artofneed

Vincent Maher – Character in Divide the Dawn

“Vincent Maher has no moral issue in both separating virginity from a young female with his blood-filled cock as he does removing the life from a male with his snub-nosed, single action revolver.”
~Liam Garrity

Vincent Maher (b. 1894), also known as Masher (obsolete word for a ladies man) is a chatty charmer with a crude, sexual intelligence and enforcer for White Hand Gang leader Dinny Meehan. Always carrying his snub-nosed .38 in his belt, Vincent splits his time between the violent underworld and Italian bawdyhouse, The Adonis Social Club. He is best known for having a very large penis and when he was questioned for hurting a whore, he pulled down his pants and said simply, “she asked me to go to the hilt.” With his connection to South Brooklyn Italians and union recruiter Thos Carmody, he helped foster a deal between the White Hand, the Black Hand and the ILA. Vincent was the second orphan Dinny and Sadie Meehan cared for and was successfully groomed to be an enforcer. In 1912, he was arrested along with Meehan, McGowan and Pickles Leighton for murdering the King of Irishtown Christie Maroney.

What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN:  In 1915, Vincent found homeless immigrant Liam Garrity and brought him to McGowan’s Wake to meet Dinny Meehan. When the gang was under attack from many enemies, Vincent and Richie Lonergan struck first in a wave of attacks by killing Mick Gilligan, who was made an example to those who consider breaking the Code of Silence during the Donnybrook in Red Hook.
In 1917, with the White Hand gang again facing extinction, Vincent played a role in bringing three former enemies together against Wild Bill Lovett and the New York Dock Company. Afterward, He again struck the first blow when he and the ILA’s Thos Carmody worked together in murdering Jonathan G. Wolcott‘s strategist and muscle, Silverman. Vincent is currently in jail with Meehan, The Swede and Lumpy Gilchrist for robbing a shoe factory, and has been fielding rogue, yet tempting offers from the Black Hand to undermine Meehan.

“That biddy ol’ flab? She comes here all the time askin’ for favors. She wants her eldest son to open a bike shop, but of course she don’t have the money for it. So she wants Dinny’s help.”

~Vincent Maher

Mary Lonergan (b. 1876), also known as Mourning Mother Mary, is a tragic, abused and defeated Irish mother of fifteen (though two have died). Known for a facial disfigurement from when she was scalded by her husband who threw hot grease at her, she is an Irishtown curiosity. Mary is religious, impulsive, comically boisterous, strongly opinionated and defensive of her many children, although her old-world superstitions actually led to the death of a son. She is the mother of White Hand gang member Richie “Pegleg” Lonergan and the fiery nubile Anna Lonergan. Her dream is to ingratiate herself with the King of Irishtown, not any up-and-comers like Wild Bill Lovett.

What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: In 1916, she showed up at the Dock Loaders’ Club demanding word with White Hand gang leader Dinny Meehan. A deal was struck that if her eldest son Richie worked for the gang, Meehan would pay rent for a Lonergan family bike shop that she would run.

In 1917 her six year-old son Tiny Thomas died of an infection because she believed that if she took him to the hospital, they’d give him “the black box,” (poison him to give the bed to a Protestant). In 1918 a second child died of the Spanish Influenza. Lovett has also abused her since she wants her son Richie to stick with whoever is the current king of Irishtown, not an upstart. She consented to her eldest daughter Anna’s betrothal to Meehan follower Liam Garrity to ensure the Lonergan family connection to the gang, though Anna vehemently refused.

“I just cry. So angry, I cry. Confused. Undeserved as I am. Shaking my head and covering my face on the floor and bleating and blubbering and acting the fool. Harry yanks me up by the coat.”
~Liam Garrity

Harry Reynolds – Character in Divide the Dawn

What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: Harry never hangs out in the Dock Loaders’ Club after getting his share of tribute money and does not even keep a righthand man. When Liam Garrity asks his advice concerning Meehan’s request to have him kill his own uncle, Harry hands him a knife. Harry fought in the Donnybrook in Red Hook, helping the gang win back power on the Brooklyn docks.

