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West Side Gang

Informer — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 03:43:53 GMT

Refine faction hierarchy, Rubel crew relationship, and 1935–36 war chronology after source review

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:43, 19 August 2026
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	\| structure = Loose coalition of two factions		\| structure = Loose coalition of two factions
	\| activities = Waterfront and labor racketeering<br>Cargo theft and armed robbery<br>Extortion<br>Gambling and loansharking<br>Murder		\| activities = Waterfront and labor racketeering<br>Cargo theft and armed robbery<br>Extortion<br>Gambling and loansharking<br>Murder
	\| leader = Joseph “Big Joe” Butler {{small\|(Butler faction)}}<br>Robert J. “Farmer” Sullivan {{small\|(Butler's partner)}}<br>~~Charles “Charlie the Jew” Yanowsky {{small\|(Yanowsky faction)}}~~		\| leader = Joseph “Big Joe” Butler {{small\|(Butler faction)}}<br>Charles “Charlie the Jew” Yanowsky {{small\|(Yanowsky faction)}}
	~~\| notable_members =~~ Edward “Eddie” McGrath<br>John “Cockeye” Dunn		\| notable_members = Robert J. “Farmer” Sullivan {{small\|(Butler's partner and veteran confidant)}}<br>Edward “Eddie” McGrath<br>John “Cockeye” Dunn
	\| successor = [[Dunn-McGrath Gang]] {{small\|(through the victorious Butler faction)}}		\| successor = [[Dunn-McGrath Gang]] {{small\|(through the victorious Butler faction)}}
	\| status = Defunct		\| status = Defunct
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	}}		}}

	The '''West Side Gang''' was a loose 1930s criminal coalition operating around Manhattan's West Side waterfront. Historian Neil G. Clark writes that the group had no formal name but was occasionally called the “West Side Gang” by law enforcement. It contained two ~~principal factions~~: one ~~led by~~ Joseph “Big Joe” Butler ~~with his partner Robert J. “Farmer” Sullivan,~~ and another led by Charles “Charlie the Jew” Yanowsky.<ref name="Clark">Neil G. Clark, [https://books.google.com/books?id=83CcEQAAQBAJ ''Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront''] (Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books, 2017), especially chapters 4–9.</ref> It was distinct from later ~~organizations~~ broadly ~~grouped~~ under the [[Westside Irish Mob]] label.		The '''West Side Gang''' was a loose 1930s criminal coalition operating around Manhattan's West Side waterfront. Historian Neil G. Clark writes that the group had no formal name but was occasionally called the “West Side Gang” by law enforcement. It contained two loosely allied groups: one centered on Joseph “Big Joe” Butler and another led by Charles “Charlie the Jew” Yanowsky.<ref name="Clark">Neil G. Clark, [https://books.google.com/books?id=83CcEQAAQBAJ ''Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront''] (Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books, 2017), especially chapters 4–9.</ref> Robert J. “Farmer” Sullivan was Butler's partner and veteran confidant, but the available evidence does not establish him as Butler's formal co-boss. The organization was distinct from later groups broadly classified under the [[Westside Irish Mob]] label.

	==Two-faction structure==		==Two-faction structure==
	The coalition was not organized like a hierarchical Mafia family. Its members and associates profited from cargo theft, extortion, gambling, loansharking and influence over waterfront labor. Journalist Daniel J. Wakin, summarizing Clark's research, identifies Butler, Sullivan and Yanowsky as the heads of its two most powerful factions.<ref name="Wakin">Daniel J. Wakin, [https://danieljwakin.com/2018/02/25/post-pub-updates-west-side-gangs-fight-it-out-in-the-30s/ “West Side Gangs Fight It Out in the ’30s”], February 25, 2018.</ref>		The coalition was not organized like a hierarchical Mafia family. Its members and associates profited from cargo theft, extortion, gambling, loansharking and influence over waterfront labor. Journalist Daniel J. Wakin, summarizing Clark's research, identifies Butler, Sullivan and Yanowsky as the heads of its two most powerful factions.<ref name="Wakin">Daniel J. Wakin, [https://danieljwakin.com/2018/02/25/post-pub-updates-west-side-gangs-fight-it-out-in-the-30s/ “West Side Gangs Fight It Out in the ’30s”], February 25, 2018.</ref>

