Dan the Dude
Encyclopedia
Dan Mulcahy known by the psudonyms of Louis Harris and Dan the Dude, was a New York criminal and the longtime owner of the Stag Cafe at 28 West 28th Street, in the vice district of Satan's Circus
. The cafe was a popular hangout for many of the criminals in New York's underworld. Dan was most noted as a fixer and confidante of New York's numerous con men, many of whom came from out of town and used his establishment as their unofficial base. "In olden times [around 1910-1915] in Dan the Dude's place," it was said, "you could see a hundred con men there at once, and not one of them would be a native New Yorker."
According to David Maurer
, a professor of linguistics who wrote a history of the American confidence man, the chief function of a "hangout" of this sort was to
Dan the Dude, Maurer added on the basis of his extensive correspondence and interviews with turn-of-the-century con men, "was an unusually helpful fixer. He kept a large ledger in which a record of all touches was kept, as well as a list of promising prospects for all sorts of thievery and con rackets. Professionals in good standing were given information from this book whenever they needed it. So far as I have been able to determine, this was the only document of its kind ever kept by a fixer in a hangout."
In addition to his activities at the Stag Cafe, Dan was also involved in illegal gambling, and was later involved in the 1912 murder trial of Charles Becker
.
The Stag Cafe was purchased from Dan the Dude by Chick Tricker
, a one time leader of the Eastman Gang
, who renamed it the Cafe Maryland. It later became the location of a gangland shooting referred to by Herbert Asbury as the "Ida the Goose" affair.
A fictional character of the same name, played by Arthur Stone in the 1928 silent film Me, Gangster, may have been loosely based on him.
Satan's Circus
Satan's Circus is the fourth studio album by Death in Vegas, released on October 11, 2004 on Drone Records in the United Kingdom and on May 24, 2005 on Sanctuary Records in the United States. Contrary to previous releases, this album features no guest vocalists. This album is the first release...
. The cafe was a popular hangout for many of the criminals in New York's underworld. Dan was most noted as a fixer and confidante of New York's numerous con men, many of whom came from out of town and used his establishment as their unofficial base. "In olden times [around 1910-1915] in Dan the Dude's place," it was said, "you could see a hundred con men there at once, and not one of them would be a native New Yorker."
According to David Maurer
David Maurer
David Warren Maurer was a professor of linguistics at the University of Louisville from 1937 to 1972, and an author of numerous studies of the language of the American underworld....
, a professor of linguistics who wrote a history of the American confidence man, the chief function of a "hangout" of this sort was to
- "..provide protection to grifters who are in a strange town. There is usually a private back room in connection with the place where only established professionals and "right" people are encouraged to congregate, and from which the general public is excluded. In this connection, an old-timer recalls: "There were always thieves in Dan the Dude's scatter, but no suckers and no dicks. If a sucker came in and started to go into the big room, some gee would stop him and say, "This is a private club. Are you a member?" And if he went in to buy a drink, the beer glass would be about the size of a thimble and the whisky terrible. And the Mickey FinnsMickey Finn (drugs)A Mickey Finn, is a slang term for a drink laced with a drug given to someone without his knowledge in order to incapacitate him...
were always ready for some punk grifting kid who thought he would crash the joint. They gave him one, then sloughed the donicker on him, and you should see him cop a heel out of that scatter."
Dan the Dude, Maurer added on the basis of his extensive correspondence and interviews with turn-of-the-century con men, "was an unusually helpful fixer. He kept a large ledger in which a record of all touches was kept, as well as a list of promising prospects for all sorts of thievery and con rackets. Professionals in good standing were given information from this book whenever they needed it. So far as I have been able to determine, this was the only document of its kind ever kept by a fixer in a hangout."
In addition to his activities at the Stag Cafe, Dan was also involved in illegal gambling, and was later involved in the 1912 murder trial of Charles Becker
Charles Becker
Charles Becker was a New York City police officer in the 1890s-1910s and who was tried, convicted and executed for ordering the murder of a Manhattan gambler, Herman Rosenthal in the Becker-Rosenthal trial. Becker was the first American police officer to receive the death penalty for murder...
.
The Stag Cafe was purchased from Dan the Dude by Chick Tricker
Chick Tricker
Chick Tricker was an early New York gangster who, as a member of the Eastman Gang, served as one of its last leaders alongside Jack Sirocco. A longtime member of the Eastmans, Tricker had made a name for himself as a well known Bowery and Park Row saloonkeeper who first came to prominence in a...
, a one time leader of the Eastman Gang
Eastman Gang
The Eastman Gang was the last of New York's street gangs which dominated the city's underworld during the late 1890s until early 1910s. Along with the Five Points Gang under Paul Kelly, the Eastmans succeeded the long dominant Whyos as the first non-Irish street gang to gain prominence in the...
, who renamed it the Cafe Maryland. It later became the location of a gangland shooting referred to by Herbert Asbury as the "Ida the Goose" affair.
A fictional character of the same name, played by Arthur Stone in the 1928 silent film Me, Gangster, may have been loosely based on him.