THE BUTCHER GREY

Story

Inspired by one of the central characters in the cult film “Gangs of New York”, where Daniel Day-Lewis played The Butcher (based on the real-life figure William “Bill” Poole), who fought immigrants for control of New York’s northern districts in the late 1800s — the THE BUTCHERS T-shirt takes a different route.

Unlike the film, which focuses mainly on the Irish and native-born Americans, our T-shirt tells the real story of the Five Points.

In 1870, the first settlers in this infamous slum weren’t Irish — they were Italians and Jews. The Irish arrived later.

Young criminal gangs fought bloody battles for control of bootlegging, racketeering, and prostitution, but the most feared of all was the Italian Five Points Gang, still considered the most violent gang in American history.

One of its leaders, going by the name Paul Kelly, recruited a very young Lucky Luciano. One day, Luciano spotted a kid in a rival gang and thought, this guy would make us stronger. He walked up to him and said:
“You and me, we need to work together.”

That kid’s name? Al Capone.

The Five Points is believed to have had the highest crime rate of any slum in the world.

In Manhattan, the spot where five streets converged — Anthony (now Worth), Orange (now Baxter), Mulberry (still Mulberry), Cross (now Mosco/Park), and Little Water (now vanished) — became known as “The Five Points.”

Between 1885 and 1895, a cleanup campaign led to the demolition of the Five Points and the redevelopment of the area.
But the masses of poor simply moved next door — into the Lower East Side.