Thomas Draper (criminal)
Thomas "Shang" Draper was a criminal shanghaier, saloon keeper, and criminal gang leader in New York City along the city waterfront.Early life
Shang Draper ran a waterfront saloon in his native New York City, where he performed a confidence scam using an underage girl to lure a mark to a dark hotel room only to rob him. Draper acquired his distinctive nickname "Shang" from the "shanghaiing" trick he used to play on his unsuspecting patrons. Draper would drug a bar patron with laudanum and by the time the fellow awoke, he would have been pressed into merchant marine or naval service, sometimes for a foreign land.
Draper was a contemporary of Frederika Mandelbaum, a notorious gangleader in her own right, also based in his native New York City. Mandlebaum installed Draper, one of her trusted lieutenants, in a bank robbery gang fronted by George Leslie.
Police spots Draper hiding in a pile of rubbish at a summer house on Patchen Avenue.Death
Thomas Draper died in 1883 in New York City.
