Thomas F. "Tanner" Smith (c. 1887 – July 26, 1919) was an American criminal and gang leader in New York City during the early 20th century.

He was the founder and leader of the Marginals, or "Irish Paddy Gang", which was active in Greenwich Village and along the Hudson River waterfront from around the turn of the 20th century until his murder in 1919.

He was reportedly related to local ward district politicians and, in an editorial by the New York Tribune, "acquired his leadership of this gang because of petty political influences".

[2] Tanner and Owney Madden, then leader of the Gopher Gang, had been allies against the Hudson Dusters and eventually formed a close working relationship.

Together they opened the Winona Club, a clubhouse intended to serve as a joint rendezvous and headquarters, located on West Forty-Seventh Street near Tenth Avenue.

The gang's unruly behavior at the club soon disrupted life in the relatively well-to-do neighborhood as its members regularly "engaged in drunken revels and made the night hideous with the sound of their bickerings and brawlings".

Tanner and Smith, who had been "discussing affairs of state over a bottle of whiskey", were surrounded by a half dozen gang members from both sides "lounging about the room listening to the music of a piano thumbed by a gifted thug".

Instead, a tenant from a neighboring boarding house ended up making a noise complaint and a police officer, Patrolman Sindt, from a local precinct were dispatched.

The rest of the squad were then marched across the street, in full view of the gang, and O'Connell approached the club once again and started an argument with Madden and Tanner.

[2] In March 1910, Tanner made a formal complaint against Patrolmen William H. Noll, Charles G. Flaherty and Andrew Brown who were accused of violating "Order No.

He claimed that he had been celebrating New Year's Day at a dance hall on Forty-Second Street and Eighth Avenue when the three officers, all on the staff of Inspector George W. McClusky of the Third District, threw him down a stairway while being ejected from the building.

A local officer, Patrolman Krozer, had heard four gunshots fired in West Twentieth Street, near Tenth Avenue, and went to investigate.

When he reached West Twentieth Street, Krozer witnessed the gang leader, with a revolver in his hand, chasing after a rival Gopher.

Tanner, while being booked at the West Twentieth Street Precinct, challenged the desk lieutenant to fight and was later charged with felonious assault.

On the night of July 26, 1919, Smith was playing poker at the Marginal Club when he was shot in the back and killed by an unknown assailant.

"[9] The next day, a joint search was organized by both New York and New Jersey police to apprehend Lefty Curry and Michael Costello, a suspect in the then recent murder of underworld figure Rubber Shaw.

His brother claimed that Smith's widow had previously left him to marry another man and was living in South Brooklyn under the name Mary O'Brien McGuire.

[14] Shortly before his third trial, in which he was to be charged with first degree murder, he instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter on October 19 and was remanded to The Tombs by Judge Otto A.