Johnny Spanish was an American gangster who was a rival of former partner "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan during a garment workers' strike which later become known as the Second Labor Sluggers War in 1919.
11 Facts About Johnny Spanish
1.
2.
Johnny Spanish became involved in labor racketeering, holdups of saloons and other businesses, and murder before organizing his own gang.
3.
Johnny Spanish became involved in labor racketeering and murder, allegedly involved in a killing at age seventeen, before organizing a crew of thugs allied with the Five Points Gang.
4.
Johnny Spanish soon became notorious for his daring holdups of saloons and other businesses, particularly in his robbery of a Norfolk Street saloon owned by Mersher the Strong Arm.
5.
Johnny Spanish, who had earlier boasted that he would return and rob the saloon at a certain time, appeared at the scheduled time, shooting up the bar and assaulting several customers who resisted, before making his escape.
6.
In 1909, Johnny Spanish started working together with "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan.
7.
Once he recovered, Johnny Spanish began taking over control of the Kid Jigger's Lower East Side "stuss games", a variant of faro, who contemptuously dismissed the threats.
8.
Johnny Spanish abducted the woman, who was now pregnant, and drove to a marsh outside Maspeth, New York, where he tied her up against a tree and shot her in the abdomen several times.
9.
Johnny Spanish was arrested and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 1911; coincidentally around the same time Kaplan was arrested for robbery.
10.
Johnny Spanish was assisted by his brother Joseph, appropriately nicknamed, "Joey Spanish".
11.
Johnny Spanish was shot and killed while entering a Manhattan restaurant at 19 Second Avenue by three unidentified men on July 29,1919.