Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set (2 page)

Allen reconnected with Little Suzie, and they went to work for Hester Jane Haskins, called “Jane the Grabber,” a monster-of-a-woman, who ran several houses of ill-repute in the area surrounding Sixth Avenue and 30th Street, in the middle of what was called Satan’s Circus.

Allen’s and Suzie’s gig was to travel throughout the northeastern states and fetch young girls, with the promise of getting them well-paying jobs in New York City. Of course, when these poor girls were introduced to “Jane the Grabber,” Jane immediately beat them and drugged them, then forced them to work as prostitutes in her brothels.

This all went fine for Allen and Little Suzy until “Jane the Grabber” got greedy and started abducting women from prominent families, including the daughter of the Lieutenant-Governor of a New England state. Knowing heat from the police was inevitable, Allen and Little Suzie quit their jobs for “Jane the Grabber,” and headed back to the confines of the 4
th
Ward. That turned out to be good timing for them, since “Jane the Grabber” was soon arrested for her crimes and sent to prison for a very long time.

In 1858, the
Allens opened John Allen's Dance Hall, at 304 Water Street, which became known as one of the most licentious establishments in New York City. Allen dressed his 20 or so “dance hall girls” in short skirts and red-topped boots, with sleigh-bells circling their ankles. All sorts of vices and sexual obscenities were performed in private rooms in the dive, and sometimes right out in the open. These actions were so visibly decadent, journalist Oliver Dyer wrote in
Packard's Monthly
, that John Allen was “The Wickedest Man in New York City.”
 

Allen was so proud of his new moniker he made up business cards, saying:

John Allen's Dance Hall

304 Water Street

Wickedest Man in New York:

Proprietor

John Allen's Dance Hall was so prosperous, in just 10 years Allen banked more than $100,000, making him the richest pimp in New York City.

Soon, Allen came up with a new angle to make even more money. Falling back on his seminary background, Allen decided to turn his dance hall into a semi-religious experience. In spite of the sexual romps that were going on nightly inside his joint, Allen placed a Bible in every room, and on Saturday nights he gave away copies of the New Testament, as souvenirs to his guests. In time, Allen held religious sing-a-longs, in which his scantily-clad girls would croon spiritual songs, while Allen read passages of the Bible. Showing no shame, Allen placed on every bench and table in his joint the popular hymn book,
The Little Wanderer's Friend
.

Yet, Allen's intended monetary windfall never materialized. His usual guests fled his premises and headed for other joints like The Haymarket,
McGuirk's Suicide Hall, and Paresis Hall. So Allen decided to go with another gimmick.

Allen turned his dance hall into a place for local clergymen to hold marathon prayer meetings. Religious men, like the Reverend A.C. Arnold, paid Allen $350 a month to hold such meetings in Allen's establishment. Allen even thickened the crowd by paying “newly reformed sinners” 25 cents a head to take part in the festivities. Allen was so certain he would hit the religious jackpot, he closed his dance hall and put a sign on the outside door saying, “This Dance Hall is Closed. No gentlemen admitted unless accompanied by their wives.”

Unfortunately, Allen had overlooked the power of the press. In a shocking expose', the
New York Times
ran a series of stories exposing Allen in the worst possible light. Immediately, the duped reverends stopped holding their prayer meetings at Allen's joint, causing his cash flow to disintegrate. Allen tried opening his bawdy dance hall again, but his previous customers chose to stay away. After a few months of bleeding money, Allen closed down his dance hall for good.

Allen disappeared from the public eye for a while. Then he resurfaced in late 1868, when Allen and Little Suzie were arraigned in the Tombs Police Court, for stealing $15 from a sailor. The
Allens were released on $500 bail, which they promptly jumped, then fled to places unknown.

“The Wickedest Man In New York City” died from causes unknown in West Perth, Fulton County, New York, in October 1870.

