Tanner Smith

About

Thomas F. “Tanner” Smith (c. 1887 – July 26, 1919) was an American criminal and gang leader in New York City during the early 20th century. He was the founder and leader of the Marginals, or “Irish Paddy Gang”, which was active in Greenwich Village and along the Hudson River waterfront from around the turn of the 20th century until his murder in 1919. He was closely associated with Owney Madden and the Gophers; he and Madden briefly ran the Winona Club together until the New York City Police Department closed the clubhouse around 1910.

Thomas F. Smith was born in Manhattan, New York around 1887, and worked as a “boss stevedore” for much of his adult life. He was reportedly related to local ward district politicians and, in an editorial by the New York Tribune, “acquired his leadership of this gang because of petty political influences”. Tanner Smith and the Marginals, sometimes allied with the Pearl Buttons and later the Gopher Gang, battled the Hudson Dusters for control over the Hudson River waterfront and eventually took over when the Hudson Dusters disappeared from the district. Tanner eventually made the Pearl Buttons junior partners…