The Bowery Boys In The 1800's

The Bowery Boys originally consisted of volunteer firefighters, though through the years they had members in all walks of life from butchers to mechanics though most importantly they were born and raised in New York City many residing as middle-class workers during the day and abiding by the law. They were one of the most notorious gangs in New York City during the 1800’s and were strictly nativist as well as being anti-catholic and anti-immigrant.. As seen in most gangs they had a sort of dress code that paid respect to their origins as volunteer firefighters.

Bill Poole was the original Bowery boy and the leader of the gang. He was notably a boxer coming in at over 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, a firefighter, and a butcher thus giving him the nickname Bill The Butcher. Similar to his gangs anti-immigrant anti-catholic sentiments Poole was a member of the know nothing party that preached the same ideas as Poole and many of the gang as they believed that these immigrants were cheap labor set out to steal their jobs. Though Poole died at the hands of these very same immigrants after a long time dispute with John Morrissey, leader of Dead Rabbits gang. It was a gunman allied with Morrissey who shot him in a saloon. His dying words were “I think I am a goner. If I die, I die a true American; and what grieves me most is, thinking that I’ve been murdered by a set of Irish – by Morrissey in particular.”

Many of the gang's fights were not detailed as they were obviously illegal and frowned upon by the public. Though it is noted that the two gangs had over 200 fights in 10 years beginning in 1834. Their biggest altercation being the Dead Rabbits Riot which began as a small street fight between the two gangs and turned into a gang war across the city spanning 2 days in length on July 4th and 5th