Gas House Gang
 Third Avenue at East 18th Street in 1942; the gang operated in this area decades earlier | |
| Origins | |
|---|---|
| Founding Location | Gas House district, Manhattan, New York City |
| Territory | Third Avenue, principally East 11th to East 18th streets |
| Profile | |
| Membership | About 200 at its height (later estimate) |
| Activities | Armed robbery, extortion and street violence |
| Activity | |
| Years Active | 1870s–1914 (reported) |
| Founded Date | 1870s (reported) |
The Gas House Gang was a New York street-gang label associated with Manhattan's Gas House district. Herbert Asbury places an early form around East 35th Street in the 1870s and later describes roughly 200 members operating along Third Avenue from East 11th to East 18th streets.[1]
The nearby Jackson Gang under Thomas “Humpty” Jackson operated around a cemetery near East 12th–13th Streets. Geographic overlap and later narrative grouping do not prove that Jackson's independently led organization and every formation called the Gas House Gang were identical.
Later accounts credit the gang with frequent robberies and extortion. Asbury says it disappeared in early 1914 after its final leader, Tom Lynch, was killed in fighting with the Jimmy Curley gang.[1]
Roster
[edit]- Tom Lynch — described by Asbury as the gang's final leader.
- Scotty — Gas House member convicted of second-degree murder in 1911 after a gunfight with fellow members.[2]
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York (Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), chapters 10 and 16.
- ↑ “Knell of the Gangs Said to Have Rung”, The New York Times, June 13, 1911.