Why Valentine's Day is the Best Day of the Year!

I know what most of you are thinking at this exact moment: “100% of women would rather be operated on by an abortionist with Parkinson’s disease before spending a minute in the same room with Dexter, why would he enjoy celebrating Valentine's Day?”

Well, it’s not to increase abortion rates (well OK, maybe it is).

Here's why, and to appreciate it, a brief history of the Chicago underworld is necessary.

In the early 1900’s James "Big Jim" Colosimo, former Precinct Captain of Chicago's First Ward, established himself as “boss” of Chicago. Colosimo and his wife ran a chain of brothels that earned more than $600,000 a year. This made Colosimo the perfect target for the infamous Black Hand extortionist that plagued Italian immigrants during the early years of the twentieth century. 

You also must keep in mind that this was a time when the Mafia wasn't like the Mafia we are familiar with. It wasn't until 1931 that the Mafia was reorganized and took the shape of the national crime syndicate that we all recognize today. Before prohibition, the Mafia wasn't even the dominate criminal force in the American Underworld. Several other Italian gangs (like the ‘Ndrangheta from Calabria, and the Comorra from Naples) rivaled the Sicilian Mafia for underworld dominance in America. Not to mention the hordes of native and Irish gangs that also stood in their way.

Anyway, by 1909, the threats of the Black Hand extortionist had become so dire, Colosimo’s wife asked her nephew Johnny “The Fox” Torrio to travel from New York to Chicago to help them solve their problem. Johnny Torrio had been a member of the Five Points Gang and the James Street Gang, alongside with future Mafia bigwig Charlie “Lucky” Lucaino.

The solution to Torrio was simple. He just hired two New York thugs to murder the extortionist when they showed up to collect their money. Colosimo was so grateful he made Torrio number two in his criminal empire, which mainly consisted of prostitution and gambling.

Things had been going so well for Torrio that by 1919 he brought over a young, violent hoodlum by the name of Al Capone to help him in his business ventures.

The 18th Amendment was passed on January 16, 1919. This made the production and consumption of alcohol in the United States illegal, causing organized crime groups like the Mafia to profit greatly from both political and religious fanaticism.

As many other leaders of various organized crime groups, Torrio saw this as a perfect business venture to save his organization from extinction. Colosimo didn’t agree. Colosimo forbade Torrio to bootleg any illicit liquor to the various speakeasies that were sprouting up all over Chicago.

Torrio knew that if he wasn't going to dominate the new bootlegging business in Chicago, somebody else would. That’s why Torrio allegedly had Colosimo assassinated on May 11, 1920. This betrayal would be a prelude to the violence generated by organized crime for dominance over the bootlegging racket in Chicago.

With Colosimo out of the way, Torrio took control of his new empire with Capone second in command. With Torrio at the helm, and Capone making sure that speakeasy operators were purchasing their beer, the Torrio/Capone organization took control of most of the South Side of Chicago.

Trying to avoid the bloody turf battles that were about to be unleashed on Chicago, Torrio met with various leaders of bootlegging organizations and carved out territories for them to operate in. Torrio would take the South Side. Dion O’ Banion, leader of the predominantly Irish North Side Gang, took the North Side, and the Sicilian Genna Brothers would take Chicago’s downtown region.

Clashes soon started happening between the Genna’s and O’ Banion. The Genna brothers wanted to have O’ Bannion assassinated, but since they were Sicilians, they would have to get the permission of the governing Mafia body in Chicago before they could make the hit.

The governing Sicilian Mafia body at the time was known as the Unione Siciliana, an organization originally set up to help Sicilian immigrants get settled, but now had become corrupted by Sicilian gangsters and was a front for what was then the American Mafia. Again, at this time, before reorganization in 1931, you must have been a full blooded Sicilian in order to be a member of the Mafia; other Italians could not be a part of the organization. Capone was denied membership because his background was Neapolitan, not Sicilian.

The man in charge of the Unione Siciliana at the time was Mike Merlo. Merlo abhorred violence and denied the fearsome Genna brothers permission to have O’ Banion assassinated. While being alive and in control of the governing Mafia body in Chicago, Merlo was able to keep the peace between the various criminal organizations.

Mike Merlo died of cancer on November 8, 1924. Two days later the gangs of Chicago broke into open warfare.

The assassination of Dion O’ Banion on November 10, 1924, by both the Genna brothers and Torrio’s South Side gang, triggered a series of events that would eventually crescendo into the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

The death of Mike Merlo meant that someone else would have to take leadership of the governing body of the Mafia.

