Whyos
| Founding location | Bowery, Manhattan, New York City |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1860s-1890s |
| Territory | The Bowery, Manhattan, New York City |
| Membership (est.) | ? |
| Criminal activities | street fighting, knife fighting assault, murder, robbery, arson, rioting |
The Whyos, a collection of the various post-Civil War street gangs of New York City, was the city's dominant street gang during the late 19th century. The gang controlled most of Manhattan from the late 1860s until the early 1890s, when the Monk Eastman Gang defeated the last of the Whyos. The name came from the gang's cry, which sounded like a bird or owl calling, "Why-oh!"
Consisting largely of criminals ranging from pickpockets to murderers, the Whyos were formed from what remained of the old Five Points street gangs following the New York City Police Department campaigns against gang activity, particularly from 1866–1868. Originally forming from members of the Chichesters, the gang soon began absorbing other former rivals and soon dominated New York's Fourth Ward, an Irish slum notorious for its crime, by the early 1870s.
The Whyos had several leaders, but longest reigning were Danny Lyons (arrested for the murder of gangster Joseph Quinn), his girlfriend ("Pretty" Kitty McGowan) and Danny Driscoll (hanged at Tombs Prison for the death of Beezy Garrity during a gunfight with rival Five Points gangster Johnny McCarthy).
The members were predominantly Irish but, unlike the previous Irish gangs, victimized anyone, not just white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Driscoll and Lyons eventually decreed that in order to be a real Whyo, the person must have killed at least once. They were so powerful that most of the other gangs at the time had to ask their permission to operate.
The headquarters shifted many times throughout the years: "Dry Dollar" Sullivan's Chrystie Street saloon, a churchyard at Prince and Mott Streets, and its original headquarters the notorious Bowery dive known as The Morgue. The tavern was the scene of at least 100 violent murders in its early years, as hour-long gunfights between drunken gang members would frequently occur.
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