Many of the most depraved of the downtown dives were in the vicinity of Police Headauarters at 300 Mulberry Street. Half a block away was a gamblin house which catered only to policemen, and at No. 100 Mott Street was a saloon kept by notorious bank burglar Mike Kerrigan, aka Johnny Dobbs. He served as an apprenticeship with the River Pirates of the Fourth ward. There he took the proceeds of the Kensington Bank robbery, and there it was divided. For two days a great package of money was secreted in the wall behind a mirror. Dobbs is said to have handled more than 2 million dollars in stolen money, of which probably 1/3rd went to him personally. He became a celebrated bank robber and fence. But he ran through it, and finally in the late nineties, died in the alcoholic ward of Bellevue Hospital. It was Johnny Dobbs who, when asked why the crooks flocked to the neighborhood of Headquarters, replied, ‘’The nearer the church, the closer to God.''
