Four Points , also known as Jeffersontown by real estate brokers & officials and Brickway by the nearby populaces, is a lower-middle class Irish-American neighborhood in Jefferson. It is also home to some poorer WASPs of Los Santos. It has been noted for it's connection to the Irish Mob expansion phenomenon during Prohibition.
History[]
The history of the Four Points is a fluctuating one, with a deep history and peppered past. It was born out of the tears, blood, and sweat of a peoples whom met the shores of San Andreas, only to be hated and denied opportunity. They would succeed ina way teh city did not expect, however, and come to make their mark on it.
Micks Flock to the Ghetto (1888-1910)[]
The neighborhood received it's first occupiers in the late 19th century. Coming from the New England and other places along the West Coast., after the west coast experience economic success and prosperity due to the Gold Rush on the West Coast.
They set themselves up in tenements, a shanty-town in an infant Jefferson. Circa 1910, the numbers of African-Americans in Los Santos began to increase in Idlewood, Ganton, and other neighborhoods in the Lower Eastside. Eventually, they began to cross the canal, settling in a minuscule part of South Jefferson. At this early stage in the history of city, the Irish and the Blacks were no different in the eyes of the WASP who made a majority of the town's population. Nonetheless, this created a extreme racial tensions along the border. As small youth gangs fought for territory.
Birth of the Irish Mob (1910-1945)[]
Before the Prohibition, local hoodlums who up until that point had been nothing but a bunch of Irish-American street gangs vying for dominance in Jefferson while harassing neighboring ethnic groups. This all changed when Edward ""The Cutter" McConnell inherited his father's speakeasy in 1921, due to his death. The 29 year-old butcher qucikly changed profession that year, going from working-man to racketeer, by pure happenstance.
McConnell found that once this illegitimate money rolled in, that the neighborhoods other illegal sources of revenue could be capitalized upon. In the course of 10 years, he would come to be involved in bootlegging, illegal gambling, numbers and all other lucrative businesses. This flow of cash, and business mind made Eddie a powerful ally to have, and local gangsters flocked to him for advice and support.
McConnell's Four Points Gang the first Irish-American outfit to consolidate and impose itself over the neighborhood, at that time. They frequently clashed with the the Black Hand organizations of the nearby Glen Parco. This led to a history of brutal conflicts the neighborhood experienced until World War II. It was then that that area of the Upper Eastside was united by patriotism and comradery, the Irish & Italians compromised carving out distinct territories and claims to specific rackets.
With Prohibition in full-swing McConnell's organization grew rapidly. However, they were not the only Irish-American group operating in the area. Soon due to rising Irish population and the sheer influx of illegal profit bootlegging enable the lines that seperated the Points from other ethnic neighborhood began to blur. Irish influence grew westward infringing on other enclaves, Soon there were multiple groups vying for dominance over the Irish Upper Eastside (which included part of what is now Little Jamaica. As all things do, this period ofd infighting came to an end as Prohibition was retracted, causing many organizations to simply vanish. In the end only the Four Points Gang and the smaller Boyle Gang were left functioning.
Over the years, the two were often at each others throats in a sort of perpetual war that lasted a few decades after the withdraw of Prohibition. When WWII hit many mobsters were drafted. Those who couldn't weasel their way out of it via some loophole were force to serve abroad. While the casualties effected both of the gangs' numbers, the few that survived broguht home a new level of military tact that greatly aided their return to the Los Santos underworld.
Period of Prosperity (1945-1973)[]
After a post-war economic expansion the neighborhood transformed from into a lower middle-class neighborhood, undoubtedly influenced by the very copious amount of illegal revenue the Prohibition provided. Still violence was rampant on the street. By this time soldiers were returning to the home-front after the War ended. They brought their stories of war aswell as their new skills with them. In the late 40's the Four Points Gang finally consolidated power in the area and absorbed the lowly Boyle Gang's remnants after their leader Fred Boyle was gunned down in a gangland style assassination.
