Editing Gopher Gang

{{SHORTDESC:Irish-American street gang in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan}}
{{Infobox criminal organization
| name = Gopher Gang
| also_known_as = Gophers
| image = Jacob Riis - Hells Kitchen and Sebastopol.jpg
| caption = Hell's Kitchen photographed by Jacob Riis before 1890; this contextual image does not depict identified Gopher members
| founding_location = [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan]], New York City
| territory = Hell's Kitchen<br>Manhattan's West Side from West 14th to West 42nd streets, between Seventh and Eleventh avenues
| locations = Battle Row, West 39th Street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues
| subsets = Parlor Mob<br>Gorillas<br>Rhodes Gang
| structure = Loose federation of neighborhood crews
| ethnicity = Predominantly Irish American
| membership = Up to 500 {{small|(Herbert Asbury's estimate)}}
| activities = Armed robbery<br>Burglary<br>Extortion<br>Illegal gambling<br>Assault<br>Murder
| leader = One Lung Curran<br>Owney Madden {{small|(later faction)}}
| notable_members = Newburg Gallagher<br>Marty Brennan<br>Stumpy Malarkey<br>Goo Goo Knox<br>Happy Jack Mulraney
| allies = Hudson Dusters<br>Battle Row Ladies' Social and Athletic Club
| status = Defunct
| years_active = Late 1890s–mid-1910s
| founded_date = Late 1890s
| dissolved_date = Mid-1910s {{small|(fragmentation)}}
| dissolution_cause = Police suppression<br>Arrests and imprisonment of leaders<br>Factionalization
}}

The '''Gopher Gang''', commonly called the '''Gophers''', was a predominantly Irish-American street-gang federation based in [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell's Kitchen]] around the turn of the twentieth century. The organization controlled much of Manhattan's West Side between West 14th and West 42nd streets and became one of the neighborhood's best-known pre-Prohibition gangs. Its membership and leadership fluctuated, and later sources sometimes treat separate neighborhood crews or the faction led by Owney Madden as if they were a single centrally directed organization.<ref name="Asbury">Herbert Asbury, [https://archive.org/details/the-gangs-of-new-york-herbert-asbury ''The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld''] (Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), pp. 235, 321–22.</ref><ref name="English">T. J. English, [https://archive.org/details/paddywhackedunto0000engl ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster''] (ReganBooks, 2005), pp. 111, 115–19.</ref>

==Organization and territory==
Asbury described the Gophers as a turbulent association whose leaders rarely retained authority for long. He placed their territory from Seventh to Eleventh avenues and from West 14th to West 42nd streets, and estimated that they could mobilize no more than 500 men. A favored meeting place was Mallet Murphy's saloon on “Battle Row,” West 39th Street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues.<ref name="Asbury" />

Asbury attributed the gang's name to members hiding in basements and cellars. Because that explanation appeared in a colorful retrospective history published in 1928, it is best treated as a traditional account rather than a proven contemporary origin story. The Parlor Mob, Gorillas and Rhodes Gang were smaller Hell's Kitchen crews described as owing allegiance to the Gophers. Asbury also identified the Hudson Dusters as allies—not rivals—and described the Battle Row Ladies' Social and Athletic Club, popularly called the Lady Gophers, as a supporting women's organization.<ref name="Asbury" />

==Crime and contemporary reporting==
The Gophers were associated with robbery, burglary, intimidation, illegal gambling and armed violence. Contemporary newspapers used “Gopher Gang” as an identifiable organization name. In October 1910, the ''New-York Tribune'' called the group “notorious” while reporting that approximately twelve Gophers rushed a West 23rd Street dance hall after threatening a special patrolman; two gang members were shot during the confrontation.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1910-10-30/ed-1/?sp=1 “Killed in Shooting at a Dance Hall: Attacked by Gopher Gang”], ''New-York Tribune'', October 30, 1910, p. 1.</ref>

Another 1910 case involved Newburg Gallagher and Marty Brennan. Gallagher admitted shooting bartender William Lennon after a prolonged personal feud, but his confession did not save Brennan from a lengthy sentence.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1910/11/24/archives/fails-to-save-his-pal-long-term-for-brennan-though-gallagher-admits.html “Fails to Save His Pal; Long Term for Brennan, Though Gallagher Admits He Killed Lennon”], ''The New York Times'', November 24, 1910.</ref> Such cases establish individual acts and affiliations but do not prove that every crime later attributed to the Gophers was ordered by the organization.

==Leadership and decline==
Asbury named Newburg Gallagher, Marty Brennan, Stumpy Malarkey, Goo Goo Knox, One Lung Curran and Happy Jack Mulraney among prominent Gophers. Goo Goo Knox later helped organize the allied Hudson Dusters. Curran led several subordinate neighborhood crews, while Madden assembled a more centralized faction from former Gophers during the early 1910s.<ref name="Asbury" /><ref name="English" />

Madden's faction earned money from theft, stickups, loft burglaries and intimidation. After the 1914 murder of former Gopher Patsy Doyle, Madden was convicted and imprisoned. A 1923 ''New York Times'' report still described him as a “Gopher Gang chief” when announcing his parole.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1923/01/23/archives/gopher-gang-chief-to-get-parole-as-model-prisoner.html “Gopher Gang Chief to Get Parole as Model Prisoner”], ''The New York Times'', January 23, 1923.</ref> Police suppression, internal factionalism and the imprisonment of leading members had already fragmented the street gang by the middle of the 1910s.

The Gophers were an earlier expression of Irish-American gang activity on Manhattan's West Side, but available sources do not establish direct organizational continuity between them and the later [[Dunn-McGrath Gang]], [[Spillane Gang]] or [[Westies]].

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Defunct organizations based in New York City]]
[[Category:Former gangs in New York City]]
[[Category:Gangs in Manhattan]]
[[Category:Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan]]
[[Category:Irish-American organized crime groups]]
[[Category:Organizations established in the 1890s]]