Hudson Dusters
 An unidentified figure presented in a 1914 newspaper illustration as “A typical Hudson Duster.” | |
| Origins | |
|---|---|
| Founder | Kid York (also rendered Yorke) Circular Jack |
| Founding Location | Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City |
| Territory | Greenwich Village and the lower West Side, Manhattan Approximately Canal Street to West 14th Street (1919 retrospective description) |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Loose street gang |
| Activities | Theft and robbery Waterfront and market looting Assault and armed street violence Election repeating and intimidation |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Red Farrell Bill “Big Jim” Redmond |
| Notable Members | Circular Jack Ding Dong |
| Rivals | Marginals Owney Madden's faction (reported in 1914) |
| Activity | |
| Status | Defunct |
| Years Active | c. 1905–c. 1917 |
| Founded Date | c. 1905 |
| Dissolved Date | c. 1917 (organized gang; name and remnants persisted) |
| Dissolution Cause | Police suppression Arrests and imprisonment Fragmentation |
The Hudson Dusters were an early twentieth-century street gang centered in Greenwich Village and the lower West Side of Manhattan. Contemporary reporting depicts a loose association involved in theft, waterfront and market robbery, election work and gang violence rather than a permanently ordered criminal hierarchy.
Formation and territory
[edit]A January 1914 investigation by The Sun, based partly on conversations with Circular Jack, called Kid York the reputed founder and reported Jack's statement that they had founded the gang nine years earlier. This places its probable formation around 1905.[1] Herbert Asbury's 1928 history instead dated the gang to the “late nineties” and added former Gopher Goo Goo Knox as a cofounder. Because those details lack equivalent contemporary confirmation, they are retained as Asbury's later account rather than as infobox facts.[2]
The 1914 feature followed Circular Jack through Abingdon Square and streets around Hudson, Perry, Bethune, Horatio, Bleecker and Barrow. It called the gang “unorganized and amorphous,” described meetings in Bethune and Horatio streets and said approximately thirty-five to forty Dusters took part as attackers or reserves in one raid against the Marginals.[1] A 1919 retrospective placed their former range north of Canal Street to Fourteenth Street.[3]
Crime, leadership and rivalries
[edit]The gang's name is documented by July 1912, when police identified William Jenks and James Redmond as Hudson Dusters after fighting and gunfire around Horatio and Washington streets.[4] In 1913, the Evening World reported that Joseph Rooney and Thomas Harris were arrested after merchants sought protection from theft and assaults at the West Washington and Gansevoort markets.[5]
The Sun identified Red Farrell as a longtime leader and described Big Jim Redmond as another leading figure. In December 1914, the Evening World called Redmond the gang's “president” while reporting his arrest and recent fighting with the Marginals, Owney Madden's followers and police.[1][6] “President” was newspaper terminology and does not establish a formal hierarchy.
The gang's relationship with the neighboring Gophers was situational rather than a fixed alliance. A September 1913 report said police believed Hudson Dusters and Gophers cooperated as armed repeaters during a West Side primary fight against Jack Sirocco's men.[7] Asbury later called them allies, while other period reporting placed Dusters and Madden's faction on opposing sides in 1914.[2] No permanent ally is therefore assigned in the infobox.
Decline
[edit]By January 1914, The Sun described the organization as disordered: Farrell had left gang life, Redmond was unavailable and lesser figures assembled members when political patrons required them.[1] The name nevertheless persisted. In September 1917, draftees entered Camp Upton under Hudson Dusters and other gang banners, while The Sun described such groups as remnants of organizations broken up by sustained police work.[8][9] The approximate 1917 endpoint refers to the organized gang; its name and remnants continued afterward.
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 “Hudson Dusters—Night Terrors of Greenwich Village”, The Sun, January 18, 1914, Fourth Section Pictorial Magazine, p. 2.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), pp. 234–240.
- ↑ “Gang Rule Again Shows Its Head”, The Evening World, July 31, 1919, p. 3.
- ↑ “Gang Fight After a Picnic”, The Sun, July 30, 1912, p. 14.
- ↑ “War on Gang Robbing Market Wagons”, The Evening World, August 29, 1913, p. 2.
- ↑ “Big Jim, Gang Boss, is Arrested for Spite”, The Evening World, December 9, 1914, p. 11.
- ↑ “Repeaters in Gun Fight on Broadway”, The Sun, September 17, 1913, p. 1.
- ↑ “Gang Banners at Camp Upton”, New-York Tribune, September 21, 1917, p. 5.
- ↑ “The Passing of the Gang”, The Sun, September 22, 1917, p. 14.