had fired the fatal shots at Ms. Garrity. However, Garrity's mother, Margaret Sullivan, said on the witness stand that as her daughter lay dying at St. Vincent Hospital, she whispered into her mother's ear, “Danny Driscoll shot me, mother.”

Even though Driscoll was represented by famed trial attorney William Howe, as a result of Garrity's deathbed statement, on October 1, 1887, the jury took only 29 minutes to find Driscoll guilty of first degree murder. Seven days later, Judge Fredrick Smyth sentenced Driscoll to death.

On January 22, 1888, Driscoll was hanged in the Tombs Prison. At the gallows, after the black mask had been pulled over Driscoll's face, his last words reportedly were, “Jesus, have mercy on me!”

Danny Lyons was considered the most vicious gangster of the 1880's. Lyons's downfall was an argument over a young lady, too. It seemed Lyons snatched Pretty Kitty McGown from her paramour Joseph Quinn. Quinn vowed revenge, and on July 4, 1887, the two men squared off with guns, at Paradise Square in the Five Points area. Lyons was better with a gun than his pal Driscoll had been, and he shot Quinn right through the heart, killing him on the spot.

Lyons took it on the lam for a few months, but he was finally captured. Lyons was hung at the Tombs Prison on August 21, 1888, just seven months after Driscoll had met the same fate in the same place.

After the deaths of  Lyons and Driscoll, the Whyos fell into disarray. In the late 1890's, Monk Eastman defeated what was left of the Whyos. For the next 20 years, Eastman battled with Paul Kelly, leader of the Five Points Gang, for control of all the rackets in Lower Manhattan.

W
ood, Fernando, and the Police Riots of 1857

In 1857, it was chaotic times in New York City, as the city's two adversarial police forces battled over the right to arrest people, and to accept graft from anyone willing and able to pay.

In 1853, under Democratic Mayor Harper, the first uniformed police force in New York City was created. Their uniform consisted of a blue coat with brass buttons, a blue cap, and gray pants. Led by Police Chief George G. Matsell, the police were generally more crooked than the crooks, taking bribes not to arrest people and sometimes taking bribes
to
arrest people. The citizens of New York City complained that their police force, called the Municipal  Police, was “the worse in the world.”

By the age of  37, Fernando Wood was a millionaire in the real estate business. On January 1, 1855, after buying votes through his wealth, Wood was elected Mayor of New York City. Wood immediately inserted himself  as head of the police graft-gravy-train; charging new police captains $200 a year for a promotion to their $1,000-a-year job. Of course, to make up for the shortfall, the police captains charged each patrolman under their command $40 a year. The policemen, in turn, shook down honest citizens and protected dishonest citizens for pay, so everyone on the public law enforcement dole was quite happy to keep things just the way they were.

However, the New York State Legislature would have none of that.

In 1857, the legislature passed an act creating a new Metropolitan Police Force, with Fredrick Tallmadge named as Superintendent of the Force. The legislature also ordered Wood to immediately disband his 1,100 member Municipal Police Force. Wood refused; saying the creation of the new police force was unconstitutional. Thus, the court battle began over which police force would be the one to patrol New York City.

The Supreme Court soon voted that the creation of the new police force was indeed constitutional. Yet Wood, with the backing of Police Chief Matsell, steadfastly refused to cooperate. Eight hundred men, all aligned with the Democratic Party, stayed with Wood and Matsell. However, three hundred men, under respected Police Captain George W. Walling, defected and comprised the new Metropolitan Police Force, which was backed by the Republican Party.

On June 16, 1857, the issue came to a head. The street commissioner Joseph Taylor had died, and Wood, for the sum of $50,000, appointed Charles Devlin as the new street commissioner. On the same day, Republican Governor John A. King appointed Daniel Conover to the same position. As Conover entered City Hall to assume his new post, Wood had his Municipal Police throw Conover out of the building. Conover immediately went to a Republican judge, who swore out two warrants for Wood's arrest: one for assault and one for inciting to riot.

Captain Walling strode to City Hall to arrest Wood on the assault charge, but he was met by a contingent of five hundred Municipals. Captain Walling was allowed to enter the building and Wood's office. However, when Captain Walling told Wood he was under arrest for assault, Wood refused to recognize the legality of the arrest warrant.

Captain Walling grabbed Wood's arm to lead him out of the building, but he was immediately swarmed by 20 Municipals and thrown out of City Hall himself. Captain Walling repeatedly tried to go back up the steps of City Hall, but he was beaten back every time.

Suddenly, a contingent of one hundred Metropolitan Police, wearing their new uniforms of frock coats, and plug hats, arrived to serve the second arrest warrant on Wood. Instead of wearing the gold badges of the Municipals, the Mets wore copper badges, which gave birth to the term “coppers,” and then “cops.”

The motley Metropolitan Police were described by essayist G.T. Strong as, “a miscellaneous assortment of suckers, soaplocks, Irishmen and Plug-Uglies (an Irish Street Gang).”

Thus, began a horrendous half-hour battle between the two New York City Police Departments. The Mets were vastly outnumbered by the Municipals, and when the fight was over, some Mets were lucky enough to be able to flee unharmed. However, 53 Mets were injured, 12 hurt seriously, and one was crippled for life.

While the fighting was intensifying, Captain Walling rushed over the office of Sheriff J.J.V. Westervelt, and he implored the sheriff to arrest Mayor Wood. After consulting with a state attorney, Captain Walling, Sheriff Westervelt, and the state attorney marched to City Hall, and they pushed their way into Wood's office.

When the three men informed Wood he was indeed under arrest, he shouted at them, “I will never let you arrest me!”

At the same time, a beaten contingent of Mets spotted the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard boarding a boat for Boston. The Mets convinced the National Guard that they were needed to police a state matter.

Recognizing the severity of the situation, Major General Charles Sandford marched his men to City Hall. As his troops stood guard, Sandford strode up the steps of City Hall and into Wood's office, where he announced to Wood that he was under arrest. Wood looked out the window and spotted the National Guard. Realizing his men were no match for the military troops, Wood finally submitted to the arrest.

Yet, this was only the beginning of a long strife. For the rest of the summer, the two police departments constantly conflicted. When a Met cop arrested a crook, a Municipal would step in and set the man free. And vice versa. On numerous occasions, contingents of policemen would raid the other department's station house and free all the prisoners.

In the meantime, the criminals of New York City were having a field day.