The Five Points & Eastman Gangs

(Early Gangland in NewYork)

If you were to ponder where the modern day gangster first came into prominence in America, where the skills that became the tools of their trade were first conceived and then honed then you must consider the Five Points district of New York as being among the prime candidates for that dubious honour. Five Points took its name from five streets, Little Water, Cross,Orange and Mulberry, and Anthony. One of the vilest slums in the history of creation the Five Points district was a rat infested, mud swamp of broken down tenement housing with robbery and murder an everyday occurrence. A place where only the strongest survived and the weak fell by the wayside, tossed aside as the young and more determined battled to find a way out of the poverty that engulfed the district like a shroud.

The district`s `Five Points`gang produced young criminals who later rose to become some of the most notorious, wealthiest,and most powerful leaders in America`s organized crimes history. Guys like Capone and Torrio were members of the infamous Five Points gang before going on to much greater wealth and notoriety via the money making machine called organised crime. Make no mistake the lessons learned as Five Pointers played a huge part in forming the top echelon gangsters these two giants of American crime were to become.

The district of Five Points had originally been a barren swamp back in the 1600`s. When New York City was first built A lake called Fresh Water Pond near Mulberry Street had an island in the middle of it, that island was used as a prison for slaves that had tried to escape their masters grip. Punishment for those slaves who had unsuccessfully made a bid for freedom consisted of being taken to the Island, tied to a wagon wheel, lashed with a whip and beaten severely. Later (if still alive) they would be untied from the wheel , a rope placed round their neck and hanged until dead.

Around 1732 seventy-five acres of this swamp like marshland was acquired by Anthony Rutger, he wanted to drain the marshes and fill it in. He later decided not to go ahead with his enterprise. The area in 1784 which long before had came to be known as the `Collect` had now seen a great influx of impoverished immigrant families and had become a squalid slum. The first street was built once the Collect was eventually filled, this only being done after officials were harassed by angry sailors marching through the area demanding better conditions for it`s inhabitants by way of food, housing and work.

That street was named Collect Street for a time but later it`s name was changed to Rynders Street after Colonel Issiah Rynders a Tammany boss of the 1840`s. Rynders` who`s responsibilities were to The Sixth Ward which included the Five Points did little for the people of the area. under Rynders the area became an unlawful, wild, vile slum where corruption by the officials in the communities was rampant. One of the worst parts of the neighbourhood was a place in Paradise Square in it stood what was once an old brewery that had been converted into a tenement, it became overcrowded with Irish, Italians and black families. The neighbourhood became known as the `Old Brewery` it attracted every drunken vagabond, every impoverished immigrant for miles around who needed a place to shelter. Other places of a similar decrepit nature were tenements known as Jacobs Ladder, Cow Bay, and The Gates Of Hell these were no more than dens of vice and debauchery. For many who lived among this squalor, theft and prostitution were the only means of survival.

In the early part of the nineteenth century the masters of the Five Points were the butchers. For entertainment they would organise bull-baiting contests, huge crowds would gather and money was bet on how many dogs the bulls would gore. As a result of this it wasn't long before saloons and dance halls sprang up in the streets close by Paradise Square taking advantage of the huge crowds now thronging the area. Low-life`s from far and near clamoured to the area each eager to eek a living from stealing, conning, and mugging the ever increasing population of the surrounding area.

This is the environment from which the original `Five Points` gang grew. There were many gangs before them but all were badly organised with poor leadership.

The back rooms of the small shops that had emerged among the saloons and dance halls were often used as drinking dens by the various gangs that were around then, most of these shops were owned by local politicians who profited from these `speakeasies` through undercutting the saloons by selling cheap rot-gut spirits to the non too fussy gangs looking to get drunk in the backrooms while discussing `business`.

