Thos Carmody – Character in Divide the Dawn
“The White Hand gang just firebombed the damn place and didn’t even kill Carmody.”
~Wild Bill Lovett
Thos (short for Thomas, b. 1890) Carmody, also known as Quick Thos, has somehow survived multiple murder attempts and the Great War. Thos is a childhood friend of famed West Side Manhattan gangster Owney Madden and bitter enemy of Tanner Smith. A lone wolf, Carmody is best known for working the angles and has climbed all the way up to Treasurer of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) by doing the impossible: making the Italian Black Hand shake with the Irish White Hand under the ILA banner in Brooklyn. A union recruiter, he is a thorn in the arse of the New York Dock Company.
What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: In 1916 Jonathan G. Wolcott of the NY Dock Co. hired the White Hand gang to kill Carmody for trying to recruit his longshoreman employees into the ILA. Gang leader Dinny Meehan then hired Tanner Smith to do the job, but Smith tried to parlay that for a top spot in the ILA in exchange for saving Carmody’s life. Smith then told Carmody to lam out of New York.
Carmody did go on the lam and tried to get transferred out of the dangerous New York City territory. Wearily, he was convinced to go back to Brooklyn by ILA President T.V. O’Connor. When he appeared on a foggy barge at dawn, the White Hand gang got spooked, as they were led to believe Smith had killed Carmody. With Vincent Maher In 1917, Carmody murdered Wolcott’s enforcer Silverman at a tailor’s shop in the Italian section of Red Hook. Later, Carmody was drafted into the Army’s 77th Infantry division in 1918 and upon returning, plans on finishing off his feud by killing Tanner Smith and helping Wild Bill Lovett overthrow Dinny Meehan.
