Owney Madden
Encyclopedia
Owney "The Killer" Madden (December 18, 1891 – April 24, 1965) was a leading underworld figure in Manhattan
, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition
. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.
O'Neil), were also Leeds natives (see the 1891 census). In search of work, the family moved first to Wigan, then to Liverpool. It was Francis' intention to take the family to the United States, but he died before this ambition could be fulfilled. In 1901, Mary Madden sailed to New York on the RMS Oceanic
, to stay with her widowed sister Elizabeth O'Neil, at 352 10th Avenue, in Manhattan
. Owen and his older brother, Martin, were left at a childrens' home, at 36 Springfield Terrace, in Leeds, until 1902, when Mary could finally afford passage for them. Owen maintained a sentimentality for his native Yorkshire
and England throughout his life, refusing to give up his British passport until the 1950s, when he was threatened with deportation. Unlike his elder brother Martin, who adopted a New York drawl, Owney kept his Northern English accent and saved clippings from the Yorkshire Post
until he died.
. Settling in New York's Hell's Kitchen
, Madden joined the Gopher Gang
later that year. Described by associates as "that banty little rooster from hell", Madden quickly became a fierce fighter, known for his skill with a lead pipe and gun in fights with rivals the Hudson Dusters
. Madden gained the nickname "the Killer" after gunning down an Italian gang member in the streets, after which he shouted, "Owney Madden, 10th Avenue!" Despite the public nature of the murder, no witnesses came forward linking Madden to the crime.
By 1910, at age 18, Madden had become a prominent member of the Gophers and was suspected in the deaths of five rival gang members. His reputation soon gained him leadership of one of the three factions of the Gophers. He was earning as much as $200 a day from the Gophers' criminal activities, such as the gang's protection racket
which forced local businessmen to pay in the face of firebomb threats.
During this time, Madden enjoyed an opulent lifestyle, and he was often accompanied by several women. However, he became known for his violent jealousy when he shot and killed a store clerk named William Henshaw, who had asked out one of Madden's girls while on board a trolley
. Henshaw initially survived the attack and identified Madden as his assailant. When Henshaw later died of his wounds, police arrested Madden. Though the attack had numerous witnesses, the case had to be dismissed after no corroborating witnesses came forward.
Over the next three years, the Gophers reached the height of their power as Madden recruited various gunmen into the gang. As Madden began encroaching into rivals' territory, particularly the Hudson Dusters, he was ambushed and shot eleven times outside a 52nd Street
dance hall by three members of the Dusters, on November 6, 1912. Madden survived the attack, however, and refused to identify his attackers to police, stating "Nothing doing. The boys'll get 'em. It's nobody's business but mine who put these slugs in me!" Within a week of his release, several members of the Dusters had been killed.
In 1914, Madden became involved in a dispute with Little Patsy Doyle, a prominent member of the Dusters, over a woman named Freda Horner. In a breach of Irish gangland ethics, Doyle informed police of Madden's operations. Following Doyle's assault on Madden's close friend, Tony Romanello, Madden arranged for Doyle's murder. Madden relayed a message to Doyle through Margaret Everdeane (a friend of Freda Horner) to meet him, supposedly in order to reconcile. As Doyle arrived on November 28, 1914, Madden ambushed Doyle and killed him. The police questioned Horner and Everdeane, who both confessed to their roles in the killing. Madden was eventually sentenced to 20 years at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York
. While there, he connected with his old buddies from the lower East side Alessandro Vollero
, Joseph Valachi, and his old associate from the Five Points Gang
, Jimmy "the shiv" Destefano, who was the Sing Sing death house barber.
After serving nine years of his sentence, Madden was released on parole in 1923. The Gopher gang had broken up, and many members of his own faction were either in Sing Sing or working for bootlegging
gangs.
Upon his release he was given a job by an old friend, a former member of Madden's street gang who had moved up to better things. Larry Fay
had a sharp mind for crime, however he was not the most physically imposing of gangsters and he needed Madden's muscle to help establish the taxi business he had set up from profits he had made running Canadian whisky
across the border during the early days of Prohibition. Fay employed a gang of strong-arm men to help him gain control of the most profitable cab-stands along Broadway and Madden became their leader. Later Fay also became involved in New York's milk trade, attempting to turn its delivery into a racket.
Owney Madden learned quickly and soon moved on to form his own organization.
Fay had used Prohibition as a means to raise money for other ventures, but Madden saw it as too good an opportunity to pass up, and soon became heavily involved in bootlegging, establishing a territory in the Hells Kitchen area. In 1924 the Madden gang began highjacking liquor shipments belonging to Big Bill Dwyer
, but rather than go to war Dwyer took Madden on as a partner, when Dwyer decided he needed to beef up the enforcement side of his own operations.
