Originally formed by Frank Wallace with his brother Steve during the mid-1910s, the gang first came to prominence in Southie as the "Tailboard Thieves," often looting and hijacking delivery trucks while stopped at intersections.
During the 1920s, Frank Wallace and his brothers would frequently be arrested on charges including larceny, trespassing, gaming, assault and battery, and breaking and entering.
They eventually owned a few boats (known as rumrunners) that they ran into international waters to pick up alcohol, and then landed the shipments at various points around the Southie shore.
They often delivered it themselves to customers, possibly including older brother Billy Wallace's speakeasy, at 232 Old Colony Ave. known as The Sportlight (later, Kelley's Cork N Bull and later Stadium, it is now the site of housing).
On 22 December 1931, after several trucks had been hijacked by members of the Gustins, Frank Wallace and his lieutenant Bernard "Dodo" Walsh were killed in an ambush, after agreeing to a sit-down with Italian-American gangsters, Joe Lombardo (Lombardi) of the North End, at the C.K.