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| Founder | Dinny Meehan |
|---|---|
| Years active | Early 1900s–1925 |
| Rivals | Black Hand gangs Italian gangsters |
| Notable members | Bill Lovett Richard Lonergan |
TheWhite Hand Gang was a collection of variousIrish American gangs on theNew York City,Brooklyn, andRed Hook waterfronts from the early 1900s to 1925 who organized against the growing influence of Italian gangsters. Their name was chosen in response to the SicilianBlack Hand gangs and carried the implication that the Irish gang was the "white" counter to the growing presence of what they considered "non-white" Italian gangsters and Italian immigrants. They were known to be virulentlyanti-Italian and particularly violent, with members killing each other, contributing to the unstable leadership which led to the gang's demise.
The gang was founded byDinny Meehan, who was shot and killed while sleeping in his home with his wife at his side. His successor,Bill Lovett, aggressively confronted the Italian gangs until his death on November 1, 1923. The most known story of his death goes like this: While passed out at a bar, Lovett was shot several times before Sicilian assassinWillie "Two-Knife" Altieri killed him with ameat cleaver. However, this is unproven. The facts are that Lovett drunkenly stumbled into the back room of an abandoned store with an old gang associate and fell asleep. Police believe sometime during the night two men entered and Lovett was beaten in the head with a blunt instrument and then shot 3 times in the head. When questioned, his associate told police he had conveniently awoken at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and returned home. The police believe that the true murderers were probably connected with Lovett's own gang, or a rival Irish gang.
Lovett's brother-in-lawRichard Lonergan, who had become leader before Lovett was killed, began an even more aggressive attack againstVincent Mangano,Albert Anastasia, andJoe Adonis, who had begun moving in on the waterfront. On the night of December 25, 1925, Lonergan and five of his men (Aaron Harms, James "Ragtime" Howard, Paddy Maloney, Cornelius Ferry, and James Hart) entered theAdonis Social Club, aMafia-ownedSouth Brooklynspeakeasy, during aChristmas celebration. Lonergan and the other White Handers, according to witnesses, were intoxicated and being unruly with the Italian patrons. Lonergan himself loudly and openly called nearby customers "wops", "dagos" and otherethnic slurs.[citation needed] When three local Irish girls entered the club escorted by their Italian dates, Lonergan chased them out supposedly yelling at them to"Come back with white men, fer chrissake!".[citation needed] It was at that moment that the lights went out and gunfire was heard.[citation needed] When the lights came on Lonergan, Harms, and Ferry lay shot to death on the dance floor.[citation needed] Police suspected visitingAl Capone, who had been forced to leave New York in 1921 after an altercation with a White Hand gang member, but there was no evidence and the case was dropped.[citation needed] Without strong leadership, the White Hand disappeared, and by 1928, the Mafia completely controlled the waterfront.