The Washington times., 1935-05-25
Human Side of the News
BIZ EdWin C.. Hill


THAI was more healthful than
any place on the curbs. Police.
men were supposed to travel al
ways in pairs, like the italian
Carabiniera, but they did not
always do so.
Tough as some Of the famous
plug.uglies Whereabouts were sup.
posed to be, a rookie cop, not
knowing their reputation, laid
out eight of them with his night
sick, tied them together with
their belts and hauled them off
to the station in peddler's cart.
There were several stories as
to how the district got its name,
and I never could get the
straight Of it. One yarn was
that in a humping big riot,
one young cop remarked, "This
is hotter than hell" And an
other cop added: "Hell's a nice
climate-this is hell's kitchen.
The name, apparently, was first
applied to a huddle Of foul
tenements on a jutting rock in
West seth Street, between Ninth
and Tenth Avenues.
In the years 1880 and 1881
there were 287 criminal court
cases from this block of build
ings. Battle Annie, an associ-
ate of the notorious Splitting
William, was chairman Of the
Battle Row Ladies' Social and
Athletic Club, and also leader
of the Lady Gophers, auxiliary
of the bloodthirsty Gophers
Gang. Her contributions to the
more turbulent chapters Of New
York gang history were unique,
in that she led a mob of
AmaZonS.
I find no other record of
large-scale mauling and mayhem
as INDUCED in by women at this
colorful crossroads. There were,
of course, such notables as Gal
lus Mag and He'll Cat Maggie,
but they contented themselves
with such diversions as biting
off each others ears and never
branched out in a big way like
Battle Annie.
Bully Martin Morrison, so
ugly that he would make the
hairy ape look like a canary
bird, used to overrun Hell'S
Kitchen, bludgeoning, shooting,
knitting and gouging all who dis
sented from his loudly pro-
claimed views as an Orange
man.
Then there was another fear
some roughneck known as Cor
don. He had an easily remov-
able wooden leg with which he
used to crack skulls when he
was in a querulous mood. Many
of these diversions we're carried
on at a saloon known as the
Bucket of Blood. It is now
home for old ladies.
RACE WARS
The Gophers and the Whyos
and the Changers were the boss
gangs and the most casual kill
ers around there. On dull
day, they liked to hide on the
roof of a tenement and tip a
chimney on a passer-by, partic-
ularly if he looked clean or
prosperous. There we're some
sizzling race riots in 1898, when
the natives started driving the
Negroes north to San Juan Hill
and to Harlem.
Then there was a little civil
war when they chased the
Greeks, in 1900. These race ar
guments hung more or less for
years, but finally Hell's Kitchen
became just sodden where it
had been murderous-nursing
the memory of such famous
picaroons as Owen Madden, but
letting it go at that. And, be-
ing merely sodden, it was ready
for the pickax.
Policeman Ginger" Reilly, if
he is still alive, will be pleased
with the new tunnel, and no
doubt will hope that the plaza
spreads out and engulfS all
Hell's Kitchen. He fought the
gangs for years and he could
tell the modern cops a lot about
"mussing up" the tough hom-
bres. That was his specially
and before he was through he
disclosed large streaks of yellow
in the most ferocious Of the
gangsters.
Copyright 1895. King Features
Syndicate, Inc.)