To use that term without explanation gives a real negative picture of the person, what he was involved in, the numbers, were illegal he was not a “gangster” — Facebook comment attached to a post linking to one of my articles about the history of numbers gambling.

It wasn’t the first such comment I had gotten about the words I had been using in my research on the social history of numbers gambling. I have been interviewing the descendants of numbers bankers and writers since 2019 and all along the way there had been gentle (and sometimes not so subtle) pushback against describing all of Pittsburgh’s gambling entrepreneurs as “gangsters” or “mobsters.”

I created the #MobsBurgh social media presence to generate visibility for my research and to connect with potential sources. But it became clear that MobsBurgh was too limiting and perhaps too negative to achieve all of my goals.

I thought a lot about an alternative and settled on The 805 Project. After all, this undertaking began when I first read about the big 805 numbers hit in 1930. A University of Pittsburgh historian’s question to an aging numbers writer and its enticing rhyming answer sent me down this rabbit hole two years ago. I embraced the story so why not borrow its source as a way to identify this project?

Goodbye MobsBurgh (mostly) and welcome to The 805 Project.

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