Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set (3 page)

This caused great consternation among the blue-bloods in New York City's society crowd. Quickly, they assembled a petition with 47 signatures, which included those of Washington Irving and Herman Melville, begging Macready to stay and continue his tour. Macready, against his better judgment, caved in and agreed to give it one more try.

The news hit the newspapers, that on May 10, just three days after he was rudely chased from the stage, Macready would appear as Macbeth in
Macbeth
; again at the Astor Place Theater. Coincidentally, Forrest also opened that same night, playing Spartacus in
The Gladiator
, in a playhouse a mile south of the Astor Place Theater. The newspapers played up the rivalry and the British crew of a docked Cunard liner said they would make their presence known at Macready's performance, lest an unruly American mob again tried to insult their countryman.

This incited Captain Rynders to plaster New York City with thousands of posters saying, “
Workingmen, shall Americans or English rule this city? The crew of the English steamer has threatened all Americans who shall dare to express their opinion this night at the English Aristocratic Opera House! We advocated no violence, but free expression of opinion is to all men!
”

New York City mayor Caleb C. Woodhull anticipated a riot, and he sent 350 policemen, under the command of Police Chief G.W. Matsell, to the Astor Place Theater to quell any possible disturbances. In addition, General Sanders, of the New York Militia, assembled eight companies of guardsmen and two troops of Calvary to patrol the area around the playhouse.

When the show started, all 1,800 seats had been sold, with the pro-Macready crowd vastly outnumbering the pro-Forrest crowd. It was estimated that more than 20,000 people stood outside the theater, making Astor Place, from Broadway to the Bowery, one large sea of discontent.

At 7:40 p.m., the play started, and the first two scenes played out without any interruption. However, when Macready majestically strode on stage for the third scene, all hell broke loose. Captain Rynders and his gangs hooted and hollered and hissed at Macready. Outside, the angry
crowd, hearing the animosity inside, started to bum-rush the theater. They threw rocks and stones, breaking all the theater's windows. And just because they could, the mob smashed all the street lamps in the area too.

The police attacked the angry mob with clubs, but to no avail. The mob screamed “Burn the damned den of aristocracy.”

The police were getting the worst of the riot, and at 9 p.m., the first of the militia arrived. They too were pelted by bricks and stones. Ned Buntline was at the head of the angry mob chanting, “Workingmen! Shall Americans or Englishmen rule? Shall the sons whose fathers drove the baseborn miscreants from these shores give up liberty?”

Chief Matsell, after being hit with a 20-pound rock in the chest, gave the order for the militia to shoot into the crowd. And they did just that, hitting men, women, and children, and even a lady who was sleeping in her bed 150 yards from the theater.

When the dust cleared hours later, 22 people were killed and 150 were injured. Five of those who were injured, died within five days. 86 rioters were arrested, including Ned Buntline, who received a year in jail and a $250 fine. Captain Rynders escaped without arrest, or injury, only to torment the city for many years to come.

The lawmen were not without their own injuries. More than a hundred policemen and militia were injured by rocks and stones, and another six were shot; but none died.

The next night, another mob tried to burn down the Astor Place Theater. But they were beaten back by a new battalion of militia, which had been brought into the city in case of further disturbances.

On the night of May 12, another crowd assembled at the New York Hotel, where Macready was staying, screaming for him to come out and be hanged like a man. However, Macready somehow slipped away. He boarded a train to New Rochelle, and then to Boston. From Boston, he sailed to England, never again to set foot in America.

B
ow Kum -- The Vicious Killing of Bow Kum

In 1899, the Tong Wars began in New York City's Chinatown, when the smaller Hip Sing and Four Brothers Tongs joined forces against the powerful On Leong Tong, in a battle for the immense illegal profits generated in Chinatown from gambling and drug dealing. There were sporadic killings throughout the first decade of the 20
th
Century, but the blood started flowing more rapidly in 1909. It was sparked by the vicious murder of a Chinese slave girl named Bow Kum, known as “The Little Flower.”