.
Madden purchased the Club De Luxe from former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Johnson
and reopened it a year later as a "Whites Only
" nightclub serving vaudevillian
-style black entertainment to the white patrons. Nightclub patrons flooded into Harlem
from downtown Manhattan
to catch performers such as Cab Calloway
, Duke Ellington
, Louis Armstrong
, Lena Horne
, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
and the Nicholas Brothers
.
Madden and his partners, Big Bill and Big Frenchy, also muscled their way into a piece of the exclusive Stork Club
, where the influential gossip columnist Walter Winchell
held court and everyone who was anyone wanted to see and be seen. As a celebrity nightclub owner with ownership in more than twenty clubs, Madden became well-known and glamorized for his Prohibition-era activities. He also gained recognition for his revenge tactics and payoffs of City Hall.
, Madden got out of bootlegging and entered into partnership with boxing
promoters, "Broadway" Bill Duffy and George Jean "Big Frenchie" DeMange. Between them, they controlled the careers of several boxing champions including Max Baer and Primo Carnera
. As Carnera's manager, Madden arranged fixed fights which led eventually to Carnera's winning the NBA World Heavyweight Championship, in 1933. Carnera held onto the title for nearly a year, until reporters' suspicions about fixed fights led Madden to desert the Italian strongman, setting up Carnera's famous defeat at the hands of Baer on June 14, 1934.
, who had been extorting money from several mobsters, including DeMange and Madden. After being arrested for a parole violation that same year, Madden began facing greater harassment from police and encroachment on his territory by Italian Mafia families, until he finally left New York in 1935.
Leaving behind racketeering, Madden settled in Hot Springs
, Arkansas
which had become known as a haven for various criminals, with a corrupt city government and police force. Madden opened the Hotel Arkansas, a spa and casino
, in 1935. He also became involved in local criminal activities, especially illegal gambling. The Hotel Arkansas became a popular hideout for mobsters; Charles Luciano was apprehended there in 1935. Madden became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943, and eventually married the daughter of the city postmaster
. He lived in Hot Springs until his death in 1965.
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.
Early life
Owen Vincent Madden was born at 25 Somerset Street, in Leeds, England on December 18, 1891. His parents Francis and Mary (neeMarried and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
O'Neil), were also Leeds natives (see the 1891 census). In search of work, the family moved first to Wigan, then to Liverpool. It was Francis' intention to take the family to the United States, but he died before this ambition could be fulfilled. In 1901, Mary Madden sailed to New York on the RMS Oceanic
RMS Oceanic (1899)
RMS Oceanic was a transatlantic ocean liner, built for the White Star Line. She sailed on her maiden voyage on 6 September 1899 and, until 1901, was the largest ship in the world...
, to stay with her widowed sister Elizabeth O'Neil, at 352 10th Avenue, in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Owen and his older brother, Martin, were left at a childrens' home, at 36 Springfield Terrace, in Leeds, until 1902, when Mary could finally afford passage for them. Owen maintained a sentimentality for his native Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and England throughout his life, refusing to give up his British passport until the 1950s, when he was threatened with deportation. Unlike his elder brother Martin, who adopted a New York drawl, Owney kept his Northern English accent and saved clippings from the Yorkshire Post
Yorkshire Post
The Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
until he died.
Gopher Gang
On June 4, 1902, Madden, together with his brother Martin and his younger sister Mary, sailed from Liverpool as steerage passengers on board the SS TeutonicSS Teutonic (1889)
The SS Teutonic was a steamship built for the White Star Line in Belfast and was the first armed merchant cruiser.-Background:In the late 1880s competition for the Blue Riband, the award for the fastest Atlantic crossing, was fierce amongst the top steamship lines, and White Star decided to order...
. Settling in New York's Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
, Madden joined the Gopher Gang
Gopher Gang
The Gopher Gang was an early 20th century New York street gang known for its members including Goo Goo Knox, James "Biff" Ellison, and Owney Madden...
later that year. Described by associates as "that banty little rooster from hell", Madden quickly became a fierce fighter, known for his skill with a lead pipe and gun in fights with rivals the Hudson Dusters
Hudson Dusters
The Hudson Dusters was a New York City street gang during the early twentieth century. Formed in the late 1890s by Circular Jack, Kid Yorke, and Goo Goo Knox the gang began operating from an apartment house on Hudson Street. Knox, a former member of the Gopher Gang, had fled after a failed attempt...
. Madden gained the nickname "the Killer" after gunning down an Italian gang member in the streets, after which he shouted, "Owney Madden, 10th Avenue!" Despite the public nature of the murder, no witnesses came forward linking Madden to the crime.
