Roach Guards

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title: "Roach Guards" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["former-gangs-in-new-york-city", "irish-american-gangs", "irish-american-culture-in-new-york-city", "five-points,-manhattan"] description: "19th-century NYC street gang" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roach_Guards" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 19th-century NYC street gang ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox Criminal organization"]

Field	Value
name	Roach Guards
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 "Roach Guards" and the other Irish criminal gangs
founding location	Five Points Manhattan, New York City
founded by	Ted Roach
years active	1820s-1860s
territory	Five Points, Manhattan, New York City
ethnic makeup	Irish and Irish American
membership est	?
criminal activities	street fighting, knife fighting, assault, murder, robbery
allies	Tammany Hall
rivals	Bowery Boys, Atlantic Guards
::

| name = Roach Guards | 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 "Roach Guards" and the other Irish criminal gangs | founding location = Five Points Manhattan, New York City | founded by = Ted Roach | years active = 1820s-1860s | territory = Five Points, Manhattan, New York City | ethnic makeup = Irish and Irish American | membership est = ? | criminal activities = street fighting, knife fighting, assault, murder, robbery | allies = Tammany Hall | rivals = Bowery Boys, Atlantic Guards

The Roach Guards were an ethnically Irish criminal gang in the Five Points neighborhood of New York City in the early to mid-19th century. The gang was originally formed to protect New York liquor merchants in Five Points and soon began committing robbery and murder. The Roach Guards took their name from their founder and leader Ted Roach.

The Roach Guards began fighting with rivals the Bowery Boys. Some former Roach Guard members were called the Dead Rabbits by the media. The internal feud was especially violent as they fought over the Five Points area. Despite constant fighting, they managed to hold their own in the "slugger battles" against the more organized and disciplined "Bowery Boys". The Roach Guards, however, began to decline during the 1850s, disappearing entirely by the end of the American Civil War in 1865.

References

References

• Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928.
• Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001.

References

1. Tyler Anbinder, ''Five Points: the 19th-century New York City neighborhood that invented tap dance, stole elections, and became the world's most notorious slum'' (2001) pp 285-86.

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