When you think of the criminal gangs of New York in the 1800s, ruthless young men probably come to mind.
But these gangs had female members as well, some of whom were notorious fighters.
There was Hell-Cat Maggie, a member of the Irish-American Dead Rabbits in the 1850s. Her home base was the Five Points slum, near today’s City Hall. Supposedly her teeth were filed into sharp points and she clawed rivals with brass fingernails.
Another was Sadie Farrell, aka Sadie the Goat. Reportedly she robbed East Siders by first head-butting them in the stomach. In the 1860s she joined the Charlton Street Gang, river pirates on the West Side.
Ida Burger, called Ida the Goose, was a prostitute and Lady Gopher, part of the Gophers of Hell’s Kitchen. In the 1910s she was lured away to the Lower East Side’s Eastman Gang, led by Monk Eastman, but eventually went…
Some murderers loves the spotlight and love the nicknames the media invents to mark their crimes. It’s her or his chance for that macabre 15 minutes of fame. That and a few loose screws in the head. This tale deals with one such murderer who happens to be a serial killer, except with a slight twist. This murderer became upset when he did not get attention for his first killing, and wrote letters to media and prosecutors about the murder, always signing them with a happy face. He named himself the Happy Face Killer.
I don’t usually blog about serial killers because they become a bore after a while and the intimate details about the attacks are stomach-turning. Everyone wants to be the new Ted Bundy. However, this one spoke to me because the killer’s family was directly affected by his behaviours, and his own daughter offered interviews about her childhood with a serial killer father. Eventually she penned…
Rappers spit a lot of falsehoods in their rhymes for entertainment that cause controversy. Such was the case when Miami rapper Rick Ross likened himself to Big Meech and Larry Hoover on his Blowing Money Fast music single. While the culture regarded the reference as legendary, members of the Hoover family regarded it as completely disrespectful.
American crime figures such as Big Meech and Larry Hoover are often times glamorized by the Hip Hop community for their drug dealing histories but to the family of Larry Hoover the reference negatively impacted their mission to overcome the stigma attached to their name.
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The Hoover camp caught up with the self proclaimed Teflon Don during a trip to Chicago and explained why the name drop was an unwanted one.
Ross maintained that his mention of Hoover was homage to Hoover whom he viewed a political prisoner. Hoover’s camp believe the name referenced alongside drugs and violence and continued to glorify the lifestyle that the former gang leader now denounces.
According to RubyHornet, Jim Allen states:
“Hoover is very remorseful for the things that he’s done as well things done through the street organization. A lot of that goes back to him and we’re trying to change that around and push peace instead of negativity. Larry Hoover Jr. and Jim Allen are pushing peace. That’s the message Larry Hoover is pushing. When his name is mentioned in songs connected to crime, it tarnishes what we’re doing out in the street. There are people all over the country that hear Rick Ross’ music and when he mentions Hoover’s name he makes it seem that this is the life they’re living in the present, which they’re not.”
Allen, just like Larry Hoover Jr. as well as Gator Bradley, were all taken aback by Ross’ reference. Most importantly, they felt that Ross brought up Hoover’s name out of context, linking with a lifestyle he no longer lives nor supports.
Larry Hoover Jr. shared Allen’s sentiments:
“[the reference] is a big deal because he didn’t contact anybody before he did it. It was the fact that he was associating his name in a bad light. He came to town and we reached out to him to right the situation… As long as everyone is a man of their word, everything is fine. He got the understanding that it’s not good to use [Hoover’s] name in the context that he used it. That’s as far away from where we are as ever.”
Hoover has been incarcerated since 1973. He is currently held in Florence, Co under maximum security.
The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli 
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