Episode 2.3 (Jim Dubelko): Wanted: Cleveland's McCart Street Gang

In season two of the "Finding Home" podcast series, Irish American Archives Society Executive Director Margaret Lynch interviews an array of Clevelanders with specialized knowledge and stories about the history of the Irish in Cleveland. Episode 3 features an interview with Jim Dubelko. From about 1888 to the early 1900s, Cleveland was home to a notorious street gang, which the newspapers dubbed the McCart Street Gang, after the street that most of them lived on or near (today's W. 69th Street). The gang members were sons of Irish immigrants, or recent immigrants themselves. Jim Dubelko has been filling in the story of the McCart Street Gang since about 2010, when he embarked on a second career as a historical researcher, under the sponsorship of the late Housing Court Judge Ray Pianka. The McCart Street Gang was one of the first of more than 150 stories that Dubelko has written about Cleveland history for the website (www.clevelandhistorical.org), sponsored by Cleveland State University's Center for Public History and Digital Humanities.