Angelo Genna, the youngest and most volatile of the six Genna brothers would take Merlo's position as president. Capone, desperate to dominate the organization, had a close ally, Antonio Lombardo, that he would have liked to have seen as head of the Unione.

This plan made by the Neapolitan Capone didn't sit well with the Sicilian Gennas, who, as members of the hierarchy of the Unione, saw the position of president as one of prestige and honor among their Sicilian brethren. The brothers quickly rallied and pressed hard to put Angelo in as the next president. Capone, unhappy at the turn of events, bided his time under the patient leadership of Torrio.

O’Bannon’s death would soon be avenged. In January 1925, a retaliation from the North Side gang ended up with the attempted assassination of Johnny Torrio. While Torrio survived the ambush right outside of his apartment, he retired from the soon to be bloody streets of Chicago, and left his underworld empire to Capone and moved to Italy. Torrio would later return to the United States and would be a key player in the reorganization of the American Mafia in 1931.

His rule lasting a little over five months, in May, 1925, Hymie Weiss , now leader of the Irish North Side Gang, dispatched assassins that chased down Angelo Genna in a high speed car chase and then shot him to death. Angelo's death and the loss of leadership of the Unione Siciliana were the least of the remaining brothers' worries. Soon after Angelo’s murder, two of the six brothers: Mike and Antonio Genna were also murdered. In a period of 44 days, three of the Genna brothers were killed. The remaining Genna brothers: Peter, Sam, and Vincenzo fled to Sicily, leaving Capone in control of his new empire to take over their rackets.

With Angelo Genna being dispatched so quickly, the Unione Siciliana needed yet another leader. Capone still pushed for his faithful ally, Antonio Lombardo, to become president of the Unione, but lost again to a man by the name of Samuel Samuzzo Amatuna. Unfortunately for Amatuna, his reign would just last a week shorter than Genna’s, thanks to assassins quickly dispatched by Capone.

With the death of Amatuna in November, 1925, Al Capone was finally able to place his own man, Lombardo, into the leadership of the Unione Siciliana. It was not an easy task. Opposing the Capone interests was Giuseppe Aiello, one of the nine members active in the Unione. Aiello also desired the seat of power for himself.

While trying to dominate the local Mafia, Capone’s relationship with the North Side Gang continued to sour. On September 20, 1926, Capone was having lunch with bodyguard Frank Rio at the Hawthorne Hotel when a caravan of cars cruised past the building and riddled it with hundreds of submachine gun bullets. Hymie Weiss, then leader of the North Side Gang, and a bodyguard were later assassinated on October 11, 1926, in a hail of gunfire while crossing the street, leaving George “Bugs” Moran to take control of the North Side Gang.

Desperate to defeat both Capone and Lombardo, and secure his influence over the Unione Siciliana, Giuseppe Aiello turned to Bugs Moran and the North Side Gang for assistance. After several months of “peace”, assassins of Moran and brothers, Frank and Peter Gusenberg, gunned down Lombardo in a busy Chicago street on September 7th , 1928.

With the assassination of Lombardo, the Unione needed yet ANOTHER leader. Aiello was yet again denied leadership and another Capone ally, Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo, took the position. Shortly after, on January 8, 1929, "Patsy" Lolordo was shot to death in his house by an unknown gunman…..but you could probably guess who he worked for by now. And guess who still didn't get to be President of the Unione? That’s right! Joseph ''Hop Toad'' Guinta took over leadership of the Unione Siciliana.

It didn't take long for Capone to figure out that the demise of both Lolordo and Lomardo were carefully orchestrated by Giuseppe Aiello. Capone was planning, along with one of his top triggerman, "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, a damaging retaliatory response that would be remembered throughout history as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

The plan was fairly simple. While Capone was away on vacation at his Florida estate(in order to have a solid alibi), assassins disguised as cops would be waiting outside one of Moran’s garages. When Moran would enter, the “police” would barge in on them, stage a raid, and then shoot Moran and his men.

At around 10:30 a.m. on February, 14, 1929, the Moran gang had already arrived at the warehouse. However, Moran himself was not inside. One account states that Moran was supposedly approaching the warehouse, spotted the police car, and fled the scene to a nearby coffee shop. Another account was that Moran was simply late getting there.

