Suds Merrick (died 1884) was a New York river pirate and member of the Hook Gang during the 1870s. Merrick, along with Tommy Shay, James Coffee and Terry Le Strange, operated in the New York waterfront and involved in burglary and pickpocketing as well as raiding the nearby vessels anchored in the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. Merrick would co-lead the gang with Le Strange during the early 1870s until the arrest of Sam McCracken, Tommy Bonner, and Johnny Gallagher after they had looted the canal boat ''Thomas H. Brick'' and sent to

Auburn State Prison Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility. History Constructed in 1816 as Auburn Pris ...

in 1874. Following this incident, Merrick turned control of the Hookers to Bum Mahoney although he would remain with the gang in a limited capacity until his death in 1884.Kohn, George C. "Suds Merrick". ''Dictionary of Culprits and Criminals''. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1986. (pg. 242)

References

Year of birth missing 1884 deaths Gang members of New York City American gangsters of Irish descent American pirates 19th-century pirates {{piracy-stub