The Republican journal., 1869-01-28
The School in which Rogers Assassin
Graduated.

The following is an extract from an ar
ticle in the New York Times of Friday on
the Rogers murder:
The Rogers murder is undoubtedly the
work Of that band of young outlows known
as the Nineteenth street Gang and is the
legitimate fruit of the reckless hardihood
of mere boys that sufficed to subject an en-
tire neighborhood and over-awe the police.
No city but New York could have produced
such gang as this, and certainly no other
would have tolerated it, as this was for
years.
The gang infested the northwestern sec
ton of the city, with its trysting place,
originally at Tom Cavanaugh's, in Twen-
tieth street, between Seventh and Eighth
avenues, afterward at McNeips in Nine
avenues, and lastly at Ready's in Seventh
avenue, near Seventeenth street. 1t was
composed Of boys born in the neighbor
hood, and it would almost seem born
thieves, for with many of them their crimes
began while they were still mere chileren.
Then they were sneaks, hanging around
area doors and unguarded tills, waiting for
an opportunity to STEEL AS they grew
older they advanced upon the scale Of
crime, and while many remained only
thieves, some gained distinction as burg
robbers. But, either as the one or the 9TH
er, no more daring or laundering gang Of
outlaws ever laid tribute upon people.
They were all of the lowest type of GRIM
inals; and have frequently evinced an
amazing lack of sense in the preparation
of their crimes and their proceedings after
ward. They have waylaid men who have
not had dollar upon their persons, aud
they have committed burglary upon retail
shops which were almost certain to contain
nothing worth carrying away. They have
kept about them a key which was the sole
proceeds of highway robbery, and they
have neglected TO throw away marked
penny which was almost the only result Of
a laborious burglary; and in the one case
and the other the trfe which any ntelli-
gent thief would have cast from him on the
instant led to their detection. They had
abundant will to become great criminals,
and lacked only the sense required to make
them as dangerous to banks as they were
to solitary wanderers and the tills of retail
shops.
Prominent i'll the gang in its palmiest
days was John Ward, Charley Munday,
Jim Tolland, Jimmy Logan, Rats Rely,
VIM. Edwards, Patty Smith, Jimmy Con-
nors, Jim Gallagher Jack Smith, Georgy
Carson, George Price, johnson the Kid,
Jack Smell, Sam Moody, Terry Quinn,
Dave Degnan and Natsy Ferrigan. Under
the lead of these young desperadoes, very
few of them then being owes 20 years Of
age, the gang some five years ago held alb
solute and almost unquestioned control Of
an entire section of the city. The police
almost universally shrunk from them and
with good reason, for one Of their chief
amusements was to combine upon 'cop'
as they call the blue-coated guardians Of
the peace-and send him bleeding aud dis
abled to his station house.
Often indeed, when their power was un-
disputed, they have labored hard i'll carry
ing huge stones to the tops OF houses, only
to let them fall upon the heads Of unsus-
pecting cops passing beneath. There was
only one officer of whom they were afraid,
and, as a corollory, only one who was not
i
attached to the Twenty-nlnth Precint, who
was on the nineteenth street beat for some
/ time. The outlaws tried their usual tao
! tics upon him at first, but unsucccssfully.
When attacked he always turned upon them
no matter what the odds, and one or more
of them were sure of a thorough clubbing
before the encounter ended They often
shot at him but happened never to hit him,
and their fire was always returned. These
daily and nightly fights served only to af-
ford a little excitement to the gang, but in
no wise weakened their power.
At last their lawlessness eliminated in
the murder Of a policeman under most heiu-
Gus circumstances. One night in the sum-
mer of 1866, number of them were en-
gagged in ravishing a woman in McCune' 5
cooper shop, in Seventh avenue, near Seven
teenth street. The cries of the victim at
tracted the attention of Officer Walker, OF
the Twenty-ninth Precint, who rushed in to
rescue her from the clutches of the mis-
Of the shop being shot by one Of the gang
and instantly killed. johnny Ward, one OF
those engaged in the affair, was arrested as
the principal in the murder and many others
were held for weeks as witnesses. This
startling event had the effect of disorgan-
izing the band for time, and of melting
the authorities to determined efforts for its
complete suppression. Ward was sent to
Sing Sing for life, and at short intervals
after the murder Of Walker many others of
the gang were arrested for various robber-
les and other offences, and were put away
at Sing Sing or sent to Blackwell's Island.
Smell and Moody obtained seven years each,
but the general term was between two aud
three years. Thus only the remnant of the
gang was left upon the scene Of its exploits,
but these were true to their instincts and
their teachings; they were forced by habit
and necessity to steal, and doing it more
bunglingly than even Of old this remnant
rapidly fell into the clutches of the police
and were successfully sent to prison. To-
ward the latter part of 1867 the gang was
thus etfectually suppressed and had become
almost tradition. But during the last
half of 1868 it showed frequently symptoms
that it had been scotched and not killed.
| Outrages became alarmuolv freouent in the