The lookouts that Capone had placed across the street to insure that Moran himself was inside the garage mistook one of Moran’s men for Moran himself. Thinking that Moran was inside the garage, Capone’s lookouts signaled for the assassins to enter.

Witnesses outside the garage saw a Cadillac sedan pull to a stop in front of the garage. Four men, two dressed in police uniform, emerged and walked inside. The two phony police, carrying shotguns, entered the rear portion of the garage and found members of Moran's gang. The killers told the seven men to line up facing the back wall. There was apparently not any resistance, as the Moran men thought their captors were the real authorities. Then the two "police officers" signaled the pair in civilian clothes. Two of the killers started shooting with Thompson sub-machine guns. All seven men were killed in a volley of seventy machine-gun bullets and two shotgun blasts, according to the coroner's report. To show bystanders that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed cops.

The seven men that were killed that day were: James Clark, Frank and Pete Gusenberg(brothers), Adam Heyer, Johnny May, Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer, and Al Weinshank. All of these men had a position in Moran's criminal operations, from button men to front men.

When Moran heard about the massacre, he checked himself into a hospital. The press eventually found him and when asked who could have done such a thing. Moran responded with: “Only Capone kills like that.”

While Moran himself wasn't killed in the incident, his gang was annihilated.

The North Side Gang eventually lost control over its rackets to the Capone organization, leaving Al Capone completely in control over Chicago. The rest of Moran’s criminal career amounted to nothing more than petty thievery. Moran was arrested in 1946 for robbing $10,000 from a bank messenger. He was convicted and sentenced to prison. Moran later died of cancer on February 25, 1957. He was given a pauper's burial outside of prison.

With virtually every other obstacle out of his way, Capone was in complete control of Chicago. But his plan eventually backfired. The public had grown tired of the gruesome violence in Chicago generated by prohibition. While the St. Valentine's Day Massacre was successful in removing any business opposition from the Capone interest, it had also made national headlines. Finally answering the cries of an outraged public, the Federal Government planed to put Capone behind bars.

Even though Capone was successful in defeating Bugs Moran and the North Side Gang, he still had the treacherous Giuseppe Aiello organizing assassination attempts against him. Capone’s uncanny ability not to get shot, even though several dozen assassination attempts were put in motion against him, forced Aiello to turn to two of Capone’s own assassins to help murder him. Albert Anselmi, John Scalise, as well as the new head of the Unione, Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta, met with Aiello, who proposed that if Capone was assassinated they could take control of his empire for themselves.

In April 1929, after getting wind of the plot, Capone beat them to the punch and had the three men killed, dispatched with a beating from a baseball bat, followed by a gunshot to the face to finish the job (the scene famed by a number of movies in which Capone murders associates with a baseball bat at a banquet is based on these killings). All three of their bodies were found in an abandoned automobile several days later.

With the death of Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta, Giuseppe Aiello was finally able to take control of the Unione Siciliana. While Aiello was coming into power, Capone was going to jail. Capone served a one year sentence in prison for carrying a concealed weapon.

While in jail, Capone learned of plans that Aiello again was trying to assassinate him. Capone, finally deciding to assassinate Aiello, bided his time in prison.

On October 23, 1930, with several of his lieutenants being murdered in the previous year, Aiello was making plans to permanently leave Chicago. Upon leaving a local building, a gunman in a second-floor window across the street started firing at him with a submachine gun. Aiello toppled off the building steps and moved around the corner, out of the line of fire. Unfortunately for him, he stumbled into the range of a second submachine gun nest on the third floor of another apartment block. Aiello was taken to Garfield Park Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. The coroner eventually removed 59 bullets from his body.

While Capone was yet again victorious in getting rid of another underworld nemesis, it would be law enforcement that would be his downfall. Elliot Ness(who gets far too much credit for putting away Capone) and his team of “Untouchables” impacted Capone's operations, but it was income tax evasion that was the key weapon. In a number of federal grand jury cases in 1931, Capone was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion and also 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act. On October 17, 1931, Capone was sentenced to eleven years, and following a failed appeal, he began his sentence in 1932.

With prohibition ending, along with a major Mafia revolution and reorganization underway, Capone found himself behind bars.

He would be eventually transferred to Alcatraz prison, where the isolation from the outside world didn't help the syphilis that was slowly eating away at his brain.

After his release, Capone’s mental health had greatly diminished. He often raved on about communists, foreigners, and George Moran, who he was convinced was still plotting to kill him from his Ohio prison cell. On January 21, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia two days later. Capone then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest the next day at his Florida estate.

