Mobsters in South St. Paul – Redux

Well, as it turns out, this hadn’t been the first time South St. Paul had been victimized by the crime dynamic in St. Paul.  In fact, the notorious thugs  had previously pulled one over on the South St. Paul community in 1924.  Hogan was indicted in 1927, he faced charges for conspiring to commit the robbery which landed him a handsome 10% of the $35,000.00 stolen from the Chicago Great Western Railroad Station. 

Remember “Dapper Dan” Hogan (who we first introduced here)? This guy was a smart business man with a knack for trouble.  He was a very powerful man in the St. Paul Irish Mob scene.  He owned The Green Lantern, a local dig that was well-known as a gangster gathering place.   Hogan was a smart guy, he always made a lot of money, and since he wasn’t actually at the scene, it was hard to pin much of anything to him. 

When a key witness, who also happened to be one of the robbers from the 1924 incident escaped from jail, the case against Mr. Hogan seemed to rapidly and quite mysteriously deteriorate.  O’Connor himself released a statement to local newspapers indicating that indeed all the evidence against Hogan had been completely fabricated. 

 *** Special thanks to my source Paul Maccabbee’s John Dillinger Slept Here  pages 5-7.  Great, great read, highly recommended. 

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2. South St. Paul Mayor Meets the Blackfeet
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