Bartender Jack McGarry’s History of The Dead Rabbit

Bartender Jack McGarry | History - Find. Eat. Drink.

Bartender Jack McGarry, The Daed Rabbit, New York, NY, Manhattan, History of New York, Belfast, New York, Irish In New York, Immigrants

Bartender Jack McGarry’s history of The Dead Rabbit, their neighborhood and the Gangs of New York.

The Dead Rabbit’s head bartender was recently named International Bartender Of The Year at this year’s Tales Of The Cocktail. The Dead Rabbit was also named the World’s Best Cocktail Bar with the World’s Best Cocktail Menu. Before opening the bar in New York with fellow Irish bartender Sean Muldoon, he tended bar at Milk & Honey in London and in his native Belfast at The Merchant Hotel. Incidentally, The Merchant Hotel was also named the World’s Best Cocktail Bar when he was behind the stick.

Jack McGarry’s history of The Dead Rabbit, their neighborhood and the Gangs of New York.

Financial District - New York, NY

Bartender Jack McGarry’s History of The Dead Rabbit

August 21, 2013

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The Gangs of New York and History of The Dead Rabbit

By Jack McGarry

Before Castle Clinton became an immigration centre in 1855, the ships bringing famine survivors from Ireland would have docked in the area that is now the South Street Seaport, which is just 900 meters east of The Dead Rabbit. It is estimated that over half a million Irish immigrants entered the US there between 1846 and 1851. Those who survived the arduous three-month transatlantic crossing -- and there were many, many who didn't -- quickly realized that life in America was also going to be a battle for survival. The South Street Seaport was then part of the neighbourhood known as the Fourth Ward and was regarded as being the only rival to the adjacent Five Points area in its triple distinction of filth, poverty, and vice.

Water Street

Water Street itself was the highest crime area in all of New York City and was festooned with brothels, dance halls, boarding houses and cheap watering holes. A travel guide of the day called it "the most violent street on the continent"; another warned readers to "absolutely steer clear of it after dark"; whereas a more recent commentator stated that it was "a thoroughfare of vice and iniquity to challenge the imagination of the most graphic Victorian preacher." Street gangs were as aplenty there as they were in the Five Points and river piracy, murder and general mayhem was commonplace. Just right for The Dead Rabbit then!

The Slaughterhouse Point

From 1848 until 1858, Pete Williams ran a lowly gin joint called “The Slaughterhouse Point” on the intersection of James Street and Water Street. It served as the base of operations for the notorious Daybreak Boys, one of the most treacherous band of killers ever to prowl Manhattan's East Side docks.

Five Points by George Catlin, 1827

The Hole In the Wall

Then there was “The Hole in the Wall” which once stood on the site at number 279 Water Street (where the Bridge Cafe now operates) and was ruled by a six-foot Englishwoman called 'Gallus' Mag. She would bite off the ears of misbehaving patrons and pickle them for posterity in a large bottle of alcohol, which she left in plain sight for all to see as a kind of trophy case behind the bar. It was a favorite hangout of ruthless gang leader Sadie the Goat until she got into an argument with Mag and Mag bit her ear off, adding it to her collection. The Hole in the Wall closed down in 1855 after seven murders were committed there in the space of three months. One of those murders was the well-documented case of Patsy the Barber, who had gotten into a fight with fellow Daybreak Boy gang member Slobbery Jim. Slobbery Jim had ended up cutting Patsy the Barber's throat before 'stomping' him to death with his hobnail boots in plain view of everyone who was there.

304 Water Street

From 1858 until 1868, John Allen and his wife Little Suzie operated an infamous dance hall at number 304 Water Street. This place was known in its time as being one of the most licentious establishments in New York City, wherein all types of vice and sexual obscenities were conducted on a daily basis. Allen was considered as one of the most notorious criminals in the city and the vastness of his transgressions earned him the title of “The Wickedest Man in New York.”

Sportman’s Hall

In 1863, 273 Water Street was purchased by Christopher Keyburn (aka “Kit” Burns), who was one of the founders of the Dead Rabbits gang. He opened a dance hall in the house called “Sportsman's Hall” where he offered a variety of distractions, including gambling, bare knuckle boxing, dancing, drinking, but most notoriously - rat and dog fights. For nearly two decades it was also a central meeting place for the New York underworld in the Bowery and Fourth Ward areas, in particular The Slaughter House Gang and their leader George “Snatchem” Leese, until it was finally closed in 1870.

10 Cherry Street

Tommy Hadden was another leader of The Dead Rabbits who owned a popular dive bar around the corner at what was once Number 10 Cherry Street which had been frequented by many underworld figures throughout its existence. Both he and Burns frequently returned to the Five Points to lead the Dead Rabbits on forays well into the 1850s and ‘60s. His bar at Cherry Street was next door to Dan Kerrigan's, a prize-fighter and one-time chairman of the Tammany Hall General Committee, and had been instrumental in the 1855 murder of William “Bill the Butcher” Poole.

We knew that for our story to have relevance we had to find a building in this area, preferably built before or during that timeframe. Somewhere we could retell these stories.

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