Gustin Gang

The Gustin Gang was one of the earliest Irish-born gang of gangsters during Prohibition in the United States in Boston in the 1910-1930s. The name was derived from a street name in the south of the city.

history

The gang was founded by Frank Wallace and his brother Steve in the mid-1910s, and they were initially known as "Tailboard Thieves" because of their way of hijacking and robbing trucks . The brothers Steve and Jim Wallace joined them later; the gang continued to deal predominantly with armed robbery.

Wallace and his brother served some time in jail in the 1920s, but their political ties mean they were spared many and long sentences.

During the Prohibition period they are said to have had some boats of the kind that were called "Rumrunners"; d. H. They broke the coast guard blockade and smuggled alcohol. They also had a well-known speakeasy , where they could also be met.

They cooperated u. a. with the gang of Charles “King” Solomon , an influential mobster of what later became known as the Seven Group .

However, they had not given up their old business activities and continued to raid trucks. This time also those that were used by other gangs for transport and smuggling, which brought them into conflict with other gangsters . So with the US mafia ; on December 22, 1931 - after meeting Jo Lombardo, who had settled in the north of the city - Frankie Wallace and Bernard "Dodo" Walsh were shot.

After that, the traces of the gang evaporate, but they apparently continued to exist until the 1950s, when the mafioso Raymond Patriarca was in conflict with them and other Irish gangs at that time.

literature

• Stephen Fox: Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America . William Morrow and Company, New York 1969, ISBN 0-688-04350-X .
• TJ English: Paddy Whacked . Harper-Collins, 2005, ISBN 0-06-059002-5 .
• Emily Sweeney: Boston Organized Crime: Images of America . Arcadia Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7385-7673-2 .