After Tommy Tuohey’s murder, Harry is tasked with training young Garrity, who moves in with him. Together they renovate a dilapidated room on Eighth Avenue in expectation of the teenager’s mother and sisters’ arriving from Ireland, teaching him about patience and being forthright. When Dinny Meehan is jailed and Sadie shows up asking for help after being harassed by Lovett followers, Harry tells Liam that he can’t speak with her. When Garrity asks why, Harry walks away.

Richie Lonergan – Character in Divide the Dawn

“A wild-eyed, windswept, floppy-booted, dirty-blond-haired fifteen year-old limps in the room like some forgotten, defective cur on a prison ship.”
~Liam Garrity

Richie Lonergan (b. 1900), also known as Pegleg, is a gloomy, violent teenage gang leader who is emotionally stunted by a traumatic childhood. Almost completely catatonic, he has the ability to murder without remorse and has been known to beat much larger men in bareknuckle fist fights. When he was eight years-old, he was run over by a Brooklyn trolley that severed his leg at the knee. Richie relies on the German-Jew Abe Harms to speak and think for him. Even with his deficiencies, he is an important ally in the gang world due to all the teenagers that follow him and the many younger brothers he has.

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What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: Even though he can’t ride bicycles, he steals them and rents them out to kids in Brooklyn. In 1916, his mother Mary struck a deal with White Hand gang leader Dinny Meehan to open a bike shop that she would run, as long as Richie and his followers worked for the gang. In the process of deal-making, he knocked out dockboss Red Donnelly in a bareknuckle brawl in the alley behind the Dock Loaders’ Club. With Vincent Maher, Richie murdered Mick Gilligan in the Kirkman Soap Factory and tossed the body in a giant silo.

By 1917, family friend Wild Bill Lovett turned Richie and his followers against Meehan and made Richie kill Meehan’s enforcer Tommy Tuohey. But their revolt collapsed and Lovett was sent to World War I where it was reported he died in combat. By 1919, Richie then fell back into favor with Meehan until Lovett mysteriously appeared in Brooklyn and had Richie murder Mickey Kane, Meehan’s cousin, starting a blood feud and gang war between Lovett and Meehan.

Anna Lonergan – Character in Divide the Dawn

“The first thing I do in the mornin’? I brush my hair an’ sharpen my tongue.”

~Anna Lonergan

Anna Lonergan (b. 1901) is the younger sister of famed White Hand gang member Richie “Pegleg” Lonergan. An old Irish woman who survived Ireland’s Great Hunger deems her, “A prophetess, an evil little girl and the future Queen of Irishtown.” She is known as having both a sharp tongue and extraordinary beauty. As the eldest female of fifteen children, Anna is expected to care for her siblings and marry a man that can pull them out of Irishtown’s poverty. But when two of her siblings die, she grows fiery and becomes dangerously headstrong.

What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: In 1916, Anna goes with her mother Mary and family to the White Hand gang’s headquarters to demand Dinny Meehan‘s help. But women are not allowed in the Dock Loaders’ Club, so her brother Richie is sent in as the gang members stare at her longingly.

She then witnesses her brother get into a bloody fist fight with a much larger Whitehander.

When Meehan sends Liam Garrity to court Anna in order to secure an alliance with Richie’s followers and the many Lonergan boys, Anna reacts angrily. Although her mother Mary likes the idea of her family’s betrothal to Meehan’s gang, Anna bristles and sides with Wild Bill Lovett, Meehan’s rival. Anna’s temper becomes volatile when two of her siblings die, one from the Spanish Influenza of 1918, the other from an untreated infection due to her family’s old-world superstition of refusing to go to the hospital. When she hears word that Lovett was killed in action in World War I, she attends his funeral and burial. Despondent, in 1919 Anna is livened by the sudden reappearance of Lovett in Brooklyn. In fact, Lovett had her brother Richie murder Mickey Kane, Meehan’s cousin, which will begin a deadly blood feud and gang war.

