Grant's USH

The Five Points Gang

During the turn of the century with the influx of millions of immigrants, the amount of crime in the cities rose substantially. There were many street gangs in New York through the mid 1800s and early 1900s that made a significant impact on American history. One of these gangs was the Five Points Gang located at the five points near the bowery. This gang was led by an Italian immigrant named Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, also know as Paul Kelly.

Paul Kelly was born in 1876 and died in 1936. He immigrated to America during an influx of Italian immigrants in the 1870s. When Paul Kelly arrived in America he became a professional boxer and was quite successful. He used his prize money to open up athletic clubs, saloons, and brothels in the Italian district. These businesses became fronts for his gang.

Along with the athletic clubs, saloons, and brothels, the Five Points Gang did some political work. During the late 1800s and early 1900s many politicians were very corrupt. Two of these politicians were Tammy Hall and "Big" Tim Sullivan. These supported the Five Points Gang in legal battles for cost of gang members getting them to vote for Hall and Sullivan. The gang members would stuff ballot boxes, falsify voter lists, and even threaten voters to win elections.

The Five Points Gang was not the only gang that Hall and Sullivan supported, Five Points biggest rival, Monk Eastman's Gang, was also backed by Hall and Sullivan. The Five Points Gang and Monk Eastman's Gang disputed over territory on the lower east side of Manhattan. There many small fights until 1903 when the fighting escalated into open warfare between the gangs. In on incident, it was recorded that about 50 men from both gangs were in battle for hours. Police were sent to get control of the situation but they had to retreat because of such harsh fighting. Three men were killed and many were wounded. Monk Eastman was arrested but was only in jail for a few hours. This is because a Tammy controlled judge let him out after he swore innocence. The public was very angry. One newspaper described how a man in the Monk Eastman gang was killed and an innocent man not in any gang was killed because he was thought to be in the Five Points gang. Tom Foley (a Deputy of Tammy Hall) to Kelly and Eastman that they were to stop fighting if they wanted support from Hall. Peace lasted for about two months until fighting broke out again. Then it proposed that Paul Kelly and Monk Eastman should box to end the fighting. So the two met and fought for hours until it was deemed a tie. The men were pretty equally matched, Kelly being a professional boxer and Eastman was quite large. But the fighting died off in the end from loss of power from both gangs. Eastman was arrested and spent a few years in jail and Paul Kelly died of natural causes in 1936 at the age of 60.

The Five Points Gang started out fairly small but it grew as it absorbed other gangs. The Five Points gang had members that became some of the most notorious men in America. Lucky Luciano joined the Five Points Gang in 1916 and was one of Paul Kelly's deputies. Al Capone also joined the Five Points Gang when his smaller gang, the James Street Boys, was absorbed. Capone got his nick name Scar Face when he got in youthful fight in a saloon. His opponent came up with a knife cut his cheek, hence the name "Scar Face".