Among the very first of these greengrocer speakeasies to appear was run by Rosana Peers in 1825 it was situated on Center Street, just south of Anthony Street. The backroom of Peers was headquarters to the `Forty Thieves` gang led by Edward Coleman, the Kerryonians also held meetings there. They took their name from County Kerry in Ireland, all it`s members originated from there. Other gangs using speakeasies as headquarters around that time were `The Dead Rabbits``The Chichesters` `Roach Guards` and `Plug Uglies`. The Plug Uglies had the reputation at that time of being the more fiercest of these gangs they took the name because of the over-sized `plug` hats that they always wore, when going into battle each plug ugly would have a brickbat in one hand and a truncheon in the other with a pistol tucked in the back trouser pocket for when the need arose.

The NewYork waterfront was an equally dubious and devious place every bit as dangerous and tough as the Five Points area. Gangs roamed the waterfront among the wharves and quays planning raids on the ships laying loaded with cargo. The most daring of these waterside gangs was probably the Daybreak Boys so called because of their audacious dawn raids on the cargo ships these savage pirates of the wharves would kill anyone who stood between them and their prize, the ships cargo. other gangs earning a living on the waterfront were the Buckaroo's, The Hookers, and the Patsy Conroy's all of these gangs were as tough as nails and would let nothing and no-one stand between them and the ships cargo.

The waterfront gangs evolved in a similar way to the Five Points gang. The rich aristocracy built the very first homes close to the waters edge when first arriving but later when masses of immigrants started to swamp the area the aristocrats upped sticks and moved further inland to better areas leaving their great homes to be replaced by similar ramshackle tenement buildings to those on the Five-Points district leaving Manhattan to the ever growing influx of immigrant families. Gotham Court and Sweeneys`s Shambles two of the tenements were on a par with the Old Brewery at Paradise Square the former having the added burden of having a sewer run under it, the gangs used the sewer as a hideout, but enormous rats infested the area often attacking the young children and with the rats came cholera, claiming many more victims than the huge rodents themselves did.

European immigrants were flooding into Manhattan by the time the 1890`s came around, Irish and italian with eastern europeans mostly all looking for work. Overcrowding meant they were largely left to the very worst of the ghettos, living in tenements already overcrowded without even the minimum basics like plumbing and sanitation. Each of the ethnic groups snatched whatever territory they could and defended it, keeping outsiders at bay by any means. The old gangs were by this time fading away but newer ones had evolved from the fading embers of the old.

In the Italian strong-hold of the Lower East Side, many gangs of young thugs roamed armed with knives and guns. The Black Hand was one of the strongest engaging in extortion of their own Italian immigrant people and the Jews who also lived among them. The Black Hand would threaten to kill or maim family members of any person not willing to pay whatever they demanded. A note would be sent to the victim of the extortionists bearing a Black Hand the sight of this would in most cases be enough for the victim to pay up. The horror stories heard about those who refused or couldn't pay were enough on most occasions for the money to be handed over.

Two gangs emerged in the early 20th century above the others, these were The Five Pointers who were the main successors to the Dead Rabbits and the Plug Uglies also the Whyos they boasted a membership of some 1,500. The Five Pointers were led by Paul Kelly. Kelly despite his Irish sounding name was in fact born in Italy around 1875 he was named Paulo Antonio Vaccarelli he immigrated with his family to the US and settled in NewYork, before his time as a gang leader he had an established boxing career he fought professionally at bantamweight.

Kelly`s Five Points boys lorded over the area between Broadway and the bowery, and Fourteenth Street and City Hall Park. The Five pointers would meet often at the Brighton Dance Hall on Great Jones Street this flashy dive of a joint was owned by Paul Kelly, socialites would flock to it for the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with the gangsters.

The Five Pointers main rivals were the Eastman Gang led by Monk Eastman, Eastman like Kelly was a fearless fighter and very tough, but they were not alike in any other respect. Paul Kelly was small and light, liked to dress conservatively was softly spoken and well educated. Kelly could move in the same circles as the socialites and political figures and like distance himself from violence if possible although more than able to hold his own when required. A young protégé of Kelly was Johnny Torrio.

