Bill Dwyer (mobster)
Encyclopedia
William Vincent Dwyer known as "Big Bill" Dwyer, was an early Prohibition
gangster and bootlegger
in New York
during the 1920s. He used his profits to purchase sports properties, including the New York Americans
and Pittsburgh Pirates
of the National Hockey League
(NHL), as well as the Brooklyn Dodgers
of the National Football League
. He eventually was brought down by the U.S. government through legal actions, leaving Dwyer penniless at the end of his life in 1946.
neighborhood of Manhattan
, Dwyer became one of the leading bootleggers during the early years of Prohibition. In his heyday he reportedly ran a fleet of 20 rum-runners.
Dwyer was working as a dockyard stevedore
(hired by friend George Shevlin) prior to the announcement of the Volstead Act
in 1919. With access to company supply trucks, garages, and other valuable resources, Dwyer quickly dominated bootlegging in Manhattan
within a year. His network of garages was able to hide large numbers of supply trucks which, accessible only by secret doors
and compartments, were known only to Dwyer and several others.
Eventually breaking away from Shevlin, Dwyer had organized a smuggling operation which ran from Europe directly to Manhattan. Forming a partnership with Owney Madden
and, later Frank Costello
, Dwyer soon began taking on future gangsters such as lieutenant Vannie Higgins
and others. Through James J. Hines, Dwyer was able to gain the political protection of Tammany Hall
as well as members of the New York police and Coast Guard enabling Dwyer's shipments to be delivered to the coast without interference.
However in 1925, Dwyer was arrested for attempting to bribe members of the Coast Guard during an undercover operation by the Prohibition Bureau and was sentenced for two years. After thirteen months, Dwyer was released for good behavior and slowly began to withdraw from bootlegging instead investing his money into legitimate businesses including legalized gambling ventures such as casinos and racetracks as well as sports teams owning a football team and two ice hockey teams. By the end of Prohibition in 1932, Dwyer had retired from bootlegging and lived with his wife and five children in Belle Harbor, Queens
. He died there in 1946, aged 63, of a heart attack.
League and he renamed them the New York Americans
. Dwyer paid $75,000 to turn the Tigers into the New York Americans. With a fortune made in Prohibition bootlegging, Dwyer handed out lucrative contracts, including a three-year deal to Billy Burch
rumoured to be worth $25,000. Shorty Green
also received a huge raise, his salary going from $3,000 to $5,000. This was a time when most NHL players were said to make about $1,500 or $2,000. He took an active role in owning the team, often trying to rig NHL games. For example, he put a goal judge in that would call a goal against an opponent merely if the puck touched the goal line. It happened one night in 1927-28 when Ottawa was at Madison Square Garden. However, the goal judge seemed more interested in taunting Ottawa goalkeeper Alex Connell
. Connell finally butt-ended the goal judge in the nose, which caused Dwyer's buddies to seek Connell's death that night. It took a police detail to get Connell out of the Gardens that night and at the train station, someone inquired if a gentleman was Alex Connell. Connell lied and said he was not, knowing he was in danger.
The Americans flourished, and Dwyer secretly purchased the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NHL, using ex-boxer Benny Leonard
as the front man who appeared to be the team's owner. The team folded in 1930 as the Philadelphia Quakers
. In 1930, Dwyer also purchased the NFL's Dayton Triangles
for $2,500, relocated them to Ebbets Field
and renemed them the Brooklyn Dodgers. He bought the team with Jack Depler
, a former player for the NFL's Orange Tornadoes. By the end of the 1932 season, Dwyer had enough of professional football. The Dodgers, had cost him an estimated $30,000 in just three years. The team was then purchased by two former New York Giants
players, Chris Cagle and John Simms Kelly for $25,000.
In 1935-36, the United States government won a big lawsuit against Dwyer, leaving him virtually penniless except for his ownership of the Americans, and he was losing money here, also. Just before the 1936-37 season, the NHL took control of the Americans, claiming that the financial status of the team was critical. Dwyer filed a lawsuit against the NHL for this, but the NHL settled by letting him own the Americans in 1936-37 to give him time to pay his debts. Red Dutton
, who was manager and coach of the team, lent Bill $20,000 for the team and Dwyer promptly lost it all in a crap game. When, at the end of the season, he could not pay the debts he owed, the NHL ordered the team under its control.
