Search This Blog

Monday 23 March 2015

Gangster

The word 'gangster' was first used in 1884 in a reference to US presidential candidate Grover Cleveland as 2the creature of a combination of gangsters and cranks."

The American gangster and con man “Soapy” Smith (1860-98) acquired his nickname through a racket selling bars of soap allegedly containing banknotes.



The word 'mobster' is nearly 200 years older than 'gangster'. The latter became popular when 'mobster' was strongly associated with the Mafia.

John Dillinger was the most famous of all US bank robbers in the Depression era.  Dillinger specialized in armed robberies, terrorizing Indiana and neighboring states in 1933 and 1934. He was eventually shot dead by FBI agents in Chicago. Some researchers have claimed that another man, not Dillinger, was killed by the FBI, as a hoax by his allies, and that he escaped.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

No comments:

Post a Comment