Gustin Gang

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The Gustin Gang was the earliest Irish-American gang to be in control of the Boston crime scene during the early 20th century reaching its height during the early-1920s. First becoming known as the "Tailboard Thieves", as hijackers and armed robbers during the 1910s, the gang was run by Frank Wallace during the Prohibition era. In 1931 however, after several beer shipment trucks had been hijacked by members of the Gustins, Wallace was killed in an ambush with several others after agreeing to a sit-down with the Italians of the North End. Although the gang retained its power within the city, infighting between the various factions of Irish gangs would eventually see the Italians establish themselves as a dominant criminal organization finally gaining control of the rackets during the late 1960s following the Irish Mob Wars where upon Buddy McLean and his Winter Hill Gang would reestablish themselves in Boston's underworld over the next thirty years.