Speedy Del Toro

Maria Fabrizia "Speedy" Del Toro is the leader of the Manhattan newsie girls. She's originally from Brooklyn but now lives in Manhattan.

Early Life
Maria Fabrizia "Speedy" Del Toro was born to Charles Del Toro, a Spanish immigrant and Rosa Barone, an Italian immigrant on May 24, 1883 which is the same day the Brooklyn Bridge was open for the first time.

When Speedy was five years old, her mother died of illness leaving her with her father who started drinking to handle his grief. He later became abusive towards her.

In 1893, Speedy fled her father's house after a particularly bad tirade and made it halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge before she was found by Spot Conlon and Jack Kelly. She asked for safety, so they ended up taking her to the Manhattan Lodging House.

Early Newsie Days (1893-1899)
Speedy was given her name by Spot and Jack when they saw her running to Manhattan from Brooklyn faster than anyone they had ever seen. The boys continued calling her the name once they found out she sold papers faster than anyone except Jack. She started selling papers with Racetrack Higgins very shortly after becoming a newsie for good.

She met the leader of the girl newsies, Mimi Jacques, when Jack Kelly brought her to the Girls' Lodging House. They became fast friends and Speedy became Mimi's second-in-command.

She constantly was at odds with Brooks Wilson, the King of Brooklyn at the time. They constantly came to blows with each other and Speedy never understood why he hated her so much. Her and Spot also became really close during this period of time.

After Mimi's death in 1895, Speedy was elected the leader of the newsie girls in Manhattan, and a few months later she would turn down the same title in Brooklyn.

She started the hierarchy of leaders of the Manhattan lodging houses by making her second in command, Mints Adams, then Slides de Figueroa, and Box Moore.

She is very secretive about her past to her friends at the lodging house that they don't even know her real name.

Strike Days
When Pulitzer and Hearst raised the prices of papes, she stood with Jack Kelly and David Jacobs as part of the Strike.

Name

 * Maria: Latin form of Greek Μαρια, from Hebrew מִרְיָם (see MARY). Maria is the usual form of the name in many European languages, as well as a secondary form in other languages such as English (where the common spelling is Mary). In some countries, for example Germany, Poland and Italy, Maria is occasionally used as a masculine middle name. This was the name of two ruling queens of Portugal. It was also borne by the Habsburg queen Maria Theresa (1717-1780), whose inheritance of the domains of her father, the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI, began the War of the Austrian Succession.
 * Fabrizia: Italian feminine form of Fabricius. Derived from Latin faber meaning "craftsman". Gaius Fabricius Luscinus was a 3rd-century BC Roman general and statesman.
 * Del Toro: is a surname first found in the Castilian province of Zamora in Spain, dating back to the sixteenth century. It is also found in sixty-five communes throughout Italy with a predominant presence in the provinces of Teramo (Abruzzo) and Siena (Tuscany)