Irish Mob Boss Killed by First Successful U.S. Car Bomb

In the late 1920’s the main underworld fixer in Saint Paul was Irish mobster Daniel Hogan, nicknamed Dapper Dan because of his flashy, snappy dress.  He lived in a modest little house at 1607 West Seventh Street, which still stands today,  and managed a business called the Green Lantern Saloon in downtown St Paul.   The city is known for its colorful gangster past, and a lot of it had to do with the  “Layover System”, created by chief of police John O’Connor at the turn of the century.  O’Connor was of course concerned about keeping crime rates low, so in a unique strategy to do just that, he extended an open invitation to gangsters from across the Midwest.  It became the general rule that if you wanted a place to lay low, hideout, or just take it easy, (even if you had a prison-riddled background) you could live in St Paul and not be bothered.