Thomas Draper

Who was Thomas Draper?

Thomas "Shang" Draper was a professional criminal in New York City.

Draper ran a waterfront saloon in his native New York City where he performed a confidence scam using an underage girl to lure a mark to a dark hotel room only to rob him. Draper acquired his distinctive nickname "Shang" from the "Shanghaiing" trick he used to play on his unsuspecting patrons. Draper would drug a bar patron with laudanum and by the time the fellow awoke, he would have been pressed into merchant marine or naval service, sometimes for a foreign land.

Draper was a contemporary of Frederika Mandelbaum, a notorious gangleader in her own right. Mandlebaum installed Draper, one of her trusted lieutenants, in a bank robbery gang fronted by George Leslie.

Draper died in 1883 in New York.