"Dapper" Danny Hogan (c. 1880 - December 4, 1928) was an

Irish-American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

figure, political fixer, and the boss of

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

's Irish Mob both before and during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

. Following Hogan's 1928 murder by

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

, his former position as leader of

in St. Paul was taken over by

Lithuanian Jew {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Litvaks , image = , caption = , poptime = , region1 = {{flag, Lithuania , pop1 = 2,800 , region2 = {{flag, South Africa , pop2 = 6 ...

ish gangster and former Hogan associate Harry Sawyer and his ally, corrupt police chief Big Tom Brown. They did not share Hogan's distaste for unnecessary violence. Their collusion with both the Dillinger and Barker-Karpis Gangs resulted in some of the most infamous crimes of the

Depression era The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and in the rise of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

under

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...

Early life

According to his death certificate, Daniel Hogan was born c. 1880 to

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...

parents in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Hogan was first arrested in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

for "room prowling" in 1905 and accordingly served a sentence at

San Quentin San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in ...

. He went on to also serve prison terms in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

for

bank robbery Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank Branch (banking), branch or Bank teller, tel ...

and stealing furs.

Criminal career in Saint Paul

Around 1909, Hogan permanently settled in Saint Paul, where, "he discovered his true calling - organizing major crimes from the sanctuary of St. Paul, selecting the criminal personnel for the job, and laundering stolen merchandise, particularly hard-to-fence Government bonds." During the same era, Hogan's close ally, mobbed up St. Paul Police Chief John O'Connor, allowed criminals and fugitives to operate in the city as long as they checked in with Hogan, paid a small

bribe Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...

, and promised not to kill, kidnap, rape, or rob within the city limits. Even though Hogan himself often skirted this rule, according to Paul Maccabee, "Hogan's robberies, unlike those of Bonnie Parker,

Clyde Barrow Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut "Champion" Barrow (March 24, 1909May 23, 1934) were American outlaws who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a ser ...

, and other better-known bandits, nearly always reaped substantial profits and seldom resulted in gunplay." Hogan became a fixer so closely connected to the Democratic Party

political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...

that ran St. Paul that police officers not only feared him, but actively protected his organization. The

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...

made repeated attempts to prosecute him, but always failed. Hogan also acted as an "ambassador" for Chief O'Connor and visiting mobsters from the

National Crime Syndicate The National Crime Syndicate was a multi-ethnic, closely connected, American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian American Mafia and Jewish Mob. It also involv ...

. Hogan himself owned the Green Lantern saloon on Wabasha Street, Saint Paul, which was also an

illegal gambling Gambling law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law ...

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

, and became a

speakeasy A speakeasy, also called a beer flat or blind pig or blind tiger, was an illicit establishment that sold alcoholic beverages. The term may also refer to a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. In the United State ...

during Prohibition. Hogan was involved in planning armed robberies in the towns surrounding the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

, and also in

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

and casino gambling in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. In an interview with Paul Maccabee, retired journalist Fred Heaberlin recalled, "Danny Hogan... today he'd probably be called a Godfather, sort of a father figure for hoods who were climbing the world of hoodlumism." In a 1927 memo, the U.S. Justice Department alleged, "Hogan is a nationally know character as a 'fence' for the disposal of stolen property and undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen stamps and bonds and other valuable property have come into his hands... He is doubtless one of the most resourceful and keenest criminals in the United States and has always been able to cover his tracks so as to avoid detection." In his memoir ''Robbing Banks was my Business'', Harvey Bailey described how he regularly went to Hogan, who regularly laundered the money and bonds from Bailey's armed robberies. Bailey praised Hogan as a trustworthy, principled, and honorable gangster. According to Bailey, Danny Hogan's word, once given, was good.

Murder

On December 4, 1928, Dapper Dan got behind the wheel of his Paige

coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

in his garage at 1607 Seventh St W, Saint Paul, and turned on the ignition. A bomb located beneath the floorboards detonated and blew off his right leg. He slipped into a coma at the hospital and died nine hours after the blast. Accompanied by $5,000 worth of lilies, roses, and gold and white chrysanthemums sent by criminal associates from the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Hogan received a funeral worthy of Prohibition-era

and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul's North End. Following the funeral, Chicago

North Side Gang The North Side Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was a primarily Irish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. It was the principal rival of the South Side Gang, also ...

leader

Bugs Moran George Clarence "Bugs" Moran (; born Adelard Leo Cunin; August 21, 1893 – February 25, 1957) was an American Chicago Prohibition-era gangster. He was incarcerated three times before his 21st birthday. Seven members of his gang were gunned ...

personally stood guard outside the Hogan family residence at West Seventh Street, apparently to protect his fallen friend's family from further attacks. The boss' widow, Leila Hogan, was heard to say, however, "I am sure there will be justice. If Danny had lived, he would have gone on the one leg they left him and taken care of it himself." Although the murder is still considered unsolved, recently declassified

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

files reveal that the most likely person responsible was Jewish-American mobster and longtime Hogan associate Harry Sawyer. According to declassified FBI interviews with his ex-wife Rita Gladys Sawyer, Harry Sawyer believed that Hogan had cheated him out of a $36,000 cut from an

they jointly ran at the Hollywood Inn in

Mendota, Minnesota Mendota ( ) is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The name is a mispronunciation of the Dakota word for the location, , which in Dakota tradition is the center of the world. The word in this use means "the confluence of the Mi ...

. In addition, Harry Sawyer had contributed $25,000 to Hogan's bail in 1927, after the boss had been

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indi ...

for masterminding the 1924

armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

of $35,000 from the

Chicago Great Western Railroad The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, and Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between Saint Paul, Minn ...

station at South St. Paul. To Sawyer's undying fury, Hogan had never repaid him. In an interview with Paul Maccabee, Hogan's niece, Anne Michaud, recalled, "Uncle Danny knew who had killed him, but he'd never tell his family, because he was afraid the gangsters would come after ''us''."Paul Maccabee (1995), ''John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul 1920-1936'',

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Educational institution, educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the Minnesota Terr ...

Press. Page 18. Hogan's death is especially notable because it was one of the first instances in the

of a

crime boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, mafia don, mob boss, kingpin, or godfather is the leader of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss has absolute or nearly absolute control over the other members of the organization and is ...

being murdered by a

. After the funeral, Sawyer took over Hogan's former position as boss of St. Paul's underworld and, with the help of mobbed up police chief Big Tom Brown, masterminded a violent crime spree that, according to Paul Maccabee, would have horrified Danny Hogan.

References

External links

StarTribune.com "St. Paul gang figure slain"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogan, Danny 1880s births 1928 deaths People murdered in 1928 American crime bosses American gangsters of Irish descent Criminals from Minnesota Deaths by car bomb in the United States Irish-American culture in Minnesota Murdered American gangsters of Irish descent Organized crime in Minnesota People from Saint Paul, Minnesota People murdered by Jewish-American organized crime People murdered in Minnesota American gangsters of the interwar period Unsolved murders in the United States

Early life

Criminal career in Saint Paul

Murder

References

Further reading

External links