Jonathan G. Wolcott – Character in Divide the Dawn

“(Wolcott) will reign from above, unseen. Our greatest enemy resides in a safe distance across a body of water, up high where the future will be orchestrated. . . Our fate will be decided by an untouchable enemy.”
~Liam Garrity

Jonathan G. Wolcott (b. 1853), also known as The Fat Man, is an Anglo-American executive whose family has owned property in the Northeast for over 200 years. Grossly over weight, he boasts of his ancestors arriving on the Mayflower and often fakes an English accent. A supporter of eugenics, he sees the Irish and Italian working class of Brooklyn as being genetically defective, intellectually inferior human beings which justifies his use of murder-for-hire against them. Even so, Wolcott has failed at everything he’s done. But his is a life of great privilege. After being forced to resign as Vice President of Wage and Labor at the New York Dock Company, he “fell upstairs,” and was promoted to Director of the powerful Waterfront Assembly. Desperate to prove himself, he still works even as he could comfortably retire.

What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: While at the NY Dock Co. in 1916, Wolcott paid Dinny Meehan and the White Hand gang to kill Thos Carmody, an International Longshoreman’s Association union recruiter. Instead, the NY Dock Co.’s territory was set ablaze by Meehan and the gang and all of his employees were beaten during the Donnybrook in Red Hook.

Making things worse, Thos Carmody showed up alive. Angrily, Wolcott funded Wild Bill Lovett‘s revolt against Dinny Meehan’s White Hand gang in 1917. But again he lost, resulting in both his Italian and Irish employees becoming unionized. Forced to resign, he was subsequently hired as Director of the Waterfront Assembly, created to oversee all waterfront contracts and breakup the gangs and unions. In 1919, Wolcott sent Patrolman Daniel Culkin and his enforcer Amadeusz Wisniewski to find Garry Barry and pay him to burn down Dinny Meehan’s home while in jail, and assume leadership of the White Hand gang with their assistance.

Historical novel Divide the Dawn is available now:
USA – https://tinyurl.com/qrfgozw Eire & UK – https://tinyurl.com/tvkknel Canada – https://tinyurl.com/yxxwgoc9

Tanner Smith – Character in Divide the Dawn

 “King Joe says he don’ wanna hire ya, Tanner. Seems as though Thos Carmody don’ really like ya much. And since Thos has the king’s ear, ya’re out.”
~Dinny Meehan

Tanner Smith (b. 1887) is doomed. A desperate opportunist and powerful fist fighter, he has made enemies of the wrong people. Leader of the Greenwich Village gang The Marginals, he is a childhood friend of White Hand gang leader Dinny Meehan, and bitter enemy of Thos Carmody of the ILA. When Meehan was 11 years old in 1900, Smith helped him and his father escape the wrath of the Hudson Dusters, who had killed Meehan’s brother and uncle Red Shay. Fiercely loyal to those that have helped him, Meehan gave his old friend a job when Tanner was desperate to get back in the game. But the tragedy of Tanner Smith is that by deceiving him and the White Hand gang, Dinny Meehan was forced to banish his childhood friend forever, which goes against everything Meehan knows.

What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: When news broke of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Meehan and youngster Liam Garrity were visiting Smith in Greenwich Village. Meehan hired Smith to kill ILA recruiter Thos Carmody, but Smith parlayed his position for a choice ILA job in exchange for saving Carmody’s life. Smith, a rowdy brawler, showed up to support Meehan for the Donnybrook in Red Hook when the White Hand took power back on the docks of Brooklyn.

When Carmody showed up alive in Brooklyn, Meehan and the gang knew Smith had backstabbed them. Against everything Meehan knows about loyalty to those who have helped him when in need, Meehan went to Greenwich Village, beat Smith and banished him from the underworld. After Carmody returned from World War I an experienced killer, he called a Blood Feud against Smith. Now one of them must die.