White hand gear

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The White Hand Gang is a gang of Irish-born relatives in Brooklyn , New York City , who controlled the “ waterfront ” of the Red Hook district from 1900 to 1925 .

history

The merger was a reaction to the Italian dominance of the "Blackhanders". B. were organized in the Black Hand Gang or the Five Points Gang and from which the five families of the American Cosa Nostra developed.

The argument was one reason the "Five Pointer" Al Capone went to Chicago in 1919 . Capone had accompanied Frankie Yale in collecting protection money when they came across the "white hander" Arthur Finnegan, who had clashed with them several times in the past. Capone injured Finnegan so badly that he had to spend five weeks in the hospital. However, now Bill Lovett began looking for Capone.

In principle, the gang raised protection money on goods that passed through and collected money from the transport and dock workers. The heterogeneous union led to internal violent clashes and the so-called "Dock Boss" as head of the union was often replaced by murder. So was z. B. Dinny Meehan shot dead next to his wife asleep in the marriage bed and replaced by said "Wild" Bill Lovett.

"Wild" Bill continued to aggressively oppose the competition of the "Blackhander", as the Sicilians, who were darker-skinned than the Irish, were denigrated. When he left a bar on November 1, 1923 , he was presumably shot at by Vincent Mangano and Johnny Giustra and then murdered with a cleaver by Willie "Two Knife" Altieri .

Lovett's brother-in-law Richard "Peg Leg" Lonergan started to drive an even more aggressive course against the Italians. On January 26, 1925 Richard Lonergan walked Aaron Harms , James "Ragtime" Howard , Paddy Maloney , Cornielius "Needles" Ferry and James Hart the Speakeasy of Joe Adonis in Brooklyn . There was a dispute which was fought with weapons; however, it was Lonergan, Harms and Ferry who ended up dead on the ground.

Al Capone was suspected of murder because of the recent confrontation with Finnegan, but since he had moved to Chicago in 1919, the investigation into him was closed. The advance of the Italians, especially Vince Mangano, Albert Anastasia and Joe Adonis , could no longer be stopped, the White Hand Gang disintegrated and control of the Red Hook fell to the American Cosa Nostra.

literature

  • Herbert Asbury: The Gangs of New York . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. ISBN 1-56025-275-8
  • TJ English: Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster . New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-059002-5

Web links