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
gangster and bootlegger
Rum-running
Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
during the 1920s. He used his profits to purchase sports properties, including the New York Americans
New York Americans
The New York Americans were a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League and the second to play in the United States. The team never won the Stanley Cup, but reached the semifinals...
and Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL)
The Pittsburgh Pirates were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League , based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1925–26 to 1929–30. The nickname comes from the baseball team also based in the city...
of the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL), as well as the Brooklyn Dodgers
Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL)
The Brooklyn Dodgers were an American football team that played in the National Football League from 1930 to 1943, and in 1944 as the Brooklyn Tigers. The team played its home games at Ebbets Field. In 1945, because of financial difficulties, the team was merged with the Boston Yanks...
of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
. He eventually was brought down by the U.S. government through legal actions, leaving Dwyer penniless at the end of his life in 1946.
Early life & Prohibition
Born and raised in Hell's KitchenHell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
neighborhood of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Dwyer became one of the leading bootleggers during the early years of Prohibition. In his heyday he reportedly ran a fleet of 20 rum-runners.
Dwyer was working as a dockyard stevedore
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
(hired by friend George Shevlin) prior to the announcement of the Volstead Act
Volstead Act
The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States...
in 1919. With access to company supply trucks, garages, and other valuable resources, Dwyer quickly dominated bootlegging in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
within a year. His network of garages was able to hide large numbers of supply trucks which, accessible only by secret doors
Secret passage
Secret passages, also commonly referred to as hidden passages or secret tunnels, are hidden routes used for stealthy travel. Such passageways are sometimes inside buildings leading to secret rooms. Others allow occupants to enter or exit buildings without being seen...
and compartments, were known only to Dwyer and several others.
Eventually breaking away from Shevlin, Dwyer had organized a smuggling operation which ran from Europe directly to Manhattan. Forming a partnership with Owney Madden
Owney Madden
Owney "The Killer" Madden was a leading underworld figure in Manhattan, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.-Early life:Owen Vincent Madden was born at 25 Somerset Street, in...
and, later Frank Costello
Frank Costello
Frank Costello was an Italian New York City gangster who rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States and enjoyed political influence.Nicknamed the "Prime Minister of the Underworld", he became one of the most powerful and influential Mafia...
, Dwyer soon began taking on future gangsters such as lieutenant Vannie Higgins
Vannie Higgins
Charles "Vannie" Higgins was a New York mobster and one of the most prominent bootleggers during the Prohibition era. Known as "Brooklyn's Last Irish Boss", Higgins was notorious for his escapes from law enforcement....
and others. Through James J. Hines, Dwyer was able to gain the political protection of Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
as well as members of the New York police and Coast Guard enabling Dwyer's shipments to be delivered to the coast without interference.
However in 1925, Dwyer was arrested for attempting to bribe members of the Coast Guard during an undercover operation by the Prohibition Bureau and was sentenced for two years. After thirteen months, Dwyer was released for good behavior and slowly began to withdraw from bootlegging instead investing his money into legitimate businesses including legalized gambling ventures such as casinos and racetracks as well as sports teams owning a football team and two ice hockey teams. By the end of Prohibition in 1932, Dwyer had retired from bootlegging and lived with his wife and five children in Belle Harbor, Queens
Belle Harbor, Queens
Belle Harbor is an upscale neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is a tightly-knit, upper class community located on the western half of the Rockaway Peninsula, the southernmost area of the borough. While there are no formal boundaries for the area, Belle Harbor is often used to...
. He died there in 1946, aged 63, of a heart attack.
Entry into professional sports
In 1925, Tex Rickard convinced Dwyer to purchase the Hamilton Tigers of the National HockeyLeague and he renamed them the New York Americans
New York Americans
The New York Americans were a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League and the second to play in the United States. The team never won the Stanley Cup, but reached the semifinals...
