Gangs of New York: how it really was

Today, most people associate New York with Manhattan, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and skyscrapers. But what was this city like before? Writes about this online magazine Bigpicture.

If you've watched the American historical film Gangs of New York, directed by Martin Scorsese, then you probably have an idea of ​​life in the Big Apple in the last century. And if you thought that this was all fiction, then it is not: the film has a real historical background.

The brilliant director showed the gangs that raged at that time and kept the entire city in fear. And also the order that prevailed in the metropolis, where the center of life for many was not Manhattan at all, but the "Corner of Five Streets".

But first things first.

At the end of the XNUMXth century, poverty and government corruption reigned in New York. In the city, riots were constantly organized by those who were called to go to war and who were unable to buy off. The local population was doomed, and their only choice was to fight, otherwise they would die. And the people made a choice in favor of life. So people began to unite in gangs of gangsters.

“It was a time when society was divided into 'tribes', constantly fighting with each other. The first gangs were organized by the Irish, who arrived in New York every week, and the real cradle of "bandits" was the "Corner of Five Streets" - the area formed by the streets of Cross, Anthony, Little Water, Orange and Mulberry "- the author writes.

New gangs of gangsters appeared every week. They had original names, for example "Shirts Outside" (for the manner of wearing shirts), "Chichesters", "Roach's Guards", "Ugly Top Hat", "Dead Rabbits" and others.

They lived in the Old Brewery, which once really was. “Now the most famous apartment building in the history of the city has turned into a brothel, whose residents practically did not leave the building and obtained their own food in a blasphemous way. Hiding in a dark corridor, they were waiting for their neighbors, carrying something edible, hitting them with something heavy on the head and taking their food, ”the newspaper writes.

A street stretched past the brewery from north to south. The southern part received the eloquent name "Assassin's Alley", the northern - "Thieves' Cave".

Entertainment in the area of ​​five streets was peculiar in those days. One of the most popular were dog fights. Local bandits made a lot of money on this.

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It wasn't that easy to become a bandit. Some gangs only accepted those who committed crimes, and one of them had a whole price list for crimes: from punching to murder.

There were also areas, as they say now, with a high crime rate. For example, the Bowery district (where gangs such as the Bowery Boys, Real Americans, American Guard, O'Connell Guard and others) and the once elite Fifth District (inhabited mainly by the so-called river pirates ). However, they did not differ in their cruelty, unlike the bandits from the Five Street Corner.

“However, at one time in the ranks of the Bowery Boys fought Bill“ The Butcher ”- the prototype of the Butcher Cutting from the movie“ Gangs of New York ”. He actively "overwhelmed" everyone in all known ways. He quickly established “protection” of local drinking establishments, turning those who did not want to pay into a bloody mess, ”the source notes.

Those were amazing times! Then there were even gangsters-firefighters who put out fires in the city, and did not start them. “But they did it, of course, not out of altruistic reasons - the gang that extinguished the burning house looked much nobler in the eyes of local residents. And so that the local residents in no way confused the gangs, they gave them special names - "White Spirit", "Black Joke", "Herring Stomach", "Dry Bones", "Red Pirate", "Hay Car", "Big six "," Yal'skaya wench "," Bean soup "," Old trash "and even ..." Old maid ". However, it also happened that the house burned out completely due to the struggle of gangs wishing to extinguish the building, ”the source writes.

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There were also gangsters-doctors who used medicinal drugs for criminal purposes. The scheme was simple - one distracts (usually a woman), the other pours a horse dose of sleeping pills. Well, then - it's a simple matter.

Cemetery thieves were also widely known, who dug up corpses and then sold them to medical students.

But everything that has a beginning has an end. The gangs of New York fell into oblivion when the war broke out in 1863. It was a series of some of the most violent riots in American history. They lasted four days and four nights. The rebels destroyed and burned everything that came their way. On the second day, when the city was under siege, the first troops entered New York to suppress the rebels.

“From that moment on, the activity of the gangs began to decline: some of them fled to other cities, some went into politics, and some were reborn into the so-called organized crime,” the author notes. “These days, Five Streets Corner is tastefully dressed people living and working in famous American skyscrapers, no swamps, mud, and gangster violence. Of course, not only New York lived with gangs, but it's a completely different story. "