The Hogan Gang was a St. Louis–based criminal organization that sold illegal liquor during Prohibition in addition to committing labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery, and murder.
Although predominantly Irish-American, the Hogan Gang included several Italian and Jewish mobsters amongst their ranks; most notably, Max "Big Maxie" Greenberg.
Key members included James Hogan (Jelly Roll's younger brother), Humbert Costello, Charles Mercurio, Leo Casey, Abe Goldfeder, John "Kink" Connell, and Patrick Scanlon.
The fallout from these robberies led to a series of murders that spring; most of which were allegedly perpetrated by Tommy Hayes, who would later make his name as an ace hit man for the Cuckoo Gang.
Egan gangster William "Dint" Colbeck reached his boss's side just after the shooting and later claimed that he said the shooters were James Hogan, Luke Kennedy, and John Doyle.
The treaty left Egan's Rats as the dominant bootlegging mob in St. Louis, but their members continued to antagonize the defeated Hogan Gang.
The peace treaty was finally broken for good on February 21, 1923, when Dint Colbeck and his men ambushed and killed Hogan lawyer Jacob Mackler in Old North St. Louis.
Hogan and Humbert Costello traded shots with a carload of Egans while racing up North Grand Boulevard (the Rats's coupe struck and crippled a 12-year-old schoolboy).
It was ultimately the work of Monsignor Tim Dempsey, several police officials, and a St. Louis Star reporter that brought the war to a final end.
While losers in the gang war, Jelly Roll Hogan and his men ultimately had the last laugh, as Egan's Rats would dissolve under a flurry of inter-gang murders and federal mail robbery indictments.
Hogan and his men expanded their territory into south St. Louis County and made a fortune by selling illegal beer and liquor for the rest of Prohibition.