After Allen's death, a
New York Times
reporter revealed for the first time Allen's true intentions when he appeared to go all pious. Years earlier, Allen had confessed to the reporter, “I duped them religious fellers because I thought I could make more money out of silly church folk, than I could out of bad sailors.”

A
nti-Abolition Riots of 1834

It started as a peaceful service given by a black minister at the Chatham Street Chapel, but it transformed into four days of riots that turned the streets of New York City into a cauldron of hate.

In the early 1800's, there was a vibrant movement in the United States to end slavery. Yet, there was no other place in the country that displayed more animosity towards blacks than the mean streets of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Abolitionist Movement (to abolish slavery) was spearheaded by men like William Lloyd Garrison, and bothers Arthur and Lewis Tappan. Yet, the hatred for black slaves permeated throughout New York City and was incited by the ruling Irish faction of Tammany Hall. This malevolence was punctuated by a multitude of atrocities, perpetrated against the slaves by the Irish Five Points street gangs, which Tammany Hall overtly protected from prosecution for their heinous crimes.

In 1833, aided by the fiery speeches of William Lloyd Garrison, slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. Many of the Brits living in America also spoke out vociferously against slavery. This did not go over too well with the powers that be at Tammany Hall, which had convinced the Irish street gangs that the Abolitionists were looking to transform America back into a British colony.

Anti-Abolitionist James Watson Webb provoked the Irish gangs even further, when he printed in his
Courier and Enquirer
that, “Abolitionists had told their daughters to marry blacks, black dandies in search of white wives were promenading Broadway on horseback, and Arthur Tappan had divorced his wife and married a negress.”

All Webb's statements were lies, but they were believed by the rabble nevertheless.

On July 7, 1834, a group of black slaves gathered in the Chatham Street Chapel to hear a sermon by a black minister. In the audience, lending his support, was Arthur Tappan. The sermon had just begun, when members of the New York Sacred Music Society broke in, claiming they had rented the chapel for the evening. The slaves, who had already paid for the use of the chapel, refused to leave. The street gangs, with members of the Plug Uglies, Forty Thieves, and Roach Guards, banded together and attacked the slaves with leaded canes, seriously injuring several slaves.

An angry mob had formed outside the chapel, and as the police arrived to try to quell the disturbance, Tappan hurried from the scene to his house on Rose Street, which is now the site of the New York City Municipal Building. Knowing he was an avowed abolitionist, a crowd followed Tappan, and as he rushed inside, they pelted his home with rocks. 

Webb's paper predictably lied again, when he described the event as a “Negro riot,” owing to "Arthur Tappan's mad impertinence."
The Commercial Advertiser
, another pro-slavery rag, said, “Gangs of blacks were preparing to set the city ablaze.”

This was just the beginning of a string of atrocities. The next night, a mob of gang members broke down the door of the Chatham Street Chapel. And while they held an impromptu meeting inside, W.W. Wilder yelled, “To the Bowery Theater!”

The reason for their attack on the Bowery Theater was because its manager, and British actor, George P. Farren, another avowed abolitionist, had recently said of the pro-slavery crowd, "Damn the Yankees; they are a damn set of jackasses, and fit to be gulled.”

Farren had also just fired an American actor, and as a result, anti-abolitionists posted handbills, detailing
Farren's actions, throughout New York City.

An estimated 4000 rioters broke down the doors of the Bowery Theater, interrupting the performance of beloved American actor Edwin Forrest, who was a favorite of the Five Point gangs. Forrest tried to quiet the angry mob, but they insisted on knowing the whereabouts of Farren, who was hiding somewhere on the premises. Before the mob could take the place apart looking for Farren, with the intention of hanging him, a large contingent of police officers arrived and drove the mob from the theater with billy clubs.

Still, the mob was not through. They yelled, “To Arthur Tappan's house!”

Tappan and his family had already escaped before the mob showed up. Yet, when the mob did arrive, they tore down Tappan's house, board by board. They also piled Tappan's furniture into the street, and set it on fire until there was nothing left but a painting of George Washington.