Monk Eastman was born Edward Osterman. He was born in Brooklyn in 1873. He was jewish, his parents ran a small Jewish restaurant a well respected establishment which was fairly profitable. He was given a pet shop by his parents on the nearby Penn Street as a way of giving him a start in business. Eastman unlike his rival Kelly was a typical looking gangster of the period he wore a derby hat a few sizes too small on top of a bullet-shaped head, he had a bull neck and a stocky build. He had various scars and a broken nose the result of the many fights he was involved in. He had an altogether fearsome appearance and looked every inch the battle hardened gang leader.

Around 1895 he moved to lower Manhattan leaving behind the Pet shop his parents had left him as a stepping stone into business, Monk wanted to scale the heights alright but not in the world of pet shops or any other legitimate business. He soon found himself with the dubious title of `sheriff` of New Irving Hall this meant in fact that Monk Eastman was an armed bouncer in a dance hall owned by the gangsters and politicians of the area. It was a job in which Eastman excelled he soon rose up the rungs of the criminal ladder and by the time the turn of the century arrived 1900 Monk was leading a gang of more than 1,100 thugs, thieves and killers known now collectively as the Eastman Gang.

The main source of income for both the Five Points Gang led by Paul Kelly and the Eastman gang led by Monk was from stuss games (similar to faro), prostitution and jobs they were assigned by their wealthy friends in politics. Both also had their own gangs of organised pick-pockets and of course they had gangs of burglars organised to bring a percentage of the loot into the gangs kitty. Another important earner for both gangs came during election times when both Kelly`s and Eastman`s friends in Tammany Hall hired them to supply `repeaters` to vote for them and also to supply violence when talking failed to get across a particular political viewpoint of the Tammany Hall politicians.

A strip of land just off the Bowery was the main source of the rift that took place between the Five Points Gang and The Eastman's. Both gangs laid claim to the territory. Eastman had stuss games in operation on the disputed strip of land which Which the Five Pointers raided and robbed, the same was done to the Five-pointers games by way of retaliation. In 1901 and only a year after Eastman left his pet shop business he was shot in the stomach. The shooting happened in the Bowery when Eastman was alone he was jumped by five or six Five Points guys carrying black jacks and pistols, Eastman recovered from the stomach wound soon after, a Five Points member shot soon after in retaliation wasn't as lucky.

The War between Eastman Gang and the Five Point Gang came to a head in 1903.A bunch of Five Point Gangsters were getting ready to bust in on a stuss game being run be Eastman on Rivington Street, but as they were about to raid the game six Eastman boys appeared and spotted the Five Pointers getting ready to make their move. The Eastman gangsters opened fire on the Five Pointers who had seeing them had taken cover behind an archway pillar and were returning fire. Kelly arrived on the scene with around 40 men, The Eastman's were reinforced by 50 men who had come from their nearby Chrystie Street headquarters, the battle raged on well past midnight police had arrived but had to retreat such was the ferocity of the gunfire. By the time more police reinforcements had arrived three gunmen lay dead and many more were wounded. Police gained some control and made arrests, Monk Eastman was among those arrested. Monk was`nt in custody long though, when he went before the judge he explained that he had only been passing by the incident and had not taken any part in the shootings. Thanks to his political friends in Tammany Hall he was discharged and walked free.

Their was huge public outcry concerning the gun battle. The Tammany district leader Tom Foley in an attempt to restore peace brought the two leaders together he told them if peace wasn't restored then they would no longer have the political protection they had previously and would be wiped out. Both men shook on the deal and agreed that the disputed peace of territory would now be regarded as neutral land.

The peace lasted only months before war broke out again between both gangs. Tammany Hall again called the two gang leaders together to put an end to the fighting. It was agreed that in order to establish which of the two gangs would have superiority and rights to the disputed territory that the two gang leaders themselves should meet in a prizefight the winners gang would be regarded as the top gang.

