saddie "The goat" Farrell – The Queen of the Boardwalk
Volume 3 – Gangsters – Farrell, Sadie “The Goat” – The Queen of the Boardwalk
She wasn’t as vicious with her claws as Hellcat Maggie from Dead Rabbits. Not as big and strong as an Amazon riverside gorilla named Gallus Mag. But Sadie “The Goat” Farrell made more money than both women combined when she was “Queen of the New York Shore.”
Sadie Farrell was born and raised in the slums of the Fourth Ward near the East River. As a child she hung out with hustlers and street thieves. Slender in build, but mean and vicious, Ella Sadie used to work the streets around the docks alongside a male partner, who provided the muscular support she needed. When a white man came out drunk from one of the local dives, she Sadie would start running and then slam the top of her head into the victim’s stomach.
This was a dangerous move, as sometimes the headbutter does more damage to himself than to the intended victim. But Sadie was a professional and she made sure that only the top of her head made contact with the victim’s stomach, and not sensitive areas like the nose and forehead. The headbutt stopped the victim in her tracks, and as soon as she turned her attention to Sadie, her male partner used a slingshot to hurl a rock at the side of the victim’s head. If that didn’t work, a bat or sap would always do the trick. Sadie and her partner would then take everything of value from the unconscious mark, including his shirt, pants, and shoes. This was a small-time job for Sadie, but she still built her reputation on the East Side docks.
One day, Sadie made the mistake of having too many belts at 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 six-foot female creature from England named Gallus Mag. Mag patrolled the bar with a small bat strapped to his wrist, which she didn’t hesitate to use on unruly patrons. If after a few hits to the head, the drunk was still energetic, Mag would wrap him in a headlock, then bite off one of his ears, before throwing him out the front door. Then his ear would go into a pitcher of alcohol, which Mag proudly displayed behind the bar. The jars full of spikes behind the bar were called “The Gallus Mag Trophy Case”.
Sadie being Irish and Mag being from England was an accident waiting to happen. It’s not sure who started the insults first, but it’s a good bet it was Sadie, and it wasn’t a smart move. Mag, who was twice Sadie’s size, hit Sadie in the head a few times with the bat, but Sadie was still whipping Mag with a vengeance.
Another thing that is not smart to do.
Mag wrapped her massive arms around Sadie’s head, and in an instant, one of Sadie’s ears fell off the side of her head. Mag deposited Sadie on her butt in Dover Street, then placed Sadie’s ear in a mug filled with alcohol and proudly displayed it behind the bar. Mag even wrote on the mug, “Sadie the Goat’s Ear.”
Disgraced and disheartened, Sadie took her show on the road, ending up on the West Side docks, across Manhattan from her old favorite haunts. One day, while she was wandering around trying to figure out how to make a sheet of music, Sadie witnessed members of the Charlton Street Gang trying unsuccessfully to board a small sloop anchored in the middle of the North River (now called the Hudson River). The Charlton Street gang were so inept and disorganized that the ship’s crew had no problem overcoming them and beating them up in the process. Sadie thought that with her expert leadership, 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 brawn that they could make a very successful team.
A few days later, with Sadie leading the gang, they were able to hijack a much larger sloop, and with the “Jolly Roger” (skull and crossbones) flying from the top of the mast, Captain Sadie led the gang up and down North and Harlem. Rivers, to Poughkeepsie and beyond. Small towns were raided; robbing the country houses of the poor and the riverside mansion of the rich. Because ocean liners and major shipping ships were so well protected, Sadie and his crew concentrated on raiding smaller merchant ships upriver.
Sadie was so into her “River Pirate” routine that she began reading voraciously about pirate history and 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 made up, Sadie even forced several members of her own gang to walk the plank if they didn’t do exactly what she demanded.
For several months, Sadie and her team were very successful in their efforts. They hid their loot in various hiding places, until they could dispose of it for cash, through the various fences along the North and East rivers. One of these billboards was Marm Mandelbaum, who through her store on Clinton Street, was said to be the largest billboard on the entire East Coast of the United States.
But all good things must come to an end.
After the Sadie and Charlton Street Gang murdered several homeowners, residents of the northern Hudson Valley banded together and formed a resistance force. Farmers ambushed the Charlton Street gang as they came ashore, and were prevented by police patrolling New York Harbor from looting small merchant ships on the North River. Soon, so many gang members were killed that Sadie was forced to give up her hacking habits. What remained of the Charlton Street Gang returned to the West Side docks and soon disbanded entirely.
Sadie decided to return to her old haunts in the Fourth Ward, where she was now hailed as the “Queen of the Coast”. With the money she had earned from her piracy days, Sadie opened her own gin mill.
Shortly after Sadie’s return to the East Side docks, the Hole-in-the-Wall bar was the scene of seven murders in just two months. As a result, the New York City police closed the Hole-in-the-Wall bar for good. But before the last call at Hole-in-the-Wall, Sadie visited Gallus Mag. The two girls made up, and Mag was kind enough to go behind the bar, retrieve Sadie’s pickled ear, and return it to her. rightful owner of it.
Sadie wore her severed ear in a locket around her neck for the rest of her life.