The Gangs of St. Louis - Chapter 1: The Mad Irishmen cont.

I apologize...but I had this entire thing typed and then received a friggin' error!

So here goes:

No one's sure how it happened or even why, but Dinty Colbeck moved his whole operation to the county, St. Louis County that is, the suburbs. No historical data has been found in reference to the Rats movement, but it is rumored that Police Lieutenant Duley McDonald "convinced" Dinty to move. Again, no one is sure exactly what happened, but the move did take place.

The Egan Rats converted an old 11-room home on the 9400 block o f Olive into their own, personal hangout. Soon, the hangout would be called the Maxwellton Club.

As the Rats settled into their new digs, they began to terrorize their new neighborhood little by little until they took over the Maxwellton Race Track. The race track was an abandoned, defunct horse and motorcycle track located at St. Charles Rock Road and Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Rats used their defunct track as training grounds, so to say. They would shoot at tin cans, bottles and other assorted targets set on the old grandstand, while driving around the track. This was to improve their marksmanship (which I might add they needed, have there been in battles involving bloodshed yet?). All was well and good.

Unfortunately, the fun was cut short when the envious Hogans dynamited and leveled the Maxwellton. In the following two years, there were 20 or more murders that could be attributed to the rival gangs with neither gang having any intentions of conceding.

The turncoat, Greenberg, was being questioned outside Police Headquarters when Dinty Colbeck and Red Smith were arrested. Apparently, Greenberg gave just enough information for Colbeck's and Smith's arrests, and was let out the back door. As soon as Greenberg's feet hit the concrete outside the Police HQ, he was headed to New York to avoid his inevitable death of retaliation.

Since Greenberg was all the way up in New York by the time Dinty and Red were released, the Rats focused their attention on Jellyroll Hogan. In another bloodless battle, Hogan and his buddy, Humbert Costello, were driving along South Grand when three men shot at them from a passing car. Even though Hogan was able to fire back a shot or two, the fiasco ended with no bloodshed.

After the shooting incident on South Grand, Hogan informed the police of his suspected attackers. Shortly thereafter, police arrested Rats members Elmer Runge and Isodore "Izzy" Londe. Hogan was brought in to identify his attackers which is when he was known to have said, "Yeah, I'll identify them alright, next time I see them I'll identify them with my shotgun".

In 1923, the community begged the two gangs to call a truce for the sake of the city. The two rival gangs oliged for two whole months.

Sadly, the truce was ended when three Rats fired into a crowd trying to kill James Hogan (Jellyroll's brother). Ironically, Hogan wasn't even hit, but two other men were fatally wounded. In an unusual turn of events, Dinty announced his responsibility in the shooting and apologized for the outcome. Dinty was quoted as saying it was just "boyish spirits" at play.

Finally, in April 1923, the two gangs shifted to more lucrative criminal activity like robbing mail trucks full of negotiable bonds. Some of their criminal activity even ventured over to the "East Side". That's east of the Mississippi River in Illinois. But, plenty of activity still remained in St. Louis - we'll get to the East Side soon.

It was said that the Rats alone were responsible for 23 robberies from 1919 to 1924 (that's almost 5 robberies a year). A canary, by the name of Ray Renard, mentioned that the Rats obtained a grand total of something to the tune of $44,685,770! Can you believe it? That's a lot of money now, can you imagine what it would have been like almost 100 years ago? Amazing.

However, Renard's loose lips caused the cops to issue warrants for Dinty Colbeck, Chippy Robinson, Red Smith and six other Rats. All were convicted and sentenced to 25-year prison terms.

Dinty was sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta to cohabitate with a well-known gangster named Al Capone. They were, in fact, cell mates.

Mrs. Colbeck, who was taking Catholic Instructions from Monsignor Joseph O'Toole of Our Lady, Queen of Peach in Webster Groves, was having horrible nightmares about Dinty - seeing him shot. She subsequently asked the Monsignor to go visit Dinty since she was so worried. You see, she was so worried about him returning to the criminal lifestyle that landed him in prison in the first place and she was concerned he'd end up dead, another gang statistic.

