Owney Madden :: essays research papers

for so many years. It was wasting away, but the fall apart Corleone from the UK would do everything he could to establish a name for himself, by means of a life filled with luck and crime. Liverpool, England, the birth to British and American stone sensation, The beatles, was also the birthplace of one of the worlds most disreputable killer. It was in Liverpool, England, 1892, that Owney Madden was born. However, only in 1903, did he and his family emigrate to bare-assed York and settle in the slums of Manhattans Hells Kitchen. At an early age, Owney joined the Gophers and despite his spark build, he was renowned as a tough and crazy gangster. He was a crack shot with a pistol and he employ his trademark weapon, a lead pipe concealed in a rolled-up newspaper, to great effect. He was nicknamed "Killer Madden" at the age of 17 because by that time he already had two murders under his belt. many a(prenominal) more would follow. Madden moved out of his familys tenement a partment and rented a house with Tanner Smith. Smith had been leader of a relatively unprofitable street gang known as the Marginal Gang, but became a Gopher when the Marginal split up. Soon after they moved into the house, neighbors began to speak up about the all- iniquity parties that the two gangsters held. Members of the Gophers would often keep down over and spend the night drinking, gambling and brawling at Owney and Tanners. When the landlord threatened to throw them out, Madden asked "Mister, did you ever get word of Owney Madden?" The man replied that he had heard of him and Madden said " nearly Mister, I am Owney Madden." Apparently, that was enough to intimidate the owner of the house, but the neighbors move to suffer from their entertainment and one night, a number of policemen arrived to break up a party. When he spotted them Madden shouted through a window "Well shoot the gizzard out of any cop that tries to come in here." True to his word , when the sergeant knocked on the door, Madden aimed his pistol through the window and killed him. The police retreated, waited for reinforcements and then stormed the house, handing out severe beatings to the gangsters they found inside. They never discovered which of the men fired the shot from the window and Madden, still a minor, was released the next day on a $500 bond.