Egan's Rats
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Egan's Rats was an Irish-American street gang that exercised considerable power in St. Louis, Missouri from 1890 to 1924. Its 34 years of criminal activity included bootlegging, labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery, and murder. Egan's Rats did include a few Italian-Americans and some Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, including Max "Big Maxie" Greenberg.
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[edit] Up from the streets
Egan's Rats was founded around 1890 by Thomas “Snake” Kinney and Thomas Egan, two street toughs living in the riverfront “Kerry Patch” neighborhood of St. Louis. Recruiting other members from the neighborhood, the Rats started out as pickpockets, burglars, and armed robbers. The gang also aided the Democratic Party political machine by intimidating voters at polling places on Election Day. Kinney used the gang as a stepping stone into politics. He first served as the Fourth Ward’s delegate in to the Missouri House of Delegates and later served in the Missouri State Senate.
In contrast, Tom Egan stayed in the old neighborhood and became the main leader of the increasingly powerful Rats. By 1904, Egan's Rats was the most powerful street gang in St. Louis. Their only rival at this time was the violent Bottoms Gang from the Twenty-second Ward. However, the Bottoms Gang made the mistake of assaulting police officers and were soon forced out of existence. The Egan’s Rats were known for robberies, burglaries, political terrorism, bootlegging, and labor “slugging.” Ruthless killers, the Rats Gang was willing to assassinate anyone, regardless of the consequences. On June 4, 1909, the Rats murdered a rival in the Four Courts Building while he was on trial for murdering Egan gunman Sam Young.
[edit] The Heyday
By 1912, Tom Egan headed an organization of 300 to 400 men. That same year, he gave an astounding interview to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which he flaunted his power and underworld status. With Kinney’s death from tuberculosis that year, Tom Egan moved the gang into more sophisticated rackets. Correctly suspecting that alcohol consumption would soon be prohibited in the United States, Tom Egan set up a liquor smuggling network in St. Louis. However, Tom Egan died of kidney disease on April 20, 1919 and was not around to sample the rewards of his planning.
[edit] Changing Of The Guard
After Tom Egan's death in 1919, Egan's Rats was taken over by his younger brother, Willie. Unfortunately, Willie wasn’t a natural leader like his brother. As a result, younger gang members became restless. While Egan wanted to build up the bootlegging business for longterm profits, the younger members wanted the quicker payoffs of armed robberies. Rebelling against Egan, these youthful gangsters, known as “red hots”, began robbing up banks, armored cars, and messengers with lightning rapidity. In 1921, these disputes worsened when Max “Big Maxie” Greenberg, a dissatisfied Egan's Rats member, double-crossed Willie Egan over a shipment of whiskey. In retaliation, Egan unsuccessfully attempted to kill Greenberg. At this point, Max defected to a new rival, the Hogan Gang. The Hogan Gang was headed by Egan archrival, Edward “Jelly Roll“ Hogan, who also served as the Missouri State Beverage Inspector. On October 31, 1921, Willie Egan was gunned down in front of his Franklin Avenue saloon. The Hogan Gang were considered to be the likely suspects.
[edit] Ultra-Violence
With the murder of Willie Egan in 1921, William “Dint” Colbeck took over Egan’s Rats. A former plumber and World War I infantryman, Colbeck aggressively led Egan's Rats against the Hogans. Shootings swept the city, with both gangsters and innocent bystanders being killed on the streets. In the midst of it all, Colbeck maintained the gang’s rackets. Headquartered at a St. Louis County roadhouse named the Maxwelton Club, the Rats increasingly looked towards their armed robberies for income. It would later be estimated that the Rats stole nearly $4.5 million dollars worth in cash and property in a five-year period. One of their biggest capers, committed with members of the Cuckoo Gang, was the robbery of a mail truck in downtown St. Louis on April 2, 1923. The heist netted the two gangs $2.4 million dollars in cash and negotiable bonds.
By the summer of 1923, Egan's Rats was at its pinnacle of power. The Rats forced the battered Hogan Gang to sign a peace treaty. Now at peace, the Rats commenced a crime wave of robbery and murder in Missouri and Illinois. The gang was ruthless with anyone who crossed them, including their own members.
In 1924, Egan's Rats would suffer a crushing blow. Fearful for his life, imprisoned gang member Ray Renard started cooperating with federal prosecuters. On November 15, 1924, Colbeck, Louis “Red” Smith, Steve Ryan, David “Chippy” Robinson, Oliver Dougherty, Frank Hackethal, Charles “Red” Lanham, Gus Dietmeyer, and Frank “Cotton” Epplesheimer, were convicted of mail robbery and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
[edit] Gang breakup
With the 1924 convictions of Colbeck and his associates, the Egan Rats Gang fell apart. The gang members who hadn't gone to prison scattered across the country, wreaking havoc wherever they went. One crew of ex-Rats, led by Fred “Killer” Burke, committed numerous robberies, kidnappings, and contract murders throughout the American Midwest. This crew allegedly took part in the infamous 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of seven gangsters in Chicago. Another ex-Rat, Leo Vincent Brothers, was convicted of killing Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle in 1930. Two other former members, Pete and Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli, started the “River Gang”, a large Detroit bootlegging gang that would dominate rackets in both Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. A former Rat named Elmer Macklin would murder Detroit mob boss Chester LaMare in February 1931.
By the early 1940s, Colbeck and most of the imprisoned gang members had been set free. They returned to a St. Louis that had changed over the past 20 years. Colbeck and some other gang members tried to muscle their way back into power. Most of them went to work for local mob boss Frank “Buster” Wortman and eventually retired peacefully. However, William “Dint” Colbeck was machine-gunned to death while driving down a St. Louis street on February 17, 1943.
[edit] References
- Waugh, Daniel. Egan's Rats: The Untold Story Of The Gang That Ruled Prohibition-era St. Louis. Nashville: Cumberland House, 2007. ISBN-13:978-1-58182-575-6