The tough Monsignor agreed to help Mrs. Colbeck and traveled to Atlanta to visit with Dinty. Once the Monsignor arrived in Atlanta and met Al Capone, he made a point to tell Capone that he and Dinty weren't to form any partnerships. In reply to the Monsignor's orders, Capone quipped, "The hell we're not! We'll both be sprung in six months and I'm the one giving the orders around here."

Passively, the Monsignor turned his attention to Dinty. He remembers telling Dinty, "You should be grateful that in a few months you'll be a free man. You know that if you proceed with this foolish partnership your freedom will be of short duration. Forget it, Dinty. That's my advice to you." Then Monsignor turned to Capone and said, "The goes for you too, Al".

Apparently, the Monsignor's advice fell upon deaf ears. Dinty was released after serving 16 years and quickly tried to reinvent his business. He began to muscle in on the "East Side" gaming action. Although, to his detriment, he only became a nuisance.

At 10:30 pm on February 17, 1943, a dark sedan appeared from no where and started following Dinty's car across the McKinley Bridge. At Ninth Street and Destrehan, they overtook Dinty and retired the Rats' leader. He wasn't addorned with medals, a plaque or a gold watch, he was only given six .45 caliber submachine gun slugs. He was put to rest at St. Catherine's Church in 1943. Now, that's the type of party I'd like to skip when I retire. I'll take my plaque, thank you.

****I'll take this time to point you in the direction of some great information on "Kerry Patch", the neighborhood.

"Kerry Patch", known to its inhabitants as "The Patch" is the neighborhood that produced the first gangs in St. Louis. "The Patch" was named for Kerry county in southwestern Ireland and was the Irish Mecca of St. Louis. Unfortunately, at the expense of a rich and colorful history, "The Patch" was bulldozed in the late 1940's. A couple housing projects - Carr Square Village and Pruitt-Igoe - were razed on the old land of "The Patch".

For further, more detailed information on "The Patch, read this awesome and extremely informational website.

On to Chapter 2 next!

The Gangs of St. Louis - Chapter 1: The Mad Irishmen

Kerry Patch - in red square circa 1875

Where to start? I'll go ahead and start in the 1920's with a small neighborhood in St. Louis called "Kerry Patch". This neighborhood was the origin of several of the toughest Irish gangsters - sons of immigrants. Next to "Kerry Patch" was an Italian neighborhood referred to as “Little Italy”. These two neighborhoods are near the site of the present day Edward Jones Dome – home of the St. Louis Rams. A lot of battles would be fought on these grounds.

“The Egan Rats” was a gang conceived by a City Constable named William T. Egan. Egan’s biggest foe, Edward J. Hogan, was a State Representative, State Senator and a Business Manager for the Brewers and Soft Drink Workers Union. Hogan was also known as “Jellyroll” Hogan and was the son of a St. Louis cop. Along with his brother, James Hogan, "Jellyroll" developed his own gang.

“Jellyroll" and James decided to confront “The Rats” by cutting in on their action, which turned the early 20’s into a decade of gun battles inspired by money and hot, Irish tempers. It was a vicious decade with no signs of slowing down.

Despite popular belief, “Jellyroll” didn’t start the roar of the 20’s in St. Louis, Egan did. After flexing Egan’s influential muscle, President Woodrow Wilson granted commutation for a “Rat” Lieutenant named Max Greenberg in March of 1920. Greenberg had been convicted of stealing from an interstate shipment and had been freed from Leavenworth after serving only six months of his five year term. Even though Greenberg was granted freedom due to Egan's campaign, he felt no obligation to show Egan his appreciation and loyalty. A short while after Greenberg’s release, he defrauded Egan out of $2000 on a booze deal and became a turncoat that ended up devoting his life and loyalty to the Hogan brothers.

A year later, in March of 1921, Greenberg was gunned down at 6th St. and Chestnut while with a group of men including a loyal Egan activist named John Sweeney. In the end, Greenberg was merely wounded and Sweeney was dead.

