Showdown at the Red Lion
Subtitle: the life and times of Jack McLoughlin, 1859-1910
By: Charles van  Onselen
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Johannesburg
Language: eng
Number of pages: 515
ISBN-13: 9781868426225; 9781868426232
Subjects: Irish; Biography; Brigands and robbers; History
Description: "Johannesburg was - and is  -  the Frontier of Money. Within months of its founding, the mining camp was host to organised crime: the African 'Regiment of the Hills'  and 'Irish Brigade' bandits. Bars, brothels, boarding houses and hotels oozed testosterone and violence, and the use of fists and guns was commonplace. Beyond the chaos were clear signs of another struggle, one to maintain control, honour and order within the emerging male and mining dominated culture. In the underworld, the dictum of 'honour among thieves',  as well as a hatred of informers, testified to attempts at self-regulation. A 'real man'  did not take advantage of an opponent by employing underhand tactics. It had to be a 'fair fight'  if a man was to be respected. This was the world that  'One-armed Jack' McLoughlin -  brigand, soldier, sailor, mercenary, burglar, highwayman and safe-cracker  - entered in the early 1890s to become Johannesburg's most infamous 'Irish' anti- hero and social bandit. McLoughlin's infatuation with George Stevenson prompted him to recruit the young Englishman into his gang of safe-crackers but 'Stevo' was a man with a past and primed for personal and professional betrayal. It was a deadly mixture. Honour could only be retrieved through a Showdown at the Red Lion." -- Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 489-499) and index.