Tammany Thugs Murder Bill the Butcher

In July 1854, the World Bareknuckle Prizefighting Champion John Morrissey, who also severed as Tammany Hall enforcer, challenged William “Bill the Butcher” Poole to a no holds barred street fight.  The result was a terrible beating and several month recovery for John Morrissey.  Morrissey would have likely won a bareknuckle prizefight with Poole, a part-time prizefighter himself.  Morrissey made a critical error in fighting Poole on his terms.  As he healed from the beating, Morrissey and his friends began to plot revenge.  Before the new year was a couple months old, the Tammany Hall thugs more than evened the score.

On Saturday, February 24, 1855, William Poole and a friend entered Stanwix Hall, a tavern at 759 Broadway in Manhattan.  They began to drink at the bar until someone notified Poole of John Morrissey’s presence.  Morrissey was drinking with other Tammany Hall men in the back room.  Poole said to Mr. Dean, one of the proprieters, “Sorry, old man.  I would not have come in if I knew that they were here.  I did not come in for trouble.”

Poole headed a rival political faction, the Native Americans.  The Native Americans did not like the proliferation of Irish Democrats in New York City politics.  Most of the animosity between Poole and Morrissey was a result of this political rivalry.  However, Poole’s friend Yankee Sullivan lost his prizefighting title to Morrissey due to a very controversial referee’s decision.  This decision added more fuel to the simmering fire.

As Poole was preparing to leave, Morrissey charged out of the back room and challenged Poole to a fight.  Poole simply smiled and said, “You tasted me once before honey and you did not like it.”  Morrissey drew a revolver but was restrained by his friend James Irvin from firing the weapon.  Morrissey knocked the proprieter Mr. Dean down.  He fired the revolver at both Mr. Dean and Mr. Poole but it failed to go off.  Several policeman arrived and arrested both men.

Within ten to twenty minutes, both men had been released.  Poole and Morrissey both returned to Stanwix Hall but Morrissey left prior to another confrontation.  Poole stood at the bar until approximately 15 minutes after midnight on February 25, 1855.  Three of Morrissey’s friends, Patrick McLaughlin, James Tuner and Lew Baker, approached “Bill the Butcher”.

McLaughlin grabbed William Poole by the coat sleeve.  Poole demanded several times that McLaughlin let him go.  James Turner stepped in between the two men and turned McLaughlin around.  Turner walked McLaughlin away from Poole but then Turner threw open his coat and pulled out a pistol.  When he turned on Poole, Poole yelled to Turner “What?  Do you intend to murder me?”

Turner looked down the sight of his pistol, which was cradled in his left arm.  Somehow Turner lowered the weapon or raised his arm, which caused Turner to shoot and break his own left arm.  Turner screamed and yelled as he fell to the floor.  He fired a second shot from the floor, which struck Poole above his left knee cap.

As Poole fell to the ground, Lew Baker drew his own pistol, stood over “Bill the Butcher” and shot him in the heart.  The powerful Poole collapsed but would live with a bullet in his heart for ten days.  Poole died at his home on March 8, 1855.  Turner fired a few more shots from the floor and may have even hit Lew Baker.  Baker fled Stanwix Hall and New York.  He would be caught on a steamship headed for the Canary Islands.

Morrissey and Baker were tried three times but all the trials ended in hung juries.  Eventually, the New York City authorities released the men after realizing a conviction was not possible.

Most of the details for this story came from the Coroner’s Inquest held on May 10, 1855 and reprinted in the New York Tribune on March 12, 1855.  John Morrissey would go on to become a New York state senator.  Lew Baker died in obscurity.

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