John Madigan
“Papup Jack”

John Madigan was born in an Irish farm around the turn of the century. He was One of more then ten children. Of all his siblings, he was the only one who decided to come to the United States, although some of them emigrated to other parts of the world such as South Africa and England. Jack arrived in the United States in the 1920s. He married and had two sons, Kevin and Bill. Not much is known about jack but according to the legend he was a good fighter and as such he was involved in many boxing games.

In spite of the lack of information on Jack’s life, the one story that really built his legend occurred while he was already in his sixties. He was drinking a beer in a pub when an armed man stormed in threatening the bartender and demanding to be delivered the content of the cash register. There was no way that Jack would let that happen. With his cane he assaulted the thief and wrestled him to the ground. “I didn’t come to this country to be mugged by a *$%#@! thief !!!" did he mumble. The cops finally arrived and caught the thief. Interestingly, both Jack and the thief ended up in the hospital and stayed just a few beds apart.