	The '''Butler faction''' was ~~led by~~ Big Joe Butler. Clark describes Robert J. “Farmer” Sullivan, a veteran Greenwich Village gangster, as Butler's partner. Future waterfront bosses Eddie McGrath and John “Cockeye” Dunn emerged from this group.<ref name="Clark" />		The '''Butler faction''' was centered on Big Joe Butler. Clark describes Robert J. “Farmer” Sullivan, a veteran Greenwich Village gangster, as Butler's partner and veteran confidant rather than assigning him a formal subordinate rank. Future waterfront bosses Eddie McGrath and John “Cockeye” Dunn emerged from this group.<ref name="Clark" />

	The '''Yanowsky faction''' was led by Charlie Yanowsky, a New York-born racketeer who had previously led New Jersey's '''Rope Ladder Gang'''. That earlier crew reportedly used rope ladders to climb rail cars and steal freight. After New Jersey authorities acted against it in 1933, Yanowsky moved into the Manhattan West Side underworld and developed his own following.<ref name="Clark" /> The Rope Ladder Gang was therefore an earlier Yanowsky organization, not a third West Side faction independently fighting Butler.		The '''Yanowsky faction''' was led by Charlie Yanowsky, a New York-born racketeer who had previously led New Jersey's '''Rope Ladder Gang'''. That earlier crew reportedly used rope ladders to climb rail cars and steal freight. After New Jersey authorities acted against it in 1933, Yanowsky moved into the Manhattan West Side underworld and developed his own following.<ref name="Clark" /> The Rope Ladder Gang was therefore an earlier Yanowsky organization, not a third West Side faction independently fighting Butler.

	==Rubel robbery crew==		==Rubel robbery crew==
	The name '''“Rubel Gang”''' is best understood as ~~a label~~ for ~~participants in~~ the 1934 ~~Rubel armored-car robbery~~, not as a separate, ~~formally subordinate~~ gang with four joint leaders. Clark identifies Bernard “Bennie the Bum” McMahon, John “Fats” Manning, Joe Kress and robbery specialist John “Archie” Stewart as West Side participants in the heist. Wakin, relying on Clark, says these men were members or associates of Yanowsky's faction; he also reports Clark's conclusion that Yanowsky supplied machine guns used in the robbery and that Kress participated with Yanowsky in the killing of a Butler-affiliated gangster.<ref name="Wakin" /> Contemporary ~~reporting later described~~ the ~~Rubel robbery as a~~ $427,950 ~~hold-up~~ and ~~documented indictments~~ and ~~trials, but did not by itself establish a separate Rubel organization under Yanowsky~~.<ref>[https://www.~~nytimes~~.com/~~1938~~/11/04/~~archives~~/~~eight-are-indicted~~-in-~~rubel-holdup-solution-of-427950-robbery~~-in~~.html “Eight Are Indicted in Rubel Hold-Up”~~], ''The New ~~York Times~~'', ~~November 4~~, ~~1938~~.</ref><ref>[https://www.~~nytimes~~.com/1939/06/29/~~archives/robber-describes-rubel-holdup-in-minute-detail~~-in-brooklyn-~~court.html “Robber Describes Rubel Hold-Up in Minute Detail~~ in ~~Brooklyn Court”~~], ''The New York ~~Times~~'', ~~June 29~~, ~~1939~~.</ref>		The name '''“Rubel Gang”''' is best understood as shorthand for the ad hoc crew assembled to rob an armored truck outside Brooklyn's Rubel Ice Company on August 21, 1934, not as a separate, enduring gang with four joint leaders. Contemporary accounts place the amount stolen at $427,950 and say the crew was assembled for that single operation and never again worked as one unit.<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1939/05/13/robbery-in-brooklyn-i “Robbery in Brooklyn—I”], ''The New Yorker'', May 13, 1939.</ref><ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1939/05/20/robbery-in-brooklyn-ii “Robbery in Brooklyn—II”], ''The New Yorker'', May 20, 1939.</ref>

			The plan originated with Bernard “Bennie the Bum” McMahon and John “Fats” Manning. John J. “Archie” Stewart then became a principal organizer and recruiter; he was distinct from another participant, Stewart “One-Arm” Wallace. Joseph Kress was accused of participating, but the New York Court of Appeals reversed his conviction because Stewart's accomplice testimony lacked legally sufficient independent corroboration and because of prejudicial trial errors.<ref>[https://hallapproved.com/ny/cases/supreme/1940/3643327 ''People v. Kress''], 284 N.Y. 452 (N.Y. 1940).</ref>

