Martin Scorsese’s ‘Gangs of New York’ was a dark look at the fierce and divided “Five Points” of 1860’s Lower Manhattan. While a lot of the movie is fiction, some of it was really pulled from history. This is a photo of the “Bandit’s Roost”, an alley in the real Five Points that was filled with bad motherfuckers. Let’s take a closer look at some of the real gangs that ran the Five Points in the late 1800’s.
The Five Points
The Five Points existed for more than 70 years and was notorious for being filled with crime, disease, and riots. Situated in Lower Manhattan, the center of the Five Points was where Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south converged. While the place was called home by a handful of dangerous gangs, it was also called home by diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis, yellow fever, and typhus. The Five Points supposedly held claim to the highest murder rate of any slum in the world at the time, seeing a murder a day for nearly 15 years. Now, let’s take a look at these gangs.
The Dead Rabbits
Active throughout the 1850’s, the Dead Rabbit gang was named so because of their frequent use of a dead rabbit in their gang activities. They would often throw a dead rabbit into the middle of the fight before it starts. They would also carry around a dead rabbit on a pike. Eerie to say the least. The majority of their clashes were with Nativist political groups who opposed the idea of allowing Irish immigrants into the country. Their chief rivals, the Bowery Boys, had engaged with the Dead Rabbits in over 200 gang fights over a 10 year span. The Rabbits were the enemy of anyone who opposed any kind of support towards immigrants of the country. John Morrissey, one of their leaders, would eventually become a U.S. congressman and contributed greatly to the fair treatment of Irish immigrants in the States.
Key rivals: Bowery Boys, Roach Guards, Plug Uglies
The Plug Uglies
Active from 1854-1865, The Plug Uglies were a street gang that were also referred to as a “political party.” They were primarily Irish and Irish American, and they were captained by John English and James Morgan. Originally forming in Baltimore, Maryland, the gang moved to The Five Points to engage in such criminal activities as: street fighting, knife fighting assault, murder, robbery, arson, and rioting. The Plug Uglies were so violent, that their activities were a large reason why a police squad and a paid fire service were created there.
Key rivals: Bowery Boys, Dead Rabbits
The Forty Thieves
Operating between the 1830’s and 1850’s this Irish gang of thugs and pickpockets quickly became one of the most feared gangs in The Points. Headed by Edward Coleman, the gang had their own quotas that required them to steal a certain amount of goods or face punishment. The gang, while violent, didn’t really have any specific rivals, and eventually dissolved in the early 1850’s.
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys were a Nativist, anti-Irish gang that, funny enough, consisted of people who led law abiding lives on the weekdays, before turning into violent savages on the weekends. The gang had a massive rivalry with The Dead Rabbits, who were pro Irish. The Bowery Boys was founded in the mid 19th century by the infamous William “Bill the Butcher” Poole. Their uniform consisted of a stovepipe hat, a red shirt, and dark pants that were to be tucked into your boots. Their uniform was a little shout out to the volunteer firemen who made up a lot of the group.
All of these gangs eventually dissolved, with people either dropping out of the life completely, or moving on to start their own gangs. The Five Points saw a ton of blood shed during its time, and now only exists as a memory split between the Civic Center to the west and south, and Chinatown to the east and north.
