He was the top underworld figure in southern New England, and last major Irish-American gangster in the region, until his kidnapping and apparent murder in 1933.
[1] Born in the Cumberland mill village of Valley Falls, Walsh was a clerk in a Pawtucket hardware store before he entered bootlegging in 1920.
Following the aftermath of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Walsh enjoyed enormous wealth as one of the country's largest bootleggers.
In 1933, during the last months of Prohibition, Walsh was last seen at the Bank Cafe in Pawtuxet Village in Warwick, Rhode Island, after having dinner with six business associates on the night of February 2, 1933.
However, as it was reported by the press “any time a suspicious corpse was found – in the Massachusetts or Rhode Island woods – or a skull turned up in a fishing net off Block Island, police checked it against Danny Walsh’s dental records.” Despite efforts by law enforcement, Walsh's body was never recovered.