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Possibly The 3 Youngest Gangsters On Record Caught Trying To Extort A Neighborhood

In 1932 San Francisco, three very young youths shocked their community when they attempted to shake down a neighbor

Andrew Martin
2 min readApr 4, 2024

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Gangsters can terrorize individuals or neighborhoods through intimidation and demands. Such was the case in 1932 San Francisco when a woman finally had enough and had the police take into custody what turned out to be possibly the three youngest hoodlums on record for their attempted extortion to get protection money in their community.

What turned out to be a very unusual story of criminal activity played out in a San Francisco neighborhood in 1933. Mrs. Thomas Churchill had been approached by three local toughs who threatened her if she didn’t start paying them a weekly sum in protection money. When she refused, the thugs retaliated against her, leading her to contact the police.

Instead of hardened criminals, the gangsters in question were three boys, aged 7, 8 and 9. They had told Churchill that if she didn’t pay them each a nickel every week for them to protect her yard, bad things would fall upon her property. As promised, when she declined to dole out an ill-gotten allowance, she opened her door one day to discover that her lawn was covered with rocks…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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