James Street Gang
| Also Known As | James Street Boys |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founder | Johnny Torrio (according to a later local history) |
| Founding Location | James Street, Corlears Hook, Lower Manhattan |
| Territory | James Street and Corlears Hook, Lower Manhattan East River waterfront in the old Fourth Ward |
| Lineage | |
| Parent Organization | Five Points Gang (described as an auxiliary) |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Neighborhood street gang |
| Activities | Illegal gambling Gang violence |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Johnny Torrio |
| Activity | |
| Years Active | 1900s–mid-1910s |
| Dissolved Date | c. 1915 |
| Dissolution Cause | Torrio's relocation to Chicago |
The James Street Gang, also called the James Street Boys, was a Lower East Side street gang associated with Johnny Torrio. Later accounts describe it as an auxiliary of Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang, rather than a fully independent rival organization.[1]
History
Infamous New York dates the group's origins to Torrio's early relationship with Kelly and explicitly calls the James Street Boys a “Five Points auxiliary.” It states that the gang assisted Kelly and the Yakey Yakes during the conflicts with the Eastman Gang.[1] Herbert Asbury's later narrative gives a somewhat different chronology: he says Torrio appeared in early 1911 as chieftain of the James Street Gang in the old Fourth Ward, dominated an East River waterfront area for almost five years and then moved west.[2] Because these sources disagree about the group's precise starting date, the infobox uses the broader “1900s–mid-1910s” range.
The available evidence supports describing the gang as an auxiliary or affiliated neighborhood crew. “Puppet” would imply a degree of direct control that the sources reviewed do not establish.
Name ambiguity
The same name had been used earlier for an unrelated gang of teenage girls. In 1903, the Evening Star reported that a group of girl thieves around James Street was variously called the Five Points Gang, Gap Gang and James Street Gang.[3] That organization should not be confused with Torrio's later James Street Boys.
See also
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Johnny Torrio and His First Mob: The James Street Gang”, Infamous New York, March 21, 2014.
- ↑ Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), pp. 356–357.
- ↑ “Girl Thieves in New York”, Evening Star, October 13, 1903, p. 13.