Editing Johnny Spanish

{{Short description|American mobster (1889–1919)}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name   = Johnny Spanish
| image_name     = 
| image_size     = 
| image_caption  = 
| birth_date     = 1889
| birth_place    = [[New York City]], U.S.
| death_date     = {{Death date and age|1919|7|29|1889|1|1}}
| death_place    = [[New York City]], U.S.
| cause          = Murdered
| alias          = John Weyler<br>John Wheiler
| motive         =
| charge         =
| conviction     = 
| conviction_penalty = Seven years imprisonment, 1911–1917
| conviction_status  = Deceased 
| occupation     = Labor racketeer, armed robber, drug dealer 
| spouse         = 
| parents        =
| children       =
}}

'''Johnny Spanish''' (1889 &ndash; July 29, 1919) was an American gangster who was a rival of former partner [[Nathan Kaplan|"Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan]] during a garment workers' strike which later become known as the [[Labor Slugger Wars#Second Labor Sluggers War: 1918-1919|Second Labor Sluggers War]] in 1919. He became involved in labor racketeering, holdups of saloons and other businesses, and murder before organizing his own gang.

==Biography==
Born in 1889 as Giovanni Mistretta on the Lower East Side, he claimed to be related to [[Valeriano Weyler]], the last governor of Spanish-ruled [[Cuba]]. In reality, he was born to an Italian father and Spanish mother, anglicizing the name to John Mestrett. He became involved in labor racketeering and murder, allegedly involved in a killing at age seventeen, before organizing a crew of thugs allied with the [[Five Points Gang]]. Spanish soon became notorious for his daring holdups of saloons and other businesses, particularly in his robbery of a Norfolk Street saloon owned by [[Mersher Miller|Mersher the Strong Arm]]. Spanish, who had earlier boasted that he would return and rob the saloon at a certain time, appeared at the scheduled time, shooting up the bar and assaulting several customers who resisted, before making his escape.<ref name="Sifakis">Sifakis, Carl. "Johnny Spanish". ''Encyclopedia of American Crime''. 2nd ed. New York: Facts On File Inc, 2001.</ref>

In 1909, Spanish started working together with "Kid Dropper" [[Nathan Kaplan]]. The two soon had a falling out that culminated in a [[knife fight]] in the street; They fell out because of a dispute over Spanish's then girlfriend, engaging in a vicious street fight in which the Dropper nearly stabbed his rival to death. Once he recovered, Spanish began taking over control of the [[Kid Jigger]]'s [[Lower East Side]] "[[stuss]] games", a variant of [[Faro (card game)|faro]], who contemptuously dismissed the threats. However, during a particularly violent gunfight in one of his attempts to gain control over a particular gambling operation owned by Kid Jigger, an eight-year-old girl was killed. Forced to flee the city, he discovered, when he returned after several months, that his girlfriend had left him for Kaplan. Spanish abducted the woman, who was now pregnant, and drove to a marsh outside [[Maspeth, New York]], where he tied her up against a tree and shot her in the abdomen several times. The woman was found alive several hours later, giving birth to her baby who had three fingers shot off.<ref name="Sifakis"/>

Spanish was arrested<ref>{{cite news |title=Arrest Gang Leader For Woman's Murder; 'Johnny Spanish,' Successor of 'Monk' Eastman, Is Caught after a Long Vigil. |date=March 22, 1911 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=3 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/03/22/106782033.pdf}}</ref> and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 1911; coincidentally around the same time Kaplan was arrested for robbery. After being released from prison in 1917 Spanish rejoined Kaplan, as well as several other former Five Point Gang members, working as "labor sluggers".<ref name="Sifakis"/>

However Spanish and Kaplan soon began fighting again as the gang split into two separate factions, as each attempted to gain dominance over the New York's "labor slugging" operations. Johnny Spanish during this period became one of the biggest drug dealers in Manhattan, selling both cocaine and heroin. He was assisted by his brother Joseph, appropriately nicknamed, "Joey Spanish". Yet there was too much bad blood between Spanish and the Dropper for either of them to relax. Spanish was shot and killed while entering a Manhattan restaurant at 19 Second Avenue by three unidentified men on July 29, 1919.<ref>{{cite news |title='Johnny Spanish' Slain in East Side; Shot Down at the Entrance to a Restaurant Where He Was to Have Met His Wife |date=July 30, 1919 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=4 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/07/30/97109571.pdf}}</ref> Charges were brought against Kaplan, who had been identified at the scene, but were later dropped. Kaplan was later shot and killed in August 1923.<ref name="Sifakis"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Downey, Patrick. ''Gangster City: The History of the New York Underworld, 1900–1935''. Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books, 2004. {{ISBN|1-56980-267-X}}

==External links==
* [http://www.writersofwrongs.com/2019/07/new-york-gangster-johnny-spanish_16.html New York gangster Johnny Spanish: A Retrospective (1 of 2) by Daniel Waugh] 
* [http://www.writersofwrongs.com/2019/07/new-york-gangster-johnny-spanish.html New York gangster Johnny Spanish: A Retrospective (2 of 2) by Daniel Waugh]  

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spanish, Johnny}}
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1919 deaths]]
[[Category:People murdered in 1919]]
[[Category:Murdered Jewish American gangsters]]
[[Category:Murdered American gangsters]]
[[Category:Jewish American gangsters]]
[[Category:Criminals from Manhattan]]
[[Category:People murdered in New York City]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Manhattan]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:American gangsters of Italian descent]]