Paul Kelly (criminal)

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Paul Kelly (born Francesco Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli; December 23, 1876 – April 3, 1936) was an Italian-American mobster, who founded the Five Points Gang in New York City. He had started some brothels with prize money earned in boxing. Five Points Gang was one of the last dominant street gangs in New York history. Kelly recruited young, poor men from the ethnically diverse immigrant neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan. The Five Points Gang included some who later became prominent criminals in their own right, including Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Frankie Yale. At the peak of his criminal career, Kelly was ranked by The New York Times in 1912 as "perhaps the most successful and the most influential gangster in New York history". Kelly was said to support election of Democratic Tammany Hall politicians with his gang's activities at elections. After open street warfare with the Eastman Gang in the early twentieth century, which also had ties with Tammany Hall, Kelly...

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