Johnny Spanish, whose real name was John Weyer, was one of the most feared mobsters of the early 20th century. He took the name Johnny Spanish because he was half Jewish and half Spanish, but on the Spanish side he claimed to be a descendant of Butcher Weyer, the last governor of Cuba. So he thought that Johnny Spanish had a lot more cache than just plain old John Weyer.

Spanish was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and quickly immersed himself in various street crimes. The short, frail, and moody Spaniard was a loner, whose specialty was robbing bars. However, he liked to add the twist of sending a message to the salon owner first, informing them of his imminent arrival. The legend of him grew immense when he performed that feat in a dive on Norfolk Street owned by Mersher the Strong Arm. Spanish warned Mersher that he would arrive at a certain time, and so he did, armed with his usual four cannons and an achievement lurking behind him. He fired a couple of shots through the mirror behind the bar, then emptied the cash register. Then, to add insult to injury, he lined up 10 customers against the wall and took all of their cash and jewelry. Spanish’s notoriety grew, and he was soon accepted into Paul Kelly’s Five Points Gang, where he continued his pranks.

The Spanish found it profitable to steal the winnings from the very lucrative games of chance suss, which was a variation of the popular lighthouse. He had his eye on one such ride, operated by Kid Jigger on Forsyth Street. One day he approached Jigger, who was known to be a fierce gunslinger, and demanded half of the game winnings from him, from then on.

“And why should I give you half of my stuss graft?” Jigger asked.

“Because I’ll kill you if you don’t,” Spanish said.

Gigger laughed. Spanish took offense and said, “Okay, I’ll drop you off tomorrow night.”

Indeed, being a man of his word, the following night, as Jigger was leaving his game of suss on Forsyth Street, Spanish opened fire with two pistols. Jigger ran back into the building to safety, but the bullets hit an eight-year-old girl playing innocently in the streets, killing her instantly. This necessary Spaniard left town for several months, and when he returned, he was alarmed to discover that his girlfriend (who happened to be pregnant with who knows who), had been stolen by fellow thug Kid Dropper, real name Nathan Kaplan. . English thought that he would first fix up with his ex-girlfriend. He grabbed her off the streets, threw her into a cab, and headed for the swamps of Maspeth, Long Island. There he tied her to a tree, then emptied five shots into her pregnant belly. He left her there for her to die, but miraculously the woman survived and her baby was later born with three missing fingers.

For this atrocity, Spanish was arrested and sentenced to seven years in Sing Sing Prison. Upon his release in 1917, Paul Kelly’s Five Points Gang was no more, and Spanish thought he might be able to take over Kelly’s former rackets. Only Kid Dropper had the same idea. The two old enemies fought over the union protection scam for more than two years. One day in early 1919, the bulky Dropper cornered the Spaniard in the street and badly butchered him with a knife. The Spanish survived, but not for long.

On July 29, 1919, Spanish was entering a restaurant at 19 Second Avenue when Dropper and two embodiments opened fire, hitting Spanish several times in the chest. Bullets being better than swords, Spanish died a few days later at Bellevue Hospital.