Johnny Spanish, whose real name was John Weyer, was one of the most feared gangsters in the early part of the 20th century. He took the name Johnny Spanish because he was half Jewish and half Spanish, but on the Spanish side he claimed to be a descendant of Butcher Weyer, the last governor of Cuba. So he thought Johnny Spanish had a lot more cachet than ordinary John Weyer.
Spanish was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and quickly became immersed in various street crimes. The short, frail, taciturn Spaniard was a loner, whose specialty was stealing taverns. However, he liked to take the turn of sending a message to the salon owner first, informing him of his imminent arrival. His legend grew immensely when he performed that feat in a den on Norfolk Street owned by Mersher the Strong Arm. Spanish notified Mersher that he would arrive at a specified time, and he did, armed with his four usual pistols and an accomplice lurking behind him. He fired a couple of shots through the mirror behind the bar, then emptied the box. Then, to add insult to injury, he lined 10 customers against the wall and revived them of all their cash and jewelry. The Spanish’s notoriety grew, and he was soon accepted into Paul Kelly’s Five Points Gang, where he continued his antics.
The Spanish found it profitable to steal the winnings from the highly lucrative games of chance suss, which was a variation of the popular lighthouse. He had his eye on one of those games, operated by Kid Jigger on Forsyth Street. One day he approached Jigger, who was known to be a fierce gunman, and demanded half the take of his game, from that point on.
“And why should I give you half of my graft?” Jigger was concerned.
“Because I’ll take you down if you don’t,” Spanish said.
Jigger laughed. Spanish was offended and said: “Very well, I’ll leave you tomorrow night.”
Indeed, being a man of his word, the next night, when Jigger was leaving his game of suss on Forsyth Street, Spanish opened fire with two pistols. Jigger ran back into the building to safety, but the bullets hit an eight-year-old girl, who was innocently playing in the streets, killing her on the spot. This required the Spanish to leave the city for several months, and when he returned, he was alarmed to discover that his girlfriend (who was pregnant with who knows who) had been robbed by fellow bully Kid Dropper, named Nathan Kaplan. Spanish thought he would settle for his ex-girlfriend first. He pulled her off the streets, into a cab, and headed to the Maspeth, Long Island mudflats. There he tied her to a tree and then emptied five shots into her pregnant belly. He left her there to die, but miraculously the woman survived and her baby was subsequently born with three missing fingers.
For this atrocity, Spanish was arrested and sentenced to seven years in Sing Sing Prison. Upon its release in 1917, Paul Kelly’s Five Points Gang was no more, and Spanish thought it could take over Kelly’s old rackets. Only Kid Dropper had the same idea. The two old enemies fought for the union protection business for more than two years. One day in early 1919, the bulkiest Dropper cornered the Spaniard in the street and dismembered him with a knife. The Spaniard survived, but not for long.
On July 29, 1919, Spanish was entering a restaurant on 19 Second Avenue when Dropper and two accomplices opened fire, hitting Spanish several times in the chest. Bullets being better than swords, Spanish died a few days later at Bellevue Hospital.