Sources:

-The Gangs of Chicago-Herbert Asbury

-The Outfit-Gus Russo

-Capone: The Man and the Era-Laurence Bergreen

-The History of Organized Crime : The True story and Secrets of Global Gangland-David Southwell.

-Organized Crime : An Inside Guide to the World's Most Successful Industry-Paul Lunde.

Colonial Gangster

When one thinks of organized crime in New York, the Mafia or the Irish “Westies” usually comes to mind. But more than a century before the birth of gangsterism, a loose confederacy of poor Irish, African slaves, and Spanish negros formed a primitive organized crime syndicate that dominated the underworld in colonial New York.

In 1741, an alleged conspiracy to burn down New York and murder the white elite was uncovered. The alleged ringleader of this plot was John Hughson, an illiterate, Irish tavern owner who illegally served African slaves. Hughson’s own wife and daughter, and several slaves that frequented his tavern, were also accused of being members in this conspiracy. Daniel Horsmanden, one of the judges who tried these supposed conspirators, collected an assortment of court documents pertaining to the trial and put them into one book, A History of the Negro Plot. While certainly biased towards the existence of this conspiracy, and the lack of innocence of all of those tried, Horsmanden’s documents give us a glimpse of a primitive crime syndicate that operated in colonial New York. But besides Horsmanden’s own biases, the book is filled with testimony of informants who have “flipped” to “rat” on behalf of the government, or slaves, who on the verge of brutal execution, decided to reveal their participation in this “dark confederacy.” So to the historian, the condition under which these witnesses gave their testimony must also be considered.  While this paper deals with the organized gangs that were uncovered during this trial, it will also cover the alleged planning of the conspiracy, which could be argued was an act of organized crime in itself.

New York City always seemed to be a haven for criminals. Fifty percent of all crime that took place in the colonies, occurred in New York. Four times as much theft was reported in the city than the outlaying country side. Surprisingly, slaves were tried for crimes in far fewer numbers then their percentage of population.  To give an example, over ninety percent of all crimes committed in New York were by men. 7.5 percent of those men were committed by blacks. Between the winters of 1740-41, the burglary rate in New York was on the rise. Even though the majority of men tried for crimes against persons and crimes against public order were white, those tried for crimes against property were slaves.  This statistic suggest that while mostly white men were arrested and tried for getting drunk in public and fighting in the streets, slaves were on average were to participate in burglary. In most cases, the victim of these crimes would be the slave masters themselves, who commonly did not report the crimes because of fear they would have to explain to the court why they could not control their slaves. Since slaves, on average, were more likely to commit burglary, why did slaves steal? It could be to fight the institution of slavery itself, or it could be simply out of necessity, for survival. The most likely reason for slaves committing burglary is the same reason that anyone commits burglary, for financial gain.

If slaves stole goods from their masters, then what would they do with it after that? It would be a similar answer to what modern burglars would do, take it to a fence. Defined by Webster dictionary, a “fence” is either a place where stolen goods are purchased or an actual receiver of stolen goods. Both John Hughson and his tavern perfectly fit both of those definitions. As stated earlier, the illiterate Hughson moved to New York from the country to open a tavern. Hughson owned one of the few taverns in New York that catered to slaves, which was illegal. Not only did he allow slaves into his establishment, but he also tolerated the company of slaves personally. Hughson allowing slaves to enter and drink in his establishment would be a trait he would share with gangsters that owned bars in the 20th Century. Several dance halls that operated in the 20s and 30s were owned by Jewish and Italian gangsters. Money, not skin color, being the ultimate admission ticket, race mixing in these clubs became so prevalent that the Klu Klux Klan devoted a considerable amount of resources to destroying them. Also, in the early years of the 20th Century, Mafia owned clubs in  New Orleans housed a new kind of music called “jazz” which was shunned by many of the white, mainstream establishments. Both being the ultra-capitalist, Hughson and his gangster descendants, despite what society would dictate, wouldn't let skin color get in the way of making money.

