Ida “The Goose” Burger was a strikingly beautiful ballroom girl and sometimes prostitute who was the favorite of several members of the gang of five hundred Gophers, which controlled the Hell’s Kitchen area of ​​New York, which operated out of the west side of Manhattan, from Fourteenth Street to Fifty-seventh Street. The Gophers passed Ida the Goose from boss to boss, and even the low-level members of her gang. But make no mistake, Ida belonged to the treacherous Gophers and anyone who thought otherwise would be dealt with harshly.

Jack Tricker was a bartender/gangster who, after Monk Eastman was sent to prison for armed robbery, headed up a faction of Eastman’s mob on the Lower East Side. Tricker owned a bar on Park Row in midtown Manhattan, but after the authorities shut it down for being basically a den of iniquity, Tricker decided to get off the Lower East Side and into Hell’s Kitchen. He decided that perhaps, due to the internal battles of the gophers, they weren’t so tough anymore. In an act of defiance, he bought the Old Stag Bar on West 28th Street, right in the middle of gopher territory, and renamed it the Maryland Café.

One of Tricker’s men somehow endeared himself to Ida the Goose, and he spat in the Gophers’ faces, by luring Ida away from an influential Gopher and taking her to Cafe Maryland, where they installed her as the main attraction; the “Belle of The Ball”, if you will. The Gophers immediately sent an emissary to Tricker, demanding the return of Ida the Goose. Tricker told the emissary that he wouldn’t be involved, one way or another, and that it was their problem, not his. Immediately, the Gophers hurled threats at Tricker’s gang, who heavily armed themselves in anticipation of war. But after weeks passed without anything happening, Tricker’s gang loosened up a bit, thinking the Gophers were all talk and no action.

In October 1910, four Gophers, one of whom was Ida’s ex-boyfriend, strutted into the Café Maryland, approached the bar, and ordered four beers. Six Tricker gangsters, who were sitting at a large round table, were so surprised by the bold move that they froze and did not say a word, let alone try to dislodge the invaders. Outraged, it was Ida the Goose who spoke first. She yelled at the Gophers, “Say! You guys have something of value!”

The gophers calmly finished their beer, then one slowly turned around and said, “Okay, let’s get started.” They each pulled out two pistols and began spraying the walls, mirrors and bar tables with shots. The two bartenders, who were not part of Tricker’s gang, dove behind the bar, and five of Tricker’s men were shot and disabled. The sixth, who was Ida’s new lover, dives under Ida’s floating skirt for protection. She sneered at him, then shrugged and said, “Say, you! Go out and get it.”

Ida pushed him towards the center of the floor and the Gophers pumped four bullets into his torso. Then Ida’s ex-boyfriend stepped forward and she put the finishing touches, firing a shot into the fallen man’s brain.

The four Gophers emerged from the Café Maryland, closely followed by Ida the Goose, beaming with pride that such a battle was fought for their affections. She returned to the gophers and never left her side again.