Incredible photos from 1800s Manhattan show the REAL Gangs of New York – who robbed, murdered and waged wars in the city slums

THESE startling pictures of the real gangs of New York show the harsh lives the mobsters led in one of the deadliest places on earth in the 19th century.

For nearly one hundred years, these gangs – which were collectively known as The Five Points Gang – practically ran the city.

They gained international notoriety for having the highest murder rate of any slum in the world and stories of violent confrontations between warring gangs became the stuff of legend.

The images – by Jacob Riis, the renowned journalist and social documentary photographer – show violent thugs like the Short Tail Gangs who were known to the police as hard drinkers and thieves.

Also pictured are an Irish-American group known as The Gopher Gang at the peak of their power and groups of young boys robbing drunk men in New York in the early 1900s.






Five Points was a nineteenth century neighbourhood in the area now known as Lower Manhattan in New York City.

The run-down Manhattan district became the centre of settlement for the poorest and least fortunate immigrants.

Irish, Italian and Eastern European immigrants and freed Black slaves settled in Five Points.

Gambling dens and brothels were numerous in the area, and it was considered a dangerous destination, where many people had been mugged particularly at night and where race riots would regularly break out.

In 1842, author Charles Dickens visited the area and was appalled by the terrible living conditions.





At the height of the Five Points, only certain areas of London’s East End vied with it in the western world for population density, disease, child mortality, prostitution and crime.

Organised criminal gangs, like The Bowery Boys, The Dead Rabbits, The Short Tails, The Gopher Gang, The Whyos Gang and the Montgomery Guards cropped up across Manhattan.

Each group had had their own way of letting people know who they stood with.

The Bowery Boys, a gang mainly made up of firefighters, would go out in red shirts and stovepipe hats; the Short Tails went out with their shirt untucked and the Irish Dead Rabbits would head out with a rabbit nailed to a stick.





Meanwhile The Whyos – an Irish-American criminal group who ranged from pickpockets to murderers – had a distinctive gang’s cry which sounded like a bird or owl calling ‘Why-oh!’ to let people know they were on the streets.

All of the gangs of Five Points competed for control of the revenue made from illicit activities and fights would break out over most anything.

According to legend, the most dangerous building – a housing tenement called the “Old Brewery” – saw a murder every single night.





The violent disputes between the gangs usually focused on race and nationality.

Riots and fights broke out between the staunchly anti-Catholic Bowery Boys and the Irish Dead Rabbits.

In one brutal two-day battle, an estimated 1,000 people took to the streets of New York to fight, beating each other senseless and looting one another’s homes.

By the time the blood had dried, eight men were dead and up to a hundred more lay injured – an event that inspired Martin Scorsese's 2002 film Gangs of New York.

MOST READ IN WORLD NEWS

'SMALL BODIES'

I dated Maddie suspect when she vanished – he's obsessed with underage girls

SNOW DOWN

Boris doubles forces near freezing Ukraine border to crank up pressure on Putin

GAGA FOR GOGA

Andrew 'besotted' with glam Kazakh huntress who 'introduced him to Gaddafi'

JAWS OF DEATH

Mum 'tries to kill' toddler, 3, by 'throwing' her into a bear's den at zoo

For a century, these notorious gangs ruled their neighbourhood but by the early 1900s, Five Points was torn down piece by piece.

Politicians railed for it to be ripped apart with one telling his constituent: “This hot-bed of infamy, this modern Sodom, is situated in the very heart of your City.”

The crime-riddled Old Brewery was pulled down, missionary houses were brought in, and bit by bit, the face of the city changed.

The Five Points gangs were broken up and slowly faded into history.




Source: Read Full Article

Previous post 8 Hair Serums We Love For Natural Hair
Next post Shock moment Brit 'walks into US art gallery and slashes his DAD'S £2million painting after flying 10,000 miles under false ID'