One of the most frequent group of patrons at Hughson’s tavern was a gang called the Geneva Club. Named after a shipment of Dutch gin that the group stole years earlier from the docks of New York, the Geneva Club was an organized criminal gang of slaves that were responsible for a fair amount of burglary that occurred along the New York waterfront. Lead by slave Caesar Varick, and his friends, Prince Auboyneau and Cuffee Philipse, the Geneva Club was one of the leading criminal groups of New York. The way these gangs would operate is that they would steal goods, and then deliver them to Hughson’s tavern. Hughson, the fence, who would sell the stolen goods would either in return give the gang members money or, most commonly, would pay them in alcohol. But the Geneva Club wasn't the only organized criminal slave gang that operated in the New York underworld. The Smiths Fly Boys, the Long Bridge Boys, and the Free Masons were all slave gangs that burglarized New York City . Even though it is only documented that the Geneva Club used Hughson’s tavern as a fence, it is not out of the question that all the rest of these gangs used Hughson as a source to fence their stolen goods.

The only reason that the conspiracy came to light in the first place was through an act of crime. Christopher Wilson, a cabin boy for an English man of war, was planning to rob the shop of Robert Hogg. The Hoggs, who sold linen, noticed that Wilson was particularly eyeing the Spanish mill coins that Mrs. Hoggs kept in the drawer in the shop. Soon after, on February 28th , the coins disappeared. It is not clear if Wilson stole the coins himself, or if he told members of the Geneva Club about it, or if members of the Geneva Club caught wind of the potential score and decided to muscle in on the burglary for themselves. What is known that the coins were gone. Remembering his fascination with the coins, Mrs. Hoggs told the Sheriff that Wilson had committed the crime. When the Sheriff asked Wilson about it, he claimed that a soldier named John Quinn had shown him the coins at Hughson’s tavern. Days after, the sheriff could not find anybody by the name of Quinn. He questioned Wilson again about the burglary. It is not stated in Horsmanden’s History of the Negro Plot what the Sheriff did to make Wilson confess, but he did. Wilson now told the Sheriff that slaves and Geneva Club members Caesar Varick and Prince Auboyneau committed the crime. But why did Wilson lie to the authorities? And who is this mysterious John Quinn? It was later uncovered that Wilson wasn't exactly lying to the authorities, but he wasn't telling the truth either. One of Caesar’s most popular aliases was John Quinn. In his book The Great New York Conspiracy, Peter Charles Hoffer claims that even Caesar wasn't aware of his alias. Hoffer explains that aliases weren't nicknames like criminals use today, but when criminals would scheme and talk about committing crimes, they would make up names for each other to limit their exposure and conceal their identities.

Both Caesar and Prince were immediately arrested, and since they both had prior convictions for theft, the case seemed to be solved. Probably in an attempt to distance himself from the two gang members, Hughson flipped and admitted to the authorities that both Caesar and Prince were both in his tavern with the stolen coins. The case should have ended here. Both Caesar and Prince were accused by two white men(Wilson and Hughson), and would probably be executed for the crime. But, the spark that would eventually ignite a flair of conspiracy would come from Hughson’s sixteen year old indentured servant, Mary Burton. While out buying candles for Hughson, she admitted to the shop owners, the Kannadys, that she had a greater knowledge of the recent burglary than anyone else. The Kannadys quickly ran to the police and told them that Mary Burton had knowledge of the Hogg’s burglary. When the authorities questioned Burton, she first claimed that she had no such knowledge of the robbery. But as authorities started to put more pressure on her, she broke down in tears. She claimed to the police that if she gave the authorities information that she would be murdered by either Hughson or members of the Geneva Club. Eventually, she would give in to the authorities and became a government witness. Her first revelation was that the Irish prostitute that lived in Hughson’s tavern, Irish Peg, had been intimate with Caesar, and bore his child a year earlier. When this was eventually proven to be true, in Horsmanden’s mind anyway, Burton became a credible witness. Then Burton said that Hughson had stolen goods hidden in his basement. Hughson gave up the goods to the authorities, but claimed he didn't know how they got there.

Over a week after Hughson gave up his goods to the authorities, on March 18th,  a fire broke out at the Fort George. The fire didn't only engulf the Fort, but also the Govenor’s mansion, the armory, and the chapel. Six more fires would break out between March 18th and May 6th. May 6th is also the same day that John Hughson and his wife, Sarah, were both arrested for possession of stolen goods. Who was setting these fires? And why did the fires stop the day that John Hughson was arrested? It was not unusual for criminals to set fire to a residence or a shop to steal people’s goods while the home or business owners were busy trying to put out the flames. Even though it takes place over a century later, this popular criminal act can be seen recreated in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002). Several people whose houses were engulfed in flames complained to local magistrates that they suffered great material losses not by the fire, but rather by people stealing it from them.  Even though the identities or the reason that these fires were started, whispers of conspiracy traveled through New York. Witnesses near the fires claim they saw negroes starting them.

