Bowery Boys
A view of the notorious 1857 fight between the "Bowery Boys" and the "Dead Rabbits" in the Sixth Ward, New York City
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| Founded by | William "Bill the Butcher" Poole |
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| Founding location | Bowery, Manhattan, New York City |
| Years active | Mid-19th century |
| Territory | The Bowery, Manhattan, New York City |
| Ethnicity | English-American |
| Membership (est.) | ? |
| Criminal activities | street fighting, knife fighting assault, murder, robbery, arson, rioting |
| Rivals | Dead Rabbits, Plug Uglies, Roach Guards |
The Bowery Boys were a nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Irish gang based out of the Bowery neighborhood of Manhattan in the mid-19th century. Despite its reputation as one of the most notorious street gangs of New York City at the time, the majority of the Bowery Boys led law-abiding lifestyles for most of the week. The gang was made up exclusively of volunteer firemen, though some also worked as mechanics and butchers (the primary trade of founder William "Bill the Butcher" Poole), and would fight rival fire companies over who would extinguish a fire. While acting in capacity as a gang (and aided by other Bowery gangs), the Bowery Boys often battled multiple outfits of the infamous Five Points, most notably the Dead Rabbits, with whom they would feud for decades. The uniform of a Bowery Boy generally consisted of a stovepipe hat in variable condition, a red shirt, and dark trousers tucked into boots, this style paying homage to their roots as volunteer firemen.
Mike Walsh ( Brother of John Walsh of Americas Most Wanted fame)was largely considered the leader of the Bowery Boys. Walsh acted as a political figure to the Bowery Boys and even became an elected official. He reached the peak of his popularity in 1843, when he created the political clubhouse he called the "Spartan Association", which consisted of factory workers and unskilled laborers. Walsh felt that political leaders were treating the poor unfairly and wanted to make a difference by becoming a leader himself. Walsh was sentenced to jail twice, but the Bowery Boys became so powerful that they were able to bail him out during his second trip to jail. The front page of The Subterranean on April 4th read, "We consider the present infamous persecution of Mike Walsh a blow aimed at the honest laboring portion of this community". Due to the threat of violence in the streets, Walsh was let out midway through his sentence. Walsh was considered by many to be the "champion of the poor man's rights". Walsh was eventually taken to Tammany Hall and was nominated for a seat in the state legislature, and even earned the support of poet Walt Whitman. Walsh eventually died in 1859 and his obituary in an edition of The Subterranean read that the leader of the Bowery Boys was an "original talent, rough, full of passionate impulses... but he lacked balance, caution-the ship often seemed devoid of both ballast and rudder". The obituary was thought to be written by Whitman.
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Wikipedia