. Dwyer paid $75,000 to turn the Tigers into the New York Americans. With a fortune made in Prohibition bootlegging, Dwyer handed out lucrative contracts, including a three-year deal to Billy Burch
Billy Burch
Harry Wilfred Burch was an Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Hamilton Tigers, New York Americans, Chicago Black Hawks, and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League...
rumoured to be worth $25,000. Shorty Green
Shorty Green
Wilfred Thomas "Shorty" Green was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played four seasons in the National Hockey League for the Hamilton Tigers and New York Americans. As captain of the Tigers in 1925, he led the team on a strike with the demand that the players be paid an additional...
also received a huge raise, his salary going from $3,000 to $5,000. This was a time when most NHL players were said to make about $1,500 or $2,000. He took an active role in owning the team, often trying to rig NHL games. For example, he put a goal judge in that would call a goal against an opponent merely if the puck touched the goal line. It happened one night in 1927-28 when Ottawa was at Madison Square Garden. However, the goal judge seemed more interested in taunting Ottawa goalkeeper Alex Connell
Alex Connell
Alec Connell was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Falcons, New York Americans and Montreal Maroons teams in the National Hockey League...
. Connell finally butt-ended the goal judge in the nose, which caused Dwyer's buddies to seek Connell's death that night. It took a police detail to get Connell out of the Gardens that night and at the train station, someone inquired if a gentleman was Alex Connell. Connell lied and said he was not, knowing he was in danger.
The Americans flourished, and Dwyer secretly purchased the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NHL, using ex-boxer Benny Leonard
Benny Leonard
Benny Leonard was an American lightweight boxer. He was named as number 8 on Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years and number 7 on ESPN's 50 Greatest Boxers of All-Time....
as the front man who appeared to be the team's owner. The team folded in 1930 as the Philadelphia Quakers
Philadelphia Quakers (NHL)
The Philadelphia Quakers were an American professional ice hockey team that played only one full season in the National Hockey League , 1930–31, at the Philadelphia Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
. In 1930, Dwyer also purchased the NFL's Dayton Triangles
Dayton Triangles
The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangle Park, which was located at the confluence of the Great Miami and Stillwater Rivers in north...
for $2,500, relocated them to Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball park located in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, USA, on a city block which is now considered to be part of the Crown Heights neighborhood. It was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. It was also a venue for professional football...
and renemed them the Brooklyn Dodgers. He bought the team with Jack Depler
Jack Depler
John Charles Depler was a professional football player with the Hammond Pros of the National Football League. He later served as a player-coach with the Orange Tornadoes, and became the founder and coach of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the NFL.Prior to his professional career, Depler played college...
, a former player for the NFL's Orange Tornadoes. By the end of the 1932 season, Dwyer had enough of professional football. The Dodgers, had cost him an estimated $30,000 in just three years. The team was then purchased by two former New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
players, Chris Cagle and John Simms Kelly for $25,000.
In 1935-36, the United States government won a big lawsuit against Dwyer, leaving him virtually penniless except for his ownership of the Americans, and he was losing money here, also. Just before the 1936-37 season, the NHL took control of the Americans, claiming that the financial status of the team was critical. Dwyer filed a lawsuit against the NHL for this, but the NHL settled by letting him own the Americans in 1936-37 to give him time to pay his debts. Red Dutton
Red Dutton
Norman Alexander "Mervyn" "Red" Dutton was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, coach and executive. He played for the Calgary Tigers of the Western Canada Hockey League and the Montreal Maroons and New York Americans of the National Hockey League...
, who was manager and coach of the team, lent Bill $20,000 for the team and Dwyer promptly lost it all in a crap game. When, at the end of the season, he could not pay the debts he owed, the NHL ordered the team under its control.
Further reading
- Blumenthal, Ralph. The Stork Club: America's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Café Society. Little, Brown & Company, 2000.
- Lardner, James and Thomas Reppetto. Nypd: A City and Its Police. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2000. ISBN 0-8050-6737-X
- Messick, Hank. Lansky. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973. ISBN 0-7091-3966-7
- Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7