Willie Egan split with his long-time friend, Max Greenberg, when Maxie chiseled Egan out of a whiskey shipment.

While Willie tried to maintain the gang's bootlegging rackets, the younger members, known as 'red hots', began looking to high-risk robberies as a source of income. His right-hand man, William 'Dint' Colbeck, served as his sergeant-at-arms. He served as a constable under Judge Andy Gazzolo and a member of the Democratic City Committee. Upon Tom Egan's 1919 death, Willie took control of the Egan mob. The Egans would ultimately prevail, eliminating the Bottoms Gang once and for all. This touched off a gang war with the remnant of the old Bottoms Gang, a longtime rival of the Egan's Rats. Willie tracked his former pal to the Typo Press Club on the night of Septemand watched as two of his men shot and killed Dunn. Willie successfully argued from Dunn's life, only to have 'Cherries' go berserk later that year, killing Egan allies for trivial reasons. When original Egan's Rat William 'Skippy' Rohan was gunned down in Tom's saloon on January 8, 1916, Tom Egan made plans to kill the shooter, Rat gangster Harry 'Cherries' Dunn. However, Willie wasn't as passionate and gregarious as his older brother Tom was. Generally quiet and reserved, Willie was nonetheless a tough street fighter who proved himself time and time again in action. With the murder of Egan gangster Sam Young on April 4, 1909, Willie Egan inherited his saloon at the corner of Fourteenth and Franklin streets, which would remain a gang headquarters for over ten years. The Rats, at this point in time, specialized in political terrorism, armed robbery, extortion, and bootlegging. By the time Tom took over the street gang in 1904, nineteen-year-old Willie was one of his best men. By his teens, Willie had followed his older brother Thomas into the Kinney Gang. The son of an Irish-American saloonkeeper, Egan was born and raised in the Kerry Patch, then known as the riverfront Irish ghetto of St.

His brother was the namesake of the infamous Egan's Rats. Louis politician and organized crime figure involved in bootlegging and illegal gambling. William Egan (J– October 31, 1921) was a St.

Egan's Rats by Daniel Waugh