Sadie "the Goat" Farrell: Criminal, Gang Leader & River Pirate (#94)

Sadie Farrell was an alleged semi-folklorish American criminal, gang leader and river pirate known under the pseudonym Sadie the Goat. 

If the tales are to be believed, Sadie Farrell was born and raised in the slums of the New York’s “Bloody” Fourth Ward near the East River. As a young girl she hung around with street hustlers and thieves and by 1869 was making a name for herself. Slight of build, but gaining a reputation for being mean and vicious, Sadie usually worked the streets around the docks alongside a male companion, who gave her the muscle backup she needed. When a mark emerged drunk from one of the local dives, Sadie would take a running start, then ram the top of her head into the victim’s stomach – hence the moniker!

The headbutt stopped the victim in his tracks, and as soon as he turned his attention to Sadie, her male companion used a slingshot to propel a rock to the side of the victim’s head. If that didn’t work, a bat always did the trick. Then Sadie and her partner would take everything of value from the unconscious mark, even his shirt, pants and shoes. 

One day, Sadie made the mistake of having one too many drinks in the Hole-in-the-Wall bar on Dover Street, just two blocks from the East River. The bouncer at the Hole-in-the-Wall was a lady named Gallus Mag; a formidable force in the New York City underground world who, at 6 feet tall, always carrying both a pistol and large club strapped onto her wrist. Her real name was Margaret Perry, and she ran the bar with her husband, a fellow thief named Jack Perry. It’s said that she received her nickname based on her habit of keeping her skirt up with galluses, or suspenders. 

As the Hole-in-the-Wall’s bouncer, Gallus Mag was known for her no-nonsense policies and violent removals of unwelcome patrons. After bludgeoning a rowdy patron with her club, Mag would then wrap him in a headlock, before then dragging the man out of the bar by his ear in her teeth. Occasionally, she would bite a man’s ear off completely, and the ear would then go into a jug of alcohol, which Mag proudly displayed behind the bar. The jars filled with ears behind the bar was called “Gallus Mag’s Trophy Case.” The police of the period shudderingly described her as the most savage female they had ever encountered.”

Now, Sadie being Irish and Mag being from England was an accident waiting to happen. It’s not certain who started the slurs first, but it’s a good bet it was Sadie, and that was not a smart thing to do. Mag, who was twice Sadie’s size, bopped Sadie on the head a few times with the bat, but Sadie still flailed away at Mag with a vengeance.

Another not smart thing to do.

Mag enveloped Sadie’s head with her massive arms, and in a flash, one of Sadie’s ears had been detached from the side of her head. Mag deposited Sadie on her rump on Dover Street, then deposited Sadie’s ear in an alcohol-filled jug, and proudly displayed it behind the bar. Mag even scripted on the jug, “Sadie the Goat’s Ear.”

Disgraced and disheartened, Sadie took her show on the road and wound up on the West Side docks, clear around to other side of Manhattan from her former haunts. One day while wandering around trying to figure out how to make a score, Sadie witnessed members of the Charlton Street Gang unsuccessfully attempting to board a small sloop anchored in the middle of the North River (now called the Hudson River). The Charlton Street Gang was so inept and disorganized, the ship’s crew had no trouble beating them back and beating them up in the process. Sadie figured with her expert direction, the gang would do much better than before if she were the boss. So, Sadie helped the gang members lick their wounds, and then convinced them with her brains and their brawn, they could make a very successful team indeed.

A few days later, with Sadie leading the gang, they were able to hijack a much larger vessel, and with the “Jolly Roger” (skull and crossbones) flying from the masthead, Captain Sadie led the gang up and down the North and Harlem Rivers, up to Poughkeepsie and beyond. They raided small villages; robbing poor people’s farmhouses and the riverside mansions of the rich. Because ocean liners and major shipping vessels were so well-protected, Sadie and her crew concentrated on raiding smaller up-river merchant ships instead.

Sadie was so into her “River Pirate” routine, she began reading voraciously on pirate history and pirate lore. After discovering that pirates had once kidnapped Julius Caesar, she ordered her crew to go on a kidnapping spree. In the spirit of old pirate traditions, some true, some contrived, Sadie even forced several members of her own gang to walk the plank if they did not do exactly as she demanded.

For several months, Sadie and her crew were extremely successful in their endeavours. They stashed their booty in several hiding places, until they could dispose of it for cold, hard cash, though the various fences along the North and East Rivers. One of these fences was Marm Mandelbaum, who through her store on Clinton Street, was said to be the largest fence on the entire east coast of America.

But all good things must come to an end.

After several homeowners were murdered by Sadie and Charlton Street Gang, the upstate Hudson Valley residents banded together and formed a force of resistance. The farm folk ambushed the Charlton Street Gang as it came ashore, and police patrolling New York’s harbour stopped them from pillaging the small merchant ships on the North River. Soon, so many gang members were killed, Sadie was forced to abandon her pirating ways. What was left of the Charlton Street Gang went back to the West Side docks, and soon they completely disbanded.

Sadie decided to return to her old haunts in the Fourth Ward, where she was now hailed as the “Queen of the Waterfront.” With the cash she had earned from her pirating days, Sadie opened up her own gin mill.

Soon after Sadie’s return to the East Side docks, the Hole-in-the-Wall bar was the site of seven murders in just two months. As a result, the New York City police shut down the Hole-in-the-Wall bar for good. But before the last call at the Hole-in-the-Wall, Sadie visited Gallus Mag. The two girls made up, and Mag was so gracious, she went behind the bar, retrieved Sadie’s pickled ear, and returned it to its rightful owner.

Sadie wore her severed ear in a locket around her neck for the rest of her life.

Unlike other female gangsters of the time, it should be noted that the only evidence we have of Sadie the Goat’s existence is found in one source, Herbert Asbury’s 1927 book, “The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld.” The book was loosely adapted into the epic historical drama film Gangs of New York (2002) by director Martin Scorsese.

It acknowledges that much of the information about Sadie the Goat comes from folklore, which throws the veracity of Sadie’s adventures into question.