Gangsters go-between “Dapper Dan” Hogan
From 1913 to 1928 inbound criminals were usually directed to visit “Dapper Dan” Hogan to pay their bribe. This boisterous Irish gangster was the boss of the St. Paul criminal underground for most of the 1920s. As the new arrivals to St. Paul’s underworld presented their bribes to Hogan, they pledged to adhere to the ‘rules’ of the O’Connor system without fail. Once they took the pledge, they were under Hogan and St. Paul’s protection.
If the FBI or other federal agencies came looking for someone, police notified Hogan, and Hogan tipped off the criminal. They weren’t just safe from criminal prosecution in St. Paul; as long as they adhered to the pledge, St. Paul officials would refuse to extradite them to other jurisdictions. Hogan served as a liaison between St. Paul police and the gangsters holed up in the city until his car bomb death in 1928.