In the 50's greaser gangs began to crop up in the Points aswell as neighboring lower middle-class white neighborhoods. While this didn't interfere with the Irish Mob's rackets, it did provide a pool from which to draw in new recruits. Throughout the 50's and 60's the Irish Mob experienced a renaissance, a period of almost uninterrupted prosperity.
This changed however in the early 70's. As many African-American gangs in South Jefferson began to become disillusioned with revolutionary black nationalist ideals, the first modern gangs began to crop up in black neighborhoods around Los Santos. The Four Points Gang was caught off-guard as a wave of violent criminals suddenly sprung up all around them. They were fighting a losing battle of cultural influence.
White Flight & the Dark Times (1973-2008)[]
After the Murder of Anna McKenzie by several South Jefferson hoodlums many families of the Points began to move away to other areas.The Four Points Gang once a shell of it's former self ould no longer maintain the status quo. And in the late-80s disappeared entirely.
In it's wake it left a power-vacuum in the area that was quickly filled by an upstart gang called the Ballas. This gang ruled the area with iron fist until the late 90's when it merged with the South Jefferson Ballas set, in order to combat a new "threat" in the area, During this time the area that was once the Four Points was in constant upheaval. In the end the Ballas receded their claim to the territory allowing the other gang to fully control the area.
In early 2008 the Four Points, which was being referred to as Brickway by it's non-white populace, begin a series of radical transformations as they began to as a new-found influx of new arrivals began to change the neighborhood dramatically
Rebirth of the Irish Influence (2008-present)[]
In mid-2005, Frank O'Bannon arrived in the dilapidated neighborhood. The outlaw setted in Los Santos under a suggestion by his right-hand James Corrigan who's mother's side of the family was said to have a roots there. They brought with them several members of their group with them. Who in turn brought their families. Soon the neighborhood would come to resembled an international Irish melting pot. Irish-Americans (and a few Irishmen, too) from New England, New York and other parts of the US settled in the re founded "mecca" Even the long lost Irish who fled years before returned from other parts of Los Santos as they felt it safe to inhabit the area once again.
However, before that happened the Irish Mob had to clean-up the neighborhood to it's once legendary standards. There were soon many casualties as the organization fought for dominance with many South Jefferson gangs for their birthright.Over this time many non-white families in the area were harassed, beaten, and a few were accidentally maimed in some form as dysfunctional retribution for murder that occurred decades prior. The older few Irish families who stuck-it-out still remembered the tragedy and took it upon themselves to remind the community. This paired with the new outfit's intrinsic racism fueled the fire as race relations quickly plummeted.
Soon the media was labeling the organization the Jeffersontown Mob. As their notoriety for brutality began to grow they quickly became a force to be reonned with on the Upper Eastside in a short number of years. They were known to fiercely defend the Four Points from "racial invaders" and were rumoured to be in-league with a loal neo-Nazi group. It looked like they couldn't be stopped.
In early 2010, the area was ravaged by a series of gangland -style killings. Dubbed the Irish Mob Wars of 2010, in-fighting succeeded in thinning their ranks. This coupled with police crackdowns left the once massive enterprise a shell of what it once was. What's left of the Irish Mob in the Points now boils down to a few "retired" bosses, some freelance gangsters, and somevicious hoodlums. Without the protection of the Mob, the neighborhood was soon infiltrated by non-whites.
Landmarks & Businesses of the Area[]
Church of the Sacred Mother's Assumption - A local Catholic parish of the Irish Catholic tradition.
The Emerald Isle Tavern - A local dive bar. One of Los Santos' only authentic Irish pubs. Noted for it's rumoured connection with IIrish-American organized crime.
Bruiser's Gym - Low profile gym, known for it's gritty atmosphere and notorious amongst the criminal underbelly for it's Bare-knuckle boxing tourneys. Aswell, as the number of infamous underground fighters to be trained and arise from the area.
Big Frank's Diner - Former hardware store, converted by Frank O'Bannon into an eatery.
Link to the Irish Mob[]
As being the last true Irish-American neighborhood the Four Points is profoundly noted for it's connection to the Irish Mob. Several Irish gangs have been born in it's streets, since it was merely a ghetto.