As one rioter tried to throw the Washington painting into the fire, another one ripped it from his hands saying, “It's George Washington! For God's sake, don't burn Washington!”

The mob rampaged through the city, torturing and raping black slaves and even gouging out the eyes of an Englishman, after they had ripped off his ears. The worst rioting was in the Five Points area, where dozens of houses, including St. Phillip's Church, were burned to the ground. Several English sailors and black slaves were captured and mutilated. Word soon spread in the streets that every house in the Five Points area that did not have a candle burning in its window would be burned down. In minutes, candles appeared in every window; saving the neighborhood from destruction at the hands of the out-of-control racist lunatics.

On the afternoon of July 11, Mayor Cornelius Lawrence issued a proclamation asking all good citizens to band together to stop the rioting. He also ordered Major General Shadford to call in the 27
th
Regiment of the National Guard Infantry. At 9 p.m., around 300 Five Point Gang members assembled before the Laight Street Church, which was run by vocal abolitionist Reverend Samuel Hanson Cox. The church was guarded by several New York City policemen, but the mob charged anyway, forcing the outmanned policemen to run for their lives.

As the mob destroyed the church, Mayor Lawrence ordered the infantry into action. Armed with clubs, bayonets, muskets, and pistols, the infantry drove the rioters from several downtown churches, and the surrounding streets, back into the Five Points area.

The next day, armed soldiers and policemen scoured the Five Points, looking for known mob members. They rounded up and arrested 150 Five Pointers, but then, inexplicably, Tammany Hall stepped in and released almost all of them.

Only 20 gang members, out of the thousands who pillaged the streets of New York City in July of 1834, were ever tried, convicted, and sent to jail.

A
stor Place Theater Riots of 1849

One of the worst riots in New York City history took place on May 10, 1849. It started over an impassioned disagreement over who had the better Shakespearian Actor: the United States, or hated Mother England.

British actor William Macready was considered to be the most accomplished actor on both sides of the pond. Yet Macready, who called himself an aristocrat, was a snob, who looked down on America in general and their inferior actors in particular. One of those actors who caused Macready to sniff in superiority was the Philadelphia-born Edwin Forrest, a self-taught thespian, who was the darling of the rough and tumble New York City crowd. To make matters worse for Forrest and his followers, the New York City aristocracy much preferred the foreigner Macready instead of the homegrown Forrest.

In 1848, Forrest, on a mission to prove to the world that he was the equal of any actor alive, traveled to London, England, to play Hamlet. Even though Forrest dined with Macready the night before Forrest's performance, when Forrest took  the stage he was brutally hissed by the audience. Forrest's performance was panned viciously in the London newspapers and repeated in the American press. Forrest blamed this on Macready, and by the time Forrest arrived back in the United States, there was a global feud ready to explode.

Two New Yorkers were instrumental in fanning the flames of discontent concerning the rude treatment of their homeboy Forrest in England. One was Captain Isaiah Rynders, who owned the notorious Empire Club on Park Row. Rynders was also the mob boss, who controlled all the vicious gangs in the Five Points area. The other instigator was E. Z. C. Judson, who wrote under the pen name - Ned Buntline. Both men hated the English, and in the weekly newspaper,
Ned Buntline's Own
, Buntline turned a mere heated actors’ dispute into an international incident.

The tension mounted, when it was announced in the New York City press that Macready would make a four-week “farewell” appearance in America, commencing on May 7, 1849. His first show was scheduled to be at the new Astor Place Theater, on Astor Place in Manhattan. As soon as Macready graced the stage with his presence, Rynders rose from his seat, and in concert with hundreds of his gang thugs in attendance, they peppered Macready with rotten eggs, ripe tomatoes, and old shoes. Macready, incredulous at the blatant disrespect for his great talents, thundered off the stage. He canceled the rest of his four-week engagement and vowed never to appear in the United States again.