Thomas Draper

For other people named Thomas Draper, see Thomas Draper (disambiguation).

Thomas "Shang" Draper (1839 – 1883) was a professional criminal in New York City.

Draper ran a waterfront saloon in his native New York City where he performed a confidence scam using an underage girl to lure a mark to a dark hotel room (which Draper owned) only to rob him. Draper acquired his distinctive nickname "Shang" from the "Shanghaiing" trick he used to play on his unsuspecting patrons. Draper would drug a bar patron with laudanum and by the time the fellow awoke, he would have been pressed into merchant marine or naval service, sometimes for a foreign land.

Draper was a contemporary of Frederika Mandelbaum, a notorious gangleader in her own right. Mandlebaum installed Draper, one of her trusted lieutenants, in a bank robbery gang fronted by George Leslie.

Draper died in 1883 in New York.

References

Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York. New York, 1927.
Conway, J. North. The King of Heists: The Sensational Bank Robbery of 1878. New York, 2009.

External links

Thomas Draper's case.; A Prisoner wanted in two states, an in two New York Counties, The New York Times

Persondata
Name	Draper, Thomas
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Date of birth	1839
Place of birth
Date of death	1883
Place of death