“Give this bum a drink!”

This property listing has it all: a 1930s speakeasy, a notorious group of Southie mobsters called the Gustin Gang, a rat bastard named Red who ended up floating in the Quincy quarry, and a “Mickey Finn” served to a cop. Oh, it also has hard wood floors and high ceilings too!

According to Boston Globe writer Emily Sweeney, the single-family home at 2 Vinton St. was once a gangster hangout in the 1930s, and it can be yours for  $1,050,000. The newly renovated 1572-square-foot home has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a state-of-the-art kitchen with stainless steel appliances, and apparently a very gritty history.

The home was once a private hangout for the Gustin Gang, one of the most notorious of the Prohibition era, led by notorious bootlegger Frank Wallace, an Irish American from Southie.  The gang was named Gustin after a street off of Old Colony Ave.   They rose to infamy, leading to the top of Boston’s underworld during the 1920s and the Prohibition Era, with the help of their so-called ‘enforcer’, Frank’s brother and ex-Olympic boxer Steve Wallace.

Sweeney reports in the property listing, the Gustin Gang was no joke and were known to be very violent. Back in January of 1933,  a Boston police officer named Daniel J. McDonald went inside the speakeasy on Vinton Street and found Stephen Wallace drinking with other gangsters on the second floor.

The story goes that Wallace said, “Give this bum a drink.” McDonald accepted the drink and drank the whiskey not realizing that he’d been slipped a Mickey aka his drink was spiked with drugs and he was knocked out.  

“The gangsters had some laughs as they lit matches in McDonald’s shoes. When they pulled him out of his chair, he hit his head on a stove. Then they threw him down the stairs and kicked his limp body out the front steps and onto the sidewalk.”   – from the Globe.

McDonald survived but never fully recovered from his injuries. A Gustin Gang member, Thomas “Red” Curran who witnessed the incident that night, ended up police informant aka a rat and ended up dead in the Quincy Quarry.

So if you’re interested in a beautiful single home with a seedy gangster history, then 2 Vinton Street is for you. Just think of the stories you’ll have to tell!

You can get all the details of this property listing including the history, here! 

If you like reading about old time Boston gangs and gangsters, you should Gangland Boston: A Tour Through the Deadly Streets of Organized Crime by Emily Sweeney. 

Main image by David Ward