View source for Shirt Tails

{{About|a New York street gang|the anthropomorphic Hallmark characters and animated series|Shirt Tales}}
{{No footnotes|date=November 2009}}
{{Infobox Criminal organization
| name                 = Shirt Tails
| image                = Five Points - George Catlin - 1827.jpg|
| image_size           = 325px      
| caption              = [[George Catlin]] painting of the [[Five Points, Manhattan]], [[New York City]] in 1827 the [[slum]] territory of the "Shirt Tails" and the other Irish criminal gangs
| founding location    = [[Five Points, Manhattan]], [[New York City]]
| founded by           = 
| years active         = 1830s-1860s
| territory            = [[Lower East Side]], [[Manhattan]], New York City
| ethnic makeup        = Irish American 
| membership est       = ?
| criminal activities  = [[street fighting]], [[Knife fight|knife fighting]], [[assault]], [[murder]], [[robbery]]
| allies               = [[Forty Thieves (New York gang)|Forty Thieves]], [[Roach Guards]], [[Tammany Hall]] 
 [[Chichesters]], [[Dead Rabbits]],
| rivals               = [[Bowery Boys (gang)|Bowery Boys]], [[Atlantic Guards]]
}}

[[File:Chinese Prospector.jpg|thumb|right|150px|The Shirt Tails wore their shirts on the outside of their pants as 19th-century Chinese laborers would dress as a form of insignia and as a sign of [[gang colors|gang group affiliation]].]]

The '''Shirt Tails''' were a mid-19th-century [[Gang|street gang]] based in the [[Five Points (Manhattan)|Five Points]] [[slum]] in [[Manhattan]], [[New York (state)|New York]], United States, who wore their shirts on the outside of their pants as 19th-century Chinese laborers would dress as a form of insignia and as a sign of [[gang colors|gang group affiliation]]. Members kept their weapons&mdash;as many as three or four at a time&mdash;concealed beneath their shirts; this discreet measure stands in contrast to competing gangs who flaunted their weapons in order to intimidate.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}

Never numbering more than a few hundred members, the Shirt Tails, like many other gangs, disappeared shortly before the [[American Civil War]] (although they did participate in a coalition of gangs under the [[Dead Rabbits]] and fought against the [[Bowery Boys (gang)|Bowery Boys]] during the [[New York Draft Riots]]), with its remaining members dissipating or joining other Irish gangs.

==References==
*Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York''. [[New York City|New York]]: Alfred A. Knoff Inc., 1927. {{ISBN|1-56025-275-8}}

{{Organized crime groups in New York City}}

[[Category:Former gangs in New York City]]
[[Category:Irish-American gangs]]


[[Category:19th century in New York City]]
{{Manhattan-stub}}