John Allen is regarded to be a murderer, pimp, drunkard and con artist, who are known in American mafia history as one who had run the most obscene of all dance halls in New York. Due to his transgressions being huge, he had been nicknamed as “New York City’s Wickedest Man”.
His early life
It was in upstate New York in 1823 that he was born and was among the 8 siblings of his parents and the youngest of them all. His father had been a well known Presbyterian minister, while one brother had become Baptist minister, while two others had become Presbyterian ministers. The other brothers had ran away to the city of New York to become crooks, confidence men and burglars, owning different bawdy bars located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
His entering into the crime world
His father wanted Allen to select the righteous path by sending him to Union Theological Seminary and not the path chosen by his other brothers. For few months, Allen studied religion, however, was more inclined towards leading the kind of life his other brothers were leading at New York. It is his brothers, who had introduced him to the world of crime making him proficient in the trade.
He came across Little Suzie, a well known criminal and married her in 1855. Her specialty was said to be rolling drunks, seduce clients and have knockout drops placed in their drinks. She carried her activities in 4th ward, waterfront district. Allen too got hold of a job for the waterfront crimp, where his work was to lure sailors to the establishment and drugging them, robbed of their money and valuables.
After the death of his boss, he was employed by Jane the Grabber of Hester Jane Haskins, which runs numerous ill reputed houses. His job was to lure young girls to provide them with good paying jobs, get them drugged and work at Jane’s brothels.
He had the opened up a Dance Hall in 1858 that went on to become the most shameless establishments of the city. It is this that had prompted Oliver Dyer a journalist to state in an article for Packard’s Monthly as John Allen being the city’s wickedest man, which was gracefully accepted by Allen and had it proudly displayed on his business card and had become the city’s richest pimp. However, his plan to introduce semi-religious sentiments within the dance hall to earn more money simply backfired.