Website design By BotEap.comIn the gay nineties, Crazy Butch was one of the youngest criminals on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Legend has it that Butch was abandoned by his parents when he was only eight years old, and as a result, Butch lived on the streets and became what was known at the time as a “street kid”.

Website design By BotEap.comOne day, Butch was scavenging the streets looking for food to eat, when he came across a dog, which was also abandoned. Butch took the dog under his wing and named him “Rabbi” because the dog was very smart.

Website design By BotEap.comButch began teaching Rabbi “tricks,” but not the usual tricks that kids would teach their dogs. When Butch saw an old woman carrying a handbag, he told the rabbi, “Go get it.” And so the rabbi would do, lunging at her bag and ripping it from the surprised woman’s arm. Then the rabbi, purse clutched in his mouth, would run to the corner of Willett Street and Stanton Street, where Butch would be waiting. Butch would get the contents of the bag and the rabbi would get a nice big bone, one of which Butch always kept in his pocket, in case a mark suddenly appeared.

Website design By BotEap.comButch and Rabbi were so successful in their robberies that other street urchins started following them, so they too could learn the tricks of the trade. Soon, Butch had his own gang of tween and teen delinquents, which he called the “Crazy Butch Gang.”

Website design By BotEap.comWhen Butch amassed enough money, he bought himself a huge bike; not just for transportation, but to be used as an instrument for his next scheme. Butch pedaled his bike through the busy streets of lower Manhattan, followed by his gang and the rabbi. When Butch thought the time was right, he would crash his bike into an unsuspecting pedestrian. Instead of apologizing to the fallen lady, Butch would jump off his bike and start berating his victim with comments like, “What are you blind or something? You old bag!”

Website design By BotEap.comAlmost immediately, a curious crowd would form a circle around Butch and his victim. As unsuspecting viewers analyzed Crazy Butch’s situation, Butch’s gang, consisting of 10 to 15 incorrigible kids, slithered through the crowd, picking every pocket in sight. The rabbi took the usual bag from him, usually from the same person Butch had thrown on the pavement. The gang members would then scatter in different directions. They would meet later at his headquarters, a small third-floor apartment on Forsyth Street, to split the profits.

Website design By BotEap.comAs Butch and his gang began to get older and bolder, they attracted the attention of Paul Kelly’s Five Points Gangs, who ruled the same neighborhood where Crazy Butch had been robbing. Apparently, Butch’s gang had victimized some family members of the Five Points Gang, and one of the Five Pointers himself was rumored to have been robbed by the Crazy Butch Gang.

Website design By BotEap.comSoon, Butch heard that the Five Pointers were after him and his gang, so one summer day, Butch decided to test how good his gang’s defenses were at his Forsyth Street apartment. Butch, not the brightest of fools, crept up the stairs and then, screaming like a banshee, burst into his gang’s apartment and fired back with a revolver in each hand. His gang initiates, most of whom were napping, were totally taken by surprise. One of the gang members, Little Kishky, was sitting on the windowsill with the window open. Little Kishky fell backward out of the window onto the pavement three floors below. It’s unclear if Crazy Butch paid for Little Kishky’s hospital bills.

Website design By BotEap.comAs the Crazy Butch Gang aged, in order to neutralize the Five Pointers who were constantly hunting them down, Butch’s gang joined forces with the Monk Eastman Gang of 2000, who were constantly at war with Paul Kelly’s Five Pointers.

Website design By BotEap.comThis worked fine for a while until Butch made the mistake of falling in love with a thief named The Darby Kid. Butch loved The Darby Kid, and apparently The Darby Kid loved Butch. However, The Darby Kid had a jealous boyfriend named Harry the Soldier, who was always packing. Harry the Soldier caught up with Butch and shot him dead, sending The Darby Kid straight into Harry the Soldier’s arms.

Website design By BotEap.comWith the loss of their leader, the Crazy Butch Gang split up forever. Some left on their own and others were absorbed into other Lower East Side gangs. One of the Crazy Butch Gang to rise to the top was Big Jack Zelig, known to the police as “The Toughest Man in New York City.” Big Jack took over the Eastman gang after Monk Eastman was sent to prison for robbery, and Monk’s successor, Max “Kid Twist” Zwerbach, was shot to death at Coney Island. But alas, on October 15, 1912, Zelig was shot to death at the age of 24, while riding the 2nd Avenue streetcar.

Website design By BotEap.comThere is no record of what happened to Rabbi the bag-snatching dog.