Daniel S. Meehan was born on 25 Aug 1905 at 190 Meeker Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, USA to Daniel Meehan 1876 – 1941 and Mary Ann Campbell 1879. The building was demolished at some stage and there is now a one story coctail and live music bar there – it is beside an overpass.
Daniel’s path diverged from the conventional at an early age and his life was intertwined with the shadowy underworld of prohibition-era New York in the “roaring 20’s”
Daniel found himself in the employ of Joe Burke, a notorious figure known as the bodyguard of Jack “Legs” Diamond, a prominent gangster who held sway over the illicit trade in New York and Philadelphia. Daniel’s role as a chauffeur placed him at the heart of Diamond’s operations, driving through the darkened streets of Brooklyn and beyond. Burke was shot and died around 1932 about two years after Legs Diamond.
Daniel married Margaret Sullivan and lived at 739 Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, In 1936, Daniel was shot, and the story is contained in the following newspaper articles, which are mostly from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle with a couple of exceptions. The articles go from 1936 to 1940.
I haven’t been able to find any information on his wife Margaret Sullivan or what happened her after he died.
His father died in 1941 so he would have felt the sorrow and heartbreak of his son’s death – I don’t know if his mother was dead or alive at the time.
