Historic Street Gangs Portrayed in Film

During the late 1930s and through most of the 1950s, a popular movie theme in Hollywood involved depicting street gang members as loveable little hooligans who were always up to mischief until a sympathetic judge, priest, former gang member, made them see the error of their ways at the end of each film.

The most popular "street gang" films of the day involved "The Bowery Boys." The Bowery Boys were actors who pretended to be the "real" Bowery Boys that wreaked havoc in the Bowery which was once located in at the tip of the southernmost part of Manhattan Island and which is now called the Lower East Side.

The real Bowery Boys gang was comprised of men who hated the Irish Catholics that populated much of New York City. Many of the Irish gangs had ties with the New York political party at that time which consisted largely of Irish-Americans and was known as "Tammany Hall." The Bowery Boys fought Irish Street gangs using weapons fashionable for the day in an attempt to control lower Manhattan. One of the most famous "Bowery Boy" was William Poole, whose story was dramatized in the 2002 film, "Gangs of New York." Poole, like most of the real Bowery Boy gang, was of English descent and considered himself a "native" of New York. He hated immigrants and particularly the Irish, who ran the corrupt political machine.

William Poole was also affectionately known as "Bill the Butcher." He would do things like go into a tavern owned by or frequented by Irish immigrants and beat the owner to a bloody pulp. Like many street gang members, William Poole was shot and killed in 1855. The Bowery Boys gang continued to riot on until about 1863 when the gang split up.