Egan's Rats
| Founded by |
Thomas Kinney Thomas Egan |
|---|---|
| Founding location | St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Years active | 1890–1924 |
| Territory | St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Ethnicity | Irish-American, Italian-American, Jewish-American |
| Membership (est.) | 300–400 (est. 1912) |
| Criminal activities | Rum-running, robbery, murder, extortion, union busting |
| Rivals |
Bottoms Gang Hogan Gang |
Egan's Rats was an American organized crime gang that exercised considerable power in St. Louis, Missouri from 1890 to 1924. Its 35 years of criminal activity included bootlegging, labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery, and murder. Although predominantly Irish-American, Egan's Rats did include a few Italian-Americans and some Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, most notably Max "Big Maxie" Greenberg.
Formed by Thomas "Snake" Kinney and Tom Egan, the gang became the dominant criminal organization in St. Louis around the turn of the 20th century, when they became noted as the worst political terrorists in the city. The Rats squeezed out the required number of Democratic votes at the polls. In addition to their election tactics, the Rats also engaged in union busting, armed robbery, and theft from railroads. By the mid-1910s, the gang had entered into bootlegging. By 1921, both Tom and Willie Egan were dead and leadership of the crew passed to William "Dint" Colbeck. Egan's Rats soon went to war with the rival Hogan Gang, whom they suspected of killing Willie Egan. After defeating the Hogans in a well-publicized war, the Rats turned to armed robberies rather than bootlegging as a chief source of income. In November 1924, nine key members of the Egan gang were sentenced to long terms in federal prison for a mail robbery at Staunton, Illinois. While a few lower-ranking members of Egan's Rats still operated in St. Louis, they were finished by the fall of 1925.
Those members of the gang who escaped imprisonment spread across the country. Some of the ex-Rats, led by Fred "Killer" Burke, were suspected of being involved in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The gang later made headlines when gang member Leo Vincent Brothers was convicted of the murder of Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle in June 1930.
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