On the day of the `prizefight` hundreds of men from each of the two gangs squeezed into a disused barn in the Bronx district ready to cheer on their respective leaders who met in the center of the makeshift ring like to gladiatorial warriors in the Colosseum of Roman times. For two solid hours Kelly and Eastman went at it, neither giving an inch, each determined to show that he was the better man, the master. Kelly`s experience of earlier in his life being a professional boxer gave him an early advantage but Eastman's greater size and ferocity matched the boxing acumen of Kelly, and at the end of a bloody, exhausting and painful two hours the fight was declared a draw. The two men then told their gangs to return to battle.

The men in Tammany Hall decided there was no other way to end the gang fighting the withdrew all their support and backing of Monk Eastman essentially leaving him to get out of his troubles on his own, with no more stepping in on his behalf when he found himself in court. Not long after on November 2nd, 1904 he was battered into unconscious by a truncheon welding policeman who came across Eastman attempting to rob a member of a wealthy family. He subsequently appeared in court charged with felonious assault and robbery. his plea to his political Friends in Tammany hall fell on deaf ears this time round and he was sentenced to prison (Sing-Sing) for 10 years. The Eastman Gang crumbled without Monk Eastman, his successor who took the reigns after Monks incarceration Kid Twist was murdered by the Five-Points gang.Monk Eastman was released from prison in 1909 he never regained his leadership position with the gang and drifted into a life of petty crime mainly theft. He did another few small jail terms between 1912 and 1917 one was a two-year stint for robbery and the other was an eight month term for dealing opium.

The first world war saw many young men enlist to fight for their country. The medical officer at one recruitment station was amazed at the scars and bullet wounds on the body of one volunteer, a william Delaney. "What wars have you been in Delaney to get scars the likes of those ?" asked the medical officer." oh just some wars around the New York area he replied laughing. William Delaney was in fact the 44 year-old Monk Eastman who had changed his name to Delaney to enlist with the New York national guard. Monk Eastman served his country with distinction, fighting the germans on the mud-soaked battlefields of france as part of the US army`s 106th Infantry. He was as fearless in France as he had been back on the streets of NewYork, he wiped out pockets of german machine-gunners, saving the lives of wounded American troops in the process. He left the Army with an honourable discharge in the April of 1919. He had his citizenship restored by Governor Al Smith. Eastman was`nt suited to a peaceful existence and was soon back on his old stomping ground looking for ways to muscle in on some of the street action he had missed out on while in France. He tried to make a move on a gangster who was running a bootlegging operation and dealing in drugs figuring he could take over the gangsters business. Monk Eastman was shot to death on December 26th, 1920. he died on the sidewalk outside the Blue Bird Café his murderer was Jerry Bohan, a corrupt Prohibition agent, Bohan had fired five bullets into Eastman.

He was buried with full military honors at Brooklyn's Cypress Hill Cemetery the cost of his funeral was met by funds raised by his old comrades in the 106th infantry. Monk Eastman's gangster buddy`s may have forgotten him, the men of the 106th certainly had`nt.

Back in 1904 around the time Monk Eastman had been starting his 10 year sentence for the attempted robbery Paul Kelly had been involved in a shoot-out with two of his own gangs former members, James `Biff` Ellison and Razor Riley. The two walked into Kelly`s New Brighton Dance Hall when the spotted their old boss Paul Kelly sitting at the back of the hall with Bill Harrington and his girlfriend and `Rough House` Hogan. The two men approached the table and drew their revolvers, Harrison shouted a warning and was immediately shot and killed by riley. Kelly scrambled to the floor and under the table emerging from the other side with a gun in each hand. The dance halls lights were switched off as gun-fire crackled all around the now darkened hall. Kelly was hit three times, but survived. By the time the police arrived at the dance hall the place was deserted apart from the solitary figure of Bill Harrington lying dead where he fell in a pool of his own blood. Paul Kelly later opened a new joint and named it Little Naples it did well but in 1906 after all the pressure on Tammany hall to clean up the Bowery and the Five Points he had to close the place down. He later became involved in labour unions becoming an organiser, he still was a powerful underworld leader and had strong ties to the new upcoming gangs emerging in NewYork. He lived until 1936 when he died of natural causes on April 3rd.

Article: Kenny Torro

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