Six months later Egan himself was gunned down outside a pub on 14th & Franklin while stepping outside for a breath of fresh air. Talk about your irony – this would be one of his last breaths. Nearby, a cop on foot heard the shots and ran to Egan’s side. Egan was then transported to the City Hospital located at 14th Street and Lafayette Avenue (this hospital is in the process of being redeveloped into lofts called The Georgian based upon the building’s Georgian Revival architecture). The city’s Police Chief and a priest from St. Patrick’s arrived shortly thereafter. At Egan’s bedside, he was asked, “who did this, Willie?” and he wouldn’t give any names out of respect for the “game”. He was a “Rat”, but not a rat. City Hospital picture taken by Jeff at Isucube.

After Egan’s death, a plumber and WWI veteran, William “Dinty” Colbeck, seized the throne over “The Rats”. And “Dinty” wasn’t about to be stopped. He was thoroughly convinced that Greenberg had been involved in Egan’s death. He was also confident that James Hogan was one of the gunmen that assassinated Egan. “Dinty” vowed to avenge Egan’s death by promising the deaths of Greenberg, James Hogan, Jacob Mackler (Hogan’s Lawyer), and two Hogan gang members named John Doyle and Luke Kennedy. In May of 1922, Kennedy was murdered and the Hogan’s retaliated by shooting up “Dinty’s” plumbing shop on Washington Avenue - but, no one was harmed in the shootings at the plumbing shop. Shortly after this incident, “The Rats” shot up Hogan’s home at 3035 Cass, merely causing more property damage, no carnage.

Chapter 1 will be continued tomorrow. I didn't have much time to look at the book and gather the information I wanted for the first chapter. I'll get it tonight

The Gangs of St. Louis - Introduction

On rare occasions, I know things that most people don't or that most people shouldn't. Today it dawned on me that I know way too much about the old gangs, mobs or the Mafia in St. Louis. I have a book that taught me everything there was to know about gangs and the Mafia and I thought it'd be neat to post my own chapters (in my words and from my standpoint) every day or as often as possible. Today, I'm going to start off with an Introduction and after that I'll post a chapter about each family or "turf". I think it's very intriguing and hopefully you will too.

When you think of gangs, the Mob or the Mafia, what cities come to mind? New York? Chicago? Los Angeles? Las Vegas? I'm going to go out on a limb and assume St. Louis isn't on the list of cities that you'd associate with "gangsters". If that were so, unfortunately, you'd miss out on an infamous history of gangs. St. Louis played an important role in the history of gang or mob activity.

Al Capone visited St. Louis regularly and used the alias, "Al Brown", when staying at the old Jefferson Hotel. Most of his visits were in attempt to gain control over Southern Illinois, which is just across the Mighty Mississippi from St. Louis. But, even Capone knew the gangsters in St. Louis demanded respect and weren't to be taken lightly. He was once quoted as saying, "those guys are cuckoo" about the St. Louis mobsters he encountered. Shortly thereafter, the gang that "whacked" all the Italians that Capone sent to do his dirty work in St. Louis adopted the name, "The Cuckoos".

While there were always gangsters in bigger, better-known cities that were ruthless, frigid and rough, most all gangsters in St. Louis possessed those qualities. The simple fact is that the hoodlums in St. Louis could stand toe-to-toe with the biggest, baddest gangs in any city including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The combined effectiveness of St. Louis gangs such as "The Cuckoos", "The Egan Rats", the Buster Wortmans, the Leisures, the Giordanos, and the Vitales left a gory, vicious trail of murders and crime. This was seldom seen in the United States at that time.

The gangsters of St. Louis created a folklore far more adored than any other. They were mysteriously worshipped and respected by other gangsters, citizens and anyone else knowledgeable of their dealings.

These men were envied for their big black luxury cars, fancy suits and beautiful homes. They were admired as businessmen as well as for their "toughness". And, these guys meant business - all business, all the time. They even got their grips on one of the best Boxers of all time.

Soon, you'll know more about these gangs, gangsters and families than you ever wanted to know. Enjoy.