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...
which forced local businessmen to pay in the face of firebomb threats.
During this time, Madden enjoyed an opulent lifestyle, and he was often accompanied by several women. However, he became known for his violent jealousy when he shot and killed a store clerk named William Henshaw, who had asked out one of Madden's girls while on board a trolley
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
. Henshaw initially survived the attack and identified Madden as his assailant. When Henshaw later died of his wounds, police arrested Madden. Though the attack had numerous witnesses, the case had to be dismissed after no corroborating witnesses came forward.
Over the next three years, the Gophers reached the height of their power as Madden recruited various gunmen into the gang. As Madden began encroaching into rivals' territory, particularly the Hudson Dusters, he was ambushed and shot eleven times outside a 52nd Street
52nd Street (Manhattan)
52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-Jazz center:The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid-20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life...
dance hall by three members of the Dusters, on November 6, 1912. Madden survived the attack, however, and refused to identify his attackers to police, stating "Nothing doing. The boys'll get 'em. It's nobody's business but mine who put these slugs in me!" Within a week of his release, several members of the Dusters had been killed.
In 1914, Madden became involved in a dispute with Little Patsy Doyle, a prominent member of the Dusters, over a woman named Freda Horner. In a breach of Irish gangland ethics, Doyle informed police of Madden's operations. Following Doyle's assault on Madden's close friend, Tony Romanello, Madden arranged for Doyle's murder. Madden relayed a message to Doyle through Margaret Everdeane (a friend of Freda Horner) to meet him, supposedly in order to reconcile. As Doyle arrived on November 28, 1914, Madden ambushed Doyle and killed him. The police questioned Horner and Everdeane, who both confessed to their roles in the killing. Madden was eventually sentenced to 20 years at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York
Ossining (town), New York
Ossining is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 37,674 at the 2010 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, the rest of which is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant....
. While there, he connected with his old buddies from the lower East side Alessandro Vollero
Alessandro Vollero
Alessandro Vollero was a New York mobster and a high ranking member of the Brooklyn Camorra crime organization. Vollero served as a lieutenant to gang boss Pellegrino Morano during the Mafia-Camorra War of 1916....
, Joseph Valachi, and his old associate from the Five Points Gang
Five Points Gang
Five Points Gang was a 19th-century and early 20th-century criminal organization, primarily of Italian-American origins, based in the Sixth Ward of Manhattan, New York City. Since the early 19th century, the area was first known for gangs of Irish immigrants...
, Jimmy "the shiv" Destefano, who was the Sing Sing death house barber.
Prohibition
Rum-running
Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...
gangs.
Upon his release he was given a job by an old friend, a former member of Madden's street gang who had moved up to better things. Larry Fay
Larry Fay
Larry Fay was one of the early rumrunners of the Prohibition Era in New York City. He made a half a million dollars bringing whiskey into New York from Canada...
had a sharp mind for crime, however he was not the most physically imposing of gangsters and he needed Madden's muscle to help establish the taxi business he had set up from profits he had made running Canadian whisky
Canadian whisky
Canadian whisky is a type of whisky produced in Canada. Most Canadian whiskies are blended multi-grain liquors containing a large percentage of corn spirits, and are typically lighter and smoother than other whisky styles...
across the border during the early days of Prohibition. Fay employed a gang of strong-arm men to help him gain control of the most profitable cab-stands along Broadway and Madden became their leader. Later Fay also became involved in New York's milk trade, attempting to turn its delivery into a racket.
Owney Madden learned quickly and soon moved on to form his own organization.
Fay had used Prohibition as a means to raise money for other ventures, but Madden saw it as too good an opportunity to pass up, and soon became heavily involved in bootlegging, establishing a territory in the Hells Kitchen area. In 1924 the Madden gang began highjacking liquor shipments belonging to Big Bill Dwyer
Bill Dwyer (mobster)
William Vincent Dwyer , known as "Big Bill" Dwyer, was an early Prohibition gangster and bootlegger in New York during the 1920s. He used his profits to purchase sports properties, including the New York Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League , as well as the Brooklyn...
, but rather than go to war Dwyer took Madden on as a partner, when Dwyer decided he needed to beef up the enforcement side of his own operations.
The Cotton Club
Madden and his former gang rival turned partner, Big Frenchy De Mange, began to open or acquire some of the flashiest speakeasies and nightclubs of the era, most notably the legendary Cotton ClubCotton Club
The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem, New York City that operated during Prohibition that included jazz music. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith,...
.
