Danny Walsh

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Daniel L. "Danny" Walsh (c. 1893-February 2, 1933?) was an organized crime figure in Providence, Rhode Island involved in bootlegging during Prohibition.

Born in the Cumberland mill village of Valley Falls, Walsh was a clerk in a Pawtucket hardware store before he entered bootlegging in 1920. First driving alcohol shipments for other local bootleggers, by the mid-1920s, he had established a formidable bootlegging operation which included a fleet of boats, planes and automobiles earning a reputation as one of the most successful, if not colorful, bootleggers on the east coast. Considering himself a “gentleman farmer”, Walsh and spent much of his money on thoroughbreds which he raised for his farm in Charlestown, Rhode Island (although he owned two high class apartments in Providence).

Although known for its lax enforcement of the Volstead Act, Rhode Island being one of two states which refused to ratify the 18th Amendment, the federal government charged Walsh with tax evasion, regarding $350,000 in back taxes and penalties owed the Internal Revenue Service, although Walsh and authorities agreed on a lesser sum.

Following the aftermath of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Walsh enjoyed enormous wealth as one of the country's largest bootleggers. One of four Irish-Americans in the "Big Seven", his frequent business trips to New York were speculated by the press to be meetings with other members of the "combine" which included New York's William "Big Bill" Dwyer and Owney "The Killer" Madden and Boston's Joseph Kennedy.

His attendance at the later Atlantic City Conference is disputed, however he appears to have been shut out with many other Irish bootleggers and mobsters during the early 1930s. In 1933, during the last months of Prohibition, Walsh was last seen at the Bank Cafe in Pawtuxet Village after having dinner with six business associates on the night of February 2, 1933. Several days after his disappearance, his brother Joseph Walsh received a ransom note demanding $40,000 and, although traveling to Boston to pay the ransom demand, Walsh was never returned.

A federal inquiry was held shortly after his disappearance and, although named as a member of the "Big Seven" by testimony from a former associate, the investigation failed to solve his disappearance. Among the numerous rumors which circulated included his body being stuffed into a barrel and dumped into the sea by a rum runner off Block Island as well as unidentified witnesses who reported seeing several men using lime to fill a shallow grave, however neither of these leads were investigated.

Over the next several years, police would often investigate unidentified murder victims in the hopes of finding Walsh however, as it was reported by the press “any time a suspicious corpse was found – in the Massachusetts or Rhode Island woods – or a skull turned up in a fishing net off Block Island, police checked it against Danny Walsh’s dental records.” Despite efforts by law enforcement however, Walsh's body was never recovered.