Amid this hotbed of paranoia, a conspiracy began to take shape. While giving testimony about the Hoggs robbery, Burton accidently slipped that she may have known something more about the fires that had been said. When asked, she said she would not divulge the information she had. Horsmaden tried everything, from promising her protection from the people she was about to accuse to telling her that she would see jail time is she stayed silent. It was only the threat of answering to God in the afterlife that shook up Mary Burton enough to talk. She was the first domino to fall. Burton told the grand jury that the same slaves that brought the stolen coins to Hughson’s, Caesar and Prince, along with slave Cuffee Phillips, often met with Hughson to talk about burning down the city, killing all of the white elites, and stealing their goods. After the “revolution”, Hughson would proclaim himself “king” of New York and Caesar would be governor. Hughson went as far as to even purchase eight guns and several swords to arm the criminal insurrection.Barton would admit that over thirty slaves would be apart of this alleged plot and that she witnessed a strange induction ceremony. Backed up by slaves that would eventually give testimony to the government, Hughson would gather the slaves, take out a bible, and swear each of them to an oath to establish code of silence about the plot. Caesar, acting as an enforcer, even put a pistol up to a slave’s chest to force him into the conspiracy.

Not soon after this information came out, both Caesar and Prince were executed, not for their part in this conspiracy, but rather for burglary. The next day, May 12th, John and Sarah Hughson were indicted for their part in the alleged conspiracy. Adding to the charges of “felonious receiving stolen goods”, which they were already charged for on May, 6th. Eventually, a slave named Quaco Roosevelt would be connected to the fires and was arrested. He admitted that he was angry that the Lt. Governor for banning him from seeing his girlfriend, a cook at Fort George. Quaco admits that Hughson put him up to starting the fire at the fort. Another slave, Bastian, testified that Hughson said that he intended to burn down the fort first, so he could disarm the colony. After that, Bastian  claimed that one of the slaves that was accompanying Hughson had something black in his hand, which he planned to use to burn down the fort with. Quaco would eventually be sentence to death for arson. Before his execution, Quaco was asked why did Hughson collude with slaves to burn the city down. Quaco simply replied: “To make himself rich.” Quaco wanted to confess more to the judges, but the mob that was there to see his execution demanded that the stalling stopped and the execution start. Quaco, along with Geneva Club member Cuffee, were both executed at the stake.

By the end of the trial, arraignments were made for 109 slaves. Of those thrown in jail, 72 slaves confessed their part in this “dark confederacy.” Out of all the slaves examined, 13 were burned at the stake and 18 were hung. John Hughson, along with his wife, were both hung, with the Irish prostitute Peg, on June 12th. Up to his death, Hughson claimed that he was never part of or had any knowledge of any conspiracy to set fire to the city and slaughter the white elite. Hughson’s Judas, Mary Burton, received a reward for being the first person to come forward with information about the conspiracy. As an indentured servant, she used her reward money to buy her freedom.

While Horsmanden was certain that most of  those accused were guilty, not all historians agree. So who was guilty of what? Both members of the Geneva Club and John Hughson were definitely both guilty of operating in the criminal underworld of New York. New crimes were even uncovered during the trial. Apparently, members of the Geneva Club heisted a crate of butter and sold it for profit. If any of the testimony in Horsmanden’s book is to be believed, then both Hughson and the Geneva Club decided to take their criminal enterprise to new levels. After taking over the city, Hughson would literally be “boss”, while Caesar would be his lieutenant. But could an illiterate tavern owner be capable of forming such a conspiracy? If so, Hughson didn't seem like he would take over the city for anything other than financial gain. Though being in charge of a gang of slaves, Hughson was never an outspoken abolitionist. He talked about financial equality, but never about equal rights. Hughson’s role and status in the New York underworld, his downfall being a turncoat that testified against him in court, and his sole motivation to “make himself richer”, could make him America’s first colonial gangster.

Sources
-A History of the Negro Plot-John Horsmanden
-The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741-Peter Charles Hoffer
-A History of Negro Slavery in New York-Edgar J. McManus
-The Gangs of New York-Herbert Asbury
-A Renegade History of the United States-Thaddeus Russell
-The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic-Peter Linebauh and Marcus Rediker