In the Canton Region of China, Kum was sold by her father for a few paltry yen. She was then brought to the United States where she was sold at the slave-trade market in San Francisco, for the huge sum (at the time) of three thousand dollars. The buyer was Low
Hee Tong, a high-ranking member of the Hip Sing and Four Brothers Tongs.

Kum lived with Tong for four years, but then the San Francisco police discovered the illegal servitude. When Tong could not produce a marriage license, Kum was taken away from Tong and placed in a Christian mission run by Donaldina Cameron, a Scotswoman famous for helping young Chinese slave girls escape from the terrible tongs. Soon, gardener
Tchin Lee, a member of the On Leong Tong, married Kum and took her to New York City.

Tong was furious he had lost the services of his female slave, but more furious over the loss of his three thousand dollars. As a result, Tong demanded that Lee give him back the money he spent on purchasing Kum.

Lee refused.

Tong then listed his grievances in a letter to the Hip Sing and Four Brother Tongs in New York City. Tong's Tongs agreed with him, and they demanded that the On Leong Tong force Lee to return Tong's money. Their request was denied, and immediately the Hip Sing and Four Brothers Tongs flew the red flag from their building on Pell Street, indicating they were declaring war against the On Leong Tong.

On August 15, 1909, a Hip Sing assassin broke into Lee's apartment at 17 Mott Street. The assassin stabbed Kum three times in the chest, cut off several of her fingers, and then mutilated her torso. This started a bloody war that resulted in over fifty killings in just a few short months.

In late 1909, Captain William
Hodgins, the Commander of the 5
th
Precinct on Elizabeth Street, interceded, and he tried to make peace between the factions. He approached the On Leong Tong first, and they agreed to end the war, but only if the other two tongs gave them, as reparations, a Chinese flag, a roasted pig, and ten thousand packs of fireworks. The two smaller tongs considered this a huge insult, and the killings intensified for another year.

In late 1910, the United States government became involved. The Chinese Minister, in Washington D.C., appointed a committee of 40 Chinese merchants, teachers, and students to mediate the Tong Wars. An agreement was forged between the On Leong Tong, and the Hip Sing Tongs. However, the Four Brothers Tong refused to participate in the peace. As a result, the killings continued but not at the same pace as before.

Kerosene was thrown on the fire in 1912, when a new Tong, the Kim Lan Wui Saw Tong, suddenly appeared in New York City. In a battle for the illegal buck, these upstarts inexplicably declared war on the other three established tongs. This was a dumb move, since the three older Tongs, instead of fighting among themselves, turned all their venom on the outmanned Kim Lan Wui Saw Tong.

The bodies continued to pile up in Chinatown, bringing outside business into the area to a halt. Finally, the Chinese government on mainland China, in conjunction with the New York City Police Department, compelled the warring factions to formally agree to halt the hostilities. The treaty was signed on May 22, 1913, by the Chinese Merchant's Association.

Since tourists were no longer afraid to enter Chinatown (and get caught in the cross hairs of the daily gunfire), peace and prosperity returned to the area.

That is, until 1924, when the bloody Tong Wars resumed.

B
owery Boys Street Gang

The Bowery Boys street gang ruled the Bowery area, just north of the Five Points, from 1840 through 1860.

The Bowery Boys were an anti-Catholic, anti-Irish gang, who fought tooth and nail with the other Lower Manhattan gangs, most notably the Dead Rabbits from the Five Points area. Unlike the other gangs of its era, who were predominantly thugs, robbers, and murderers, the Bowery Boys were mostly butchers, mechanics, bar bouncers, or small businessmen. They wore a uniform of sorts, consisting of red shirts, and black trousers; the pants of which were shoved inside their calfskin boots. Most of the men had oil-slicked hair, covered by black stovepipe hats.

The Bowery Boys were ardent volunteer firemen, who aligned themselves with the Know-Nothing, or American Political Party (which lasted from 1849 to 1856) and later the Democratic Party. All of the big politicians of the time, including William “Boss” Tweed and future first United States President George Washington, were at one time volunteer firemen in Lower
Manhattan. The Bowery Boys were attached to various firehouses, with names like the White Ghost, Black Joke, Dry Bones, and Red Rover. Each of the other downtown gangs, like the Dead Rabbits, Roach Guards, and the Plug Uglies, were also affiliated with various firehouses too, and the competition over who would arrive first at a fire was fierce and often bloody.

