Gang leader caught after shootout with Pinkertons
On this date in 1904:
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Eastman |
Eastman, his pal Christopher Wallace and other members of Eastman's gang ventured beyond the confines of their usual Lower East Side territory in the early morning of February 2. On Forty-second Street in Midtown, they spotted a drunk young man counting out cash in a doorway. Eastman and Wallace advanced. Eastman delivered a devastating punch to the man's abdomen, while Wallace grabbed the money.
Two Pinkerton agents, George F. Bryan and John Rogers, then jumped out at the robbers. A scuffle occurred, handguns were drawn and shots were fired. Additional Eastman gangsters rushed in to help Eastman and Wallace escape the Pinkertons. The group ran off on Forty-second Street toward Broadway. But they ran right into New York Police Officer Healy.
Once arrested, Wallace confessed to attempted grand larceny and is believed to have cooperated in the case against Eastman.
At trial in April, it was revealed that the Eastmans' robbery target had been a wayward son of the wealthy Wetmore family and the Pinkertons had been hired by the family to watch over him.
Eastman was convicted of felonious assault. General Sessions Court Judge John W. Goff sentenced him on April 19 to ten years in Sing Sing Prison, the maximum term allowed. The cooperative Wallace was sentenced to just two and a half years for his part in the crime.
While held at Tombs Prison in Manhattan awaiting transfer to Sing Sing, Monk Eastman was interviewed by New York reporters. He expressed just one concern: several of his pet pigeons had eggs that were ready to hatch and he hoped to learn "how they came out" before he was taken out of the city.
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Sing Sing Admission Register |
He entered Sing Sing on April 22. He would serve better than seven years of his sentence before being released.
Much more on Monk Eastman and other gangsters of Manhattan's Lower East Side can be found in the 2023 issue of Informer: The History of U.S. Crime and Law Enforcement (available in magazine, book and electronic formats).
Sources:
- Edward Eastman, no. 54863, Sing Sing Prison Admission Register, received April 22, 1904.
- "Monk Eastman in pistol battle," New York Evening World, Feb. 2, 1904, p. 2
- "'Monk' Eastman now indicted," New York Evening World, Feb. 4, 1904, p. 3.
- "Monk Eastman on trial," New York Sun, April 13, 1904, p. 12.
- "Monk's pal gets light sentence," New York Evening World, April 21, 1904, p. 7.
- Statement of commitments to the Sing Sing State Prison during the month of April 1904.
- "Ten years for 'Monk,'" New York Daily Tribune, April 20, 1904, p. 6.