Thomas Draper (criminal)

Thomas "Shang" Draper (1839–1883) was a criminal shanghaier, saloon keeper, and criminal gang leader in New York City along the city waterfront.[1]

Thomas Draper
Etching from 1907
Born1839 (1839)
Died1883 (aged 4344)
Other namesShang Draper
Occupation(s)shanghaier, criminal gang leader, saloon keeper
Employerself-employed
Known forBeing a New York City waterfront shanghaier.

Criminal career

Shang Draper ran a waterfront saloon in his native New York City, where he performed a confidence scam using an underage girl to lure a mark to a dark hotel room (which Draper owned) only to rob him.[2] Draper acquired his distinctive nickname "Shang" from the "shanghaiing" trick he used to play on his unsuspecting patrons. Draper would drug a bar patron with laudanum and by the time the fellow awoke, he would have been pressed into merchant marine or naval service, sometimes for a foreign land.

Draper was a contemporary of Frederika Mandelbaum, a notorious gangleader in her own right, also based in his native New York City.[3] Mandlebaum installed Draper, one of her trusted lieutenants, in a bank robbery gang fronted by George Leslie.[4]

Thomas Murphy of the Brooklyn Police spots Draper hiding in a pile of rubbish at a summer house on Patchen Avenue.

Death

Thomas Draper died in 1883 in New York City.[1]

References

  1. "A CRIMINAL FEUD ENDED; AN EARLY MORNING TRAGEDY IN "SHANG" DRAPER'S BAR-ROOM. JOHN IRVING'S PURSUIT OF JOHN WALSH RESULTING IN THE MURDER OF BOTH-- A SINGULAR STORY OF CRIME. (Published 1883)". The New York Times. 1883-10-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  2. Asbury, Herbert (1927). The Gangs of New York. Garden City Publishing Company.
  3. "Thomas Draper's Case. A Prisoner Wanted in Two States, And In Two New-York Counties". The New York Times. October 27, 1878.
  4. Conway, J. North (2009). King of Heists: The Sensational Bank Robbery of 1878 That Shocked America. Lyons Press.


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