The Bowery Boys were said to love their fire engines almost as much as the loved their women. The worse thing that could happen was to arrive at a fire and find that all the fire hydrants had already been taken by other firehouses. The Bowery Boys often used a scheme to prevent this embarrassment.

As soon as a fire alarm sounded, the biggest Bowery Boy available would grab an empty barrel from a grocery store, and run to the fire plug closest to the burning building. He would turn the barrel over, cover the fire hydrant with the barrel, sit on it, and defend his position, battling men from other firehouses, who were trying to remove him, and the barrel, from the fire hydrant. It was said that the fights for the fire hydrants were so ferocious, the battling volunteer firemen sometimes didn't have enough time to actually extinguish the fires, which caused many buildings to burn to the ground.

The most famous Bowery Boy of his time was “Butcher” Bill Poole, a butcher by trade, and a volunteer at Red Rover Fire Engine Company No. 34, at Hudson and Christopher Streets. Poole was a bare-knuckle fighter of much renown. His arch enemy was John Morrissey, an Irish immigrant and strong-arm-man for Tammany Hall. Morrissey was a prodigious fighter too (he later became World Heavyweight Champion), and he challenged Poole to a bare-knuckles fight. Poole hated the Irish and Catholics with a passion (Morrissey was both), and he gladly accepted the challenge.

On July 26, 1854, the men squared off at the Amos Street Dock, near Christopher Street. After Morrissey extended his hand, in a symbolic gesture to start the fight, Poole feinted, and instead of fighting, he grabbed Morrissey is a frontal bear hug. Poole lifted Morrissey up into the air, and squeezed the breath out of him for a full five minutes. Before Poole could crush Morrissey to death, wiser heads prevailed, and they separated the men. Morrissey was hurt so badly, he couldn't walk the streets of New York City for six months. When he finally did, it was curtains for Poole.

On February 25, 1855, Lew Baker, a friend of Morrissey's, shot Poole at
Stanwix Hall, a bar on Broadway, near Prince Street. Poole lingered for a little more than a week, but he finally died on March 8, 1855.

The downfall of the Bowery Boys started during the savage three-day New York City Draft Riots. On July 13, 1863, incensed at the imminent possibility of being drafted into the war down south they wanted nothing to do with, thousands of gang members took to the streets of New York City. These out-of-control maniacs looted and burned down stores, factories, and houses. Then they violently mutilated and killed Negroes, whom they blamed as the cause of their predicament.

The Bowery Boys, in actions normally adverse to their nature, were an integral part of these deadly riots, in which more than a thousand people were killed and thousands injured. The New York State Militia was called in to quell the riots, and when the dust settled three days later, the drafting of New York City men into the armed forces continued, but only for a short time.

Many Bowery Boys were drafted into the war. Some died, some returned badly injured, or missing arms and legs; others joined rival gangs. By the end of the 1860's, the Bowery Boys ceased to exist, but other gangs rose from their ashes, to take their place of ignominy in downtown Manhattan.

B
ristol Bill The Burglar

He was a hardened criminal, who escaped from a British prison in Australia and made his way to New York City. In the 1840's, the New York City Police Gazette wrote that Bristol Bill the Burglar was, “the most celebrated bank robber and burglar of our time.”

The London police knew his real name, but they never revealed it. However, we do know the following about Bristol Bill:

He was born in the early 1800's, to an aristocratic family, the son of a Bristol MP. When Bristol Bill was in his second year at Eton College, his family adopted a 16-year old orphaned daughter of a poor cleric. Bristol Bill was the handsomest of men; almost 6-feet tall, with piercing brown eyes and a broad forehead. In no time, he had seduced the young girl and got her pregnant. Bristol Bill's father was so outraged when he found out about the young girl's delicate condition, he beat Bristol Bill to a pulp, then banished the girl from his home. His father sent Bristol Bill back to Eton, but Bristol Bill soon located his love, and they both absconded to London.