			Clark's later research associates McMahon, Manning, Kress and Stewart with Yanowsky's faction and contends that Yanowsky supplied the machine guns used in the robbery. The contemporary reconstruction and appellate opinion, however, do not identify Yanowsky as a planner, participant, commander or beneficiary. The evidence therefore supports overlapping personnel and possible logistical assistance—not a subordinate “Rubel Gang” operating under Yanowsky.<ref name="Clark" /><ref name="Wakin" />

	==Factional war and aftermath==		==Factional war and aftermath==
	~~Cooperation collapsed into~~ a ~~war between the Butler~~ and ~~Yanowsky factions during~~ the ~~middle 1930s~~. ~~Members crossed factional lines~~, ~~Butler-affiliated men were targeted~~, and the ~~unified West Side Gang label ceased to describe~~ a ~~functioning coalition~~. Yanowsky was shot and captured by federal agents in Hoboken in January 1936 while wanted for questioning about a gang killing, a bank robbery and an interstate silk hijacking.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016181/1936-01-31/ed-1/?sp=25 “‘I'm Glad I Got It,’ Mutters Gangster After Being Shot”], ''The Washington Daily News'', January 31, 1936, p. 25.</ref>		The two groups initially cooperated, but their robbery and pier-racket operations increasingly overlapped. Clark dates a “cold war” to late 1934 and an open struggle for the West Side to early 1935. On January 16, 1935, Yanowsky and Joe Kress reportedly found Butler associate James “Ding Dong” Bell at the Market Diner in Greenwich Village, where Yanowsky shot him.<ref name="Clark" /> The incident supports direct violence between factional figures but does not establish a formal command order binding every associate.

			Yanowsky was shot and captured by federal agents in Hoboken in January 1936 while wanted for questioning about a gang killing, a bank robbery and an interstate silk hijacking.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016181/1936-01-31/ed-1/?sp=25 “‘I'm Glad I Got It,’ Mutters Gangster After Being Shot”], ''The Washington Daily News'', January 31, 1936, p. 25.</ref> On March 15, Butler was fatally wounded in a shotgun ambush near the Hotel New Yorker. Three Yanowsky-group associates were charged, but the charges were later dropped for insufficient evidence; the evidence does not establish that Yanowsky ordered Butler's killing. Sullivan was fatally shot during a purported reconciliation dinner in Matawan Township, New Jersey, on September 20.<ref name="Clark" /> Nothing located establishes that Sullivan had inherited a formal boss title after Butler's death.

	The Butler side, increasingly led by McGrath and Dunn, eventually prevailed as Yanowsky associates were killed or imprisoned. ~~Manning was among those later shot to death, while the~~ Butler organization consolidated waterfront rackets and evolved into the [[Dunn-McGrath Gang]].<ref name="Clark" /><ref name="Wakin" /> Yanowsky survived his imprisonment and later ~~carried cards~~ as a waterfront-union business agent~~; he~~ was found stabbed to death in Clifton, New Jersey, in 1948.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1948-07-17/ed-1/?sp=4 “Business Agent of Union Found Stabbed to Death”], ''Evening Star'', July 17, 1948, p. 4.</ref>		The Butler side, increasingly led by McGrath and Dunn, eventually prevailed as Yanowsky associates were killed or imprisoned. The surviving Butler organization consolidated the more lucrative waterfront rackets and evolved into the [[Dunn-McGrath Gang]].<ref name="Clark" /><ref name="Wakin" /> Yanowsky survived his imprisonment and later worked as a New Jersey waterfront-union business agent. He was found stabbed to death in Clifton, New Jersey, in 1948; contemporary reporting connected that later killing to a New Jersey waterfront struggle rather than the earlier Manhattan faction war.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1948-07-17/ed-1/?sp=4 “Business Agent of Union Found Stabbed to Death”], ''Evening Star'', July 17, 1948, p. 4.</ref>

	==References==		==References==

Rubel robbery gang

Informer — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 03:16:45 GMT

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#REDIRECT [[West Side Gang#Rubel robbery crew]]

Rubel Gang

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#REDIRECT [[West Side Gang#Rubel robbery crew]]

Rope Ladder Gang

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