Johnny Dolan

"Dandy" Johnny Dolan (1849 or 1850 – April 21, 1876) was a New York City murderer and reputed leader of the Whyos street gang.

Inventive

According to Herbert Asbury's book The Gangs of New York, Dolan led the Whyos during its glory years of the post-Civil War era. Asbury wrote that Dolan was known as a particularly inventive criminal, who perfected a variety of devices widely used for assault and murder throughout the underworld. According to Asbury, Dolan designed a copper eye gouger to be worn on the thumb and used it both in criminal activities and in battles with other gangs. Dolan himself allegedly owned a personally designed pair of boots with sections of a sharp axe blade embedded in the soles, which he used to stomp a downed victim.

Asbury is the main and possibly only known public source of this description of Dolan as a man who engaged in chronic physical violence, enucleated his victims and led the Whyos. There is room for doubt as to the validity of Asbury's claims, which were written fifty years after Dolan's death.