The Slaughter House Gang, known as the Slaughter Housers, were a prominent street gang in the New Yorks Fourth Ward during the late 1840s to the mid 1860s.

The Slaughter Housers, known for their violent muggings and murder, were infamous for luring an unsuspecting victim into a local dive bar where they would be robbed and sometimes murdered. However if the victim refused to enter the gang would follow the victim until passing a window where a woman would dump a bucket of ash blinding the victim and he would be attacked and pushed into a celler door where the victim would be robbed, including his clothes, and thrown onto the street. The leading member of the gang was George Leese , a known river pirate and mugger, and involved in staging Fourth Ward illegal bare knuckle prize fights. The Slaughter Housers remained the dominant gang in the Fourth Ward until after the American Civil War when police finaly managed to drive out the gang from the neighborhood.

Further Reading

Carl Sifakis, The Encyclopedia of American Crime: Second Edition Vol. II (K-Z), Facts On File Inc., New York, 2001