Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden (December 18, 1891 – April 24, 1965) was an English-American gangster who was a leading underworld figure in New York during Prohibition. Nicknamed "The Killer", he garnered a brutal reputation within street gangs and organized crime. He ran the Cotton Club in Manhattan and was a leading boxing promoter. After increased attention from law enforcement in New York, Madden moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1935, where he remained until his death from natural causes in 1965.

Early life

Owen Vincent Madden was born into a working-class family at 25 Somerset Road in Leeds, England, on December 18, 1891, the son of Francis Madden and Mary Madden (O’Neill). Both emigrants from Ireland, He also enjoyed collecting newspaper clippings from the Yorkshire Post. One of his Hell’s Kitchen contemporaries remarked, ‘He was a smart man. A class act, and he wasn’t even Irish. He was born in England. Shows you what a tough bastard he was, just to survive in this neighbourhood.’ In Hell's Kitchen, he lived among the city’s immigrant Irish population, where he relied upon his Irish ethnicity and an established migrant Irish network to further his career in organised crime. Madden was released on parole in 1923. The Gopher Gang had broken up, and many members of his own faction were either in Sing Sing or working for bootlegging gangs.

The Cotton Club

Madden purchased the Club Deluxe from former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson and reopened it a year later. Nightclub patrons flooded into Harlem from downtown Manhattan to catch performers such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and the Nicholas Brothers.

Madden and his partners, Big Bill and George Jean "Big Frenchy" DeMange, also muscled their way into a piece of the exclusive Stork Club, where the influential gossip columnist Walter Winchell held court and everyone who was anyone wanted to see and be seen. As a celebrity with ownership in more than twenty night clubs, Madden became well-known and glamorized for his Prohibition-era activities. He also gained recognition for his revenge tactics and payoffs of City Hall.

References

Further reading

  • Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs Of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld. United Kingdom: Arrow Books 2002.
  • Clark, Neil G. Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront. New Jersey: Barricade Books, 2017.
  • English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
  • Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000.
  • Messick, Hank. Lansky. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973.
  • Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005.
  • Downey, Patrick. "Gangster City: History of the New York Underworld 1900–1935". New Jersey: Barricade Books, 2004.
  • Nown, Graham. The English Godfather: Owney Madden, Born in Leeds, Raised in Wigan, Duke of the West Side. London: Ward Lock Ltd, 1987.
  • Gophers, Goose Chasers, and the Early Years of Owney Madden by Allen May
  • Gangland Tours Owney Madden Video
  • Madden's entry at Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture