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Were The Dead Rabbits Really The Most Dangerous Gang In New York?

Weird History | August 26, 2026



In the mid-1800s, New York City was a battleground and few places were more dangerous than the infamous Five Points where the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Bowery Boys were locked in a brutal cycle of violence with one of the city’s most feared street gangs: The Dead Rabbits If you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, you might recognize the Rabbits as the gang Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Amsterdam Vallon, belonged to. That character is fictitious, but the gang itself was all too real… or was it?

In this episode of Weird History, we dive into the Dead Rabbits, Five Points, Gangs of New York, and the brutal history of 19th-century New York City to uncover what life was really like in one of America’s most dangerous neighborhoods and whether the most feared street gang of its era ever really existed.

Were you a fan of Gangs of New York? Let us know in the comments.

(Much like real history, this video was produced entirely by human beings.)

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#fivepoints #newyork #weirdhistory

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Written by Weird History

Comments

This post currently has 33 comments.

  1. @lordtrigon1733

    August 26, 2026 at 1:54 am

    Based on what I read about them I couldn't help but feel like the movie whitewashed them. They really weren't fans of black people…

    This video also only accused the Bowery Boys of racism.

  14. @galloe8933

    August 26, 2026 at 1:54 am

    Saw this with my mother when it was in theaters, and found it cool that when The History channel did a special on the "Gangs of New York" they had broght up the fact that "Dead Ribbit" was a bastardized of an old Gylic word (Can't spell that suddenly) but never dug into the meaning, or they did and I forgot this must have been 06.

    Great video though, I certainly learned more.

  17. @CymonTempler

    August 26, 2026 at 1:54 am

    If “dead” meant “very” back then it makes “dead end” and “dead wrong” make a lot more sense.🤔

    Come to think of it, what if they weren’t saying “rabbit” but rather “rabid”.

    Some of the definitions of rabid are violent, extremist and fanatical.🤔🤔

  19. @justinhackstadt6677

    August 26, 2026 at 1:54 am

    I actually loved The Gangs of New York because that is literally where my mother's side came from Ireland. My great grandmother came off the boats and lived in the 5 Points districts. The cultural history IS the conflict that solidified the American culture. ❤

Comments are closed.

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