Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set by Joe Bruno Read Free Book Online Page B

and he brazenly returned fire. Safely under the bed, Helen Walsh and Fats reloaded Crowley's guns for him.
    At one point, the police cut a hole in the roof, and they dropped gas canisters into Crowley's apartment. Crowley calmly picked up the smoking canisters and threw them out the window, overcoming several police officers below. Finally, a dozen cops broke down Crowley's door, and with four slugs in Crowley's body, the police were finally able to subdue him. Fats and Helen gave up without a whimper.
    The newspapers had a field day with this one. Crowley was described as “A Mad Irish Gunman” (even though he was actually German), with “the face of an altar boy.” Crowley and Fats were convicted of the murder of Virginia Brannen and Crowley of the murder of patrolmen Frederick Hirsch. They were both sentenced to die in the Sing Sing electric chair.
    In jail, Crowley kept up his tough-guy act. He made a club from a wrapped-up newspaper and some wire from under his bed. Then he tried to fight his way out of prison, by cracking a guard over the head with his handmade club. His escape attempt having failed, Crowley set fire to his cell. And when that didn't work, he took off all his clothes and stuffed them into his toilet, flooding his cell. For these disturbances, Warden Lewis E. Lawes forced Crowley to sit naked in his cell for several days until the young maniac quieted down.
    During his last days on earth, Crowley mellowed a bit. A bird flew into his cell, and he nurtured it. Crowley also began drawing pictures, a skill for which he had more than a little talent.
    On December 10, 1931, Fats got the juice first. After Fats and Crowley hugged a last goodbye, and Fats started his last lonely trek down the hall to the chair, Crowley told a guard, “There goes a great guy, a square-shooter, and my pal.”
    Crowley was not so charitable to Helen, whom he refused to see, even though she visited the prison almost every day.
    “She's out!” he told the newspapers, “She's going around with a cop! I won't even look at her!”
    On January 21, 1932, Crowley followed the same path to the electric chair which his old pal Fats had traveled. After the black leather mask was pulled over his face, Crowley's last words were, “Send my love to my mother.”
    The lever was thrown, and Francis “Two Gun” Crowley was executed at the tender age of 19.
     
    D aybreak Boys
    When the Daybreak Boys formed their treacherous little gang in the late 1840's, there were said to be three dozen members, none of whom was over the age of 20. Some of the Daybreak Boys were as young as 10 years old. However, lack of age never meant a paucity of violence.
    The Daybreak Boys' first leaders were Nicholas Saul and William Howlett, who were 16 and 15 years-old, respectively, when they took control of the gang. Other noted members were murderers like Slobbery Jim, Sow Madden, Cow-legged Sam McCarthy, and Patsy the Barber.
    It was rumored that every member of the gang had committed at least one murder and scores of robberies before they reached the age of 16. The police said The Daybreak Boys not only murdered in the course of a robbery, but also for the sheer ecstasy of doing so, even if there was no hope of cashing in on a score. The police estimated in the three years that Saul and Howlett were their leaders, the Daybreak Boys robbed over $100,000, and killed as many as 40 people.
    The Daybreak Boys' base of operations was the Slaughter House Point, owned by Pete Williams, located at the intersection of James and Water Streets. On August 25, 1852, a passing policeman looked in at the Slaughter House Point, and he saw Saul and Howlett huddled in a corner with low-level gang member Bill Johnson, who was half-sloshed. The policeman suspected the three men were up to no good, and he decided to drop by later. When he did, the three men were gone.
    In the darkness, Saul, Howlett, and Johnson had taken a row boat, and navigated the East River to a ship named