Johnny Dogs (1884-) was a Northern Irish gypsy and a member of the Lee Family and Peaky Blinders gangs of Birmingham, England during the early 20th century.
Biography[]
Johnny Dogs in 1919
Johnny Dogs was born in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in 1884 to a family of Irish Travellers, and he befriended Tommy Shelby during their youths. He joined the Lee Family gang during World War I, staying at home while Shelby fought in the British Army in France. In 1919, they reunited at a horse race, where Dogs lost a bet to Shelby, giving him a horse in exchange for a spin in his car. However, their meeting turned violent when Shelby confronted Dogs' fellow Lee Family members for laughing at his brother Arthur, to which they responded by calling his mother a "Diddicoy whore". Dogs stayed out of the ensuing fight, during which the Shelbys used their razor-lined hats to attack the Lees. Dogs later presided over the marriage of John Shelby to Esme Lee to settle the dispute and make peace between the families. In 1922, he joined the Shelbys' Peaky Blinders gang, assisting him with the bombing of Field Marshal Henry Russell's house, and, in 1924, burning Anton Kaledin's body.