Madden purchased the Club De Luxe from former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (boxer)
John Arthur Johnson , nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion...
and reopened it a year later as a "Whites Only
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
" nightclub serving vaudevillian
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
-style black entertainment to the white patrons. Nightclub patrons flooded into Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
from downtown Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
to catch performers such as Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Bill Robinson
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
and the Nicholas Brothers
Nicholas Brothers
The Nicholas Brothers were a famous African American team of dancing brothers, Fayard and Harold . With their highly acrobatic technique , high level of artistry and daring innovations, they were considered by many the greatest tap dancers of their day...
.
Madden and his partners, Big Bill and Big Frenchy, also muscled their way into a piece of the exclusive Stork Club
Stork Club
The Stork Club was a nightclub in New York City from 1929 to 1965. From 1934 onwards, it was located at 3 East 53rd Street, just east of Fifth Avenue...
, where the influential gossip columnist Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
held court and everyone who was anyone wanted to see and be seen. As a celebrity nightclub owner with ownership in more than twenty clubs, Madden became well-known and glamorized for his Prohibition-era activities. He also gained recognition for his revenge tactics and payoffs of City Hall.
Boxing
In 1931, shortly before the end of ProhibitionProhibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, Madden got out of bootlegging and entered into partnership with boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
promoters, "Broadway" Bill Duffy and George Jean "Big Frenchie" DeMange. Between them, they controlled the careers of several boxing champions including Max Baer and Primo Carnera
Primo Carnera
Primo Carnera was an Italian boxer, nicknamed the Ambling Alp, who became the world heavyweight champion.-Biography:...
. As Carnera's manager, Madden arranged fixed fights which led eventually to Carnera's winning the NBA World Heavyweight Championship, in 1933. Carnera held onto the title for nearly a year, until reporters' suspicions about fixed fights led Madden to desert the Italian strongman, setting up Carnera's famous defeat at the hands of Baer on June 14, 1934.
Exile in Hot Springs
In 1932, Madden was involved in the murder of Vincent "Mad Dog" CollMad Dog Coll
Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll was an Irish mob hitman in 1920s New York City. Coll gained notoriety for the accidental killing of a young child during a mob kidnap attempt.-Early years:...
, who had been extorting money from several mobsters, including DeMange and Madden. After being arrested for a parole violation that same year, Madden began facing greater harassment from police and encroachment on his territory by Italian Mafia families, until he finally left New York in 1935.
Leaving behind racketeering, Madden settled in Hot Springs
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Hot Springs is the 10th most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas, the county seat of Garland County, and the principal city of the Hot Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area encompassing all of Garland County...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
which had become known as a haven for various criminals, with a corrupt city government and police force. Madden opened the Hotel Arkansas, a spa and casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
, in 1935. He also became involved in local criminal activities, especially illegal gambling. The Hotel Arkansas became a popular hideout for mobsters; Charles Luciano was apprehended there in 1935. Madden became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943, and eventually married the daughter of the city postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
. He lived in Hot Springs until his death in 1965.
In popular culture
- Michael Walsh's And All the Saints ISBN 978-0-446-51815-4 is a fictionalized account of Madden's life, told in the first person, from his arrival in New York to his decampment for Hot Springs in 1935.
- Madden was portrayed by Bob HoskinsBob HoskinsRobert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
in Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
's The Cotton ClubThe Cotton Club (film)The Cotton Club is a 1984 crime-drama, centered on a famed Harlem jazz club of the 1930s, the Cotton Club.The movie was co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, choreographed by Henry LeTang, and starred Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Gregory Hines...
. - The character Owney Maddox, the Arkansas mob boss targeted by gunslinging DA's Investigator Earl Swagger in Stephen HunterStephen HunterStephen Hunter is an American novelist, essayist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic.-Life and career:Stephen Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, a Northwestern University speech professor who was killed in 1975....
's novel Hot Springs, is modeled on Madden's later years. - Madden is portrayed in the 1997 film Hoodlum by Dick Gjonola, noticeably without a YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
accent. - Orville Halloran, character from Daredevil Noir (see Marvel NoirMarvel NoirMarvel Noir is a 2009-2010 Marvel Comics alternative continuity combining elements of film noir and pulp fiction with the Marvel Universe. The central premise of the mini-series replaces super powers with driven, noir-flavored characterization....
), is modeled after Madden.
Further reading
- Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs Of New York: An Informal Hiistory of the Underworld. United Kingdom: Arrow Books 2002. ISBN 978-0-09-943674-4
- English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 978-0-06-059002-4
- Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-313-30653-2
- Messick, Hank. Lansky. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973. ISBN 978-0-7091-3966-9
- Nown, Graham The English Godfather: Owney Madden. London: Ward Lock, 1987. ISBN 978-0-7063-6590-0
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8160-5694-1
- Downey, Patrick. "Gangster City: History of the New York Underworld 1900-1935". New Jersey: Barricade Books, 2004. ISBN 978-1-56980-267-0