Egan's Rats were a Prohibition bootlegging gang in the early 20th century.
Formed around 1900 by Jellyroll Egan the gang quickly became a dominent street gang in St. Louis hired out as "legbreakers" by businesses to break up union strikes and other activities. As this became less profitable by the late 1910s, following the US entry into WWI in 1917, and the gang began moving into bootlegging during Prohibition. Now under the leadership of Dinty Colbeck, the gang was based out of Buckley's pool hall, soon controlling bootlegging in the St. Louis–Kansas City area as well as financing several major jewelry robberies with the help of safecracker Red Rudensky. The gang was also hired out as freelance gunmen and has often been suspected that the several of the gang, including Fred "Trigger" Burke, were involved in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The gang later made headlines when gang member Leo Vincent Brothers was convicted of the murder of Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle in June 1930.
Dinty Colbeck became known as a flamboyant figure, known for paying large bribes to city officials and police officers; he allegedly often antagonized police by approaching a patrolman and, pulling out a large amount of cash, would ask "Want a bribe officer?" Like many of the Prohibition gangs however, the gang was unable to adapt to other criminal activities, now controlled by the National Crime Syndicate after the end of Prohibition in 1932, and the gang disbanded shortly after Colbeck's death several years later.
Further reading
- Jay Robert Nash, Encyclopedia of World Crime (K-R) Vol. III, Crimebooks Inc., 1990