William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878)—often
erroneously referred to as "William Marcy Tweed" (see below),[1] and
widely known as "Boss" Tweed—was an American politician most notable
for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political
machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New
York City and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the
third-largest landowner in
New York City

New York City and a director of the Erie
Railroad, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company,
as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel.[2]
Tweed was elected to the
United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives in
1852 and the New York County board of supervisors in 1858, the year he
became the head of the
Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall political machine. He was also
elected to the
New York State Senate

New York State Senate in 1867, but Tweed's greatest
influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards
and commissions, his control over political patronage in New York City
through Tammany, and his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters
through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects.
Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's
committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York
City taxpayers through political corruption, although later estimates
ranged as high as $200 million.[3] Unable to make bail, he escaped
from jail once, but was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow
Street Jail.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Corruption
3 Scandal
4 Imprisonment, escape, and death
5 Evaluations
6 Middle name
7 In popular culture
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Early life and education[edit]
Tweed was born April 3, 1823, at 1 Cherry Street,[4] on the Lower East
Side of Manhattan. Son of a third-generation Scots-Irish chair-maker,
Tweed grew up on Cherry Street. Tweed's religious affiliation was not
widely known in his lifetime, but at the time of his funeral the New
York Times, quoting a family friend, reported that his parents had
been
Quakers

Quakers and "members of the old Rose Street Meeting house".[5] At
the age of 11, he left school to learn his father's trade, and then
became an apprentice to a saddler.[4] He also studied to be a
bookkeeper and worked as a brushmaker for a company he had invested
in, before eventually joining in the family business in 1852.[4] On
September 29, 1844,[6] he married Mary Jane C. Skaden and lived with
her family on Madison Street for two years.
Ticket to an 1859 "soiree" to benefit Tweed's Americus Engine Co.
Tweed became a member of the
Odd Fellows

Odd Fellows and the Masons,[7] and joined
a volunteer fire company, Engine No. 12.[4] In 1848, at the invitation
of state assemblyman John J. Reilly, he and some friends organized the
Americus Fire Company No. 6, also known as the "Big Six", as a
volunteer fire company, which took as its symbol a snarling red Bengal
tiger, a symbol which remained associated with Tweed and Tammany Hall
for many years.[4] At the time, volunteer fire companies competed
vigorously with each other; some were connected with street gangs and
had strong ethnic ties to various immigrant communities. The
competition could be so fierce that buildings would sometimes burn
down while the fire companies fought each other.[8] Tweed became known
for his ax-wielding violence, and was soon elected the Big Six
foreman. Pressure from Alfred Carlson, the chief engineer, got him
thrown out of the crew, but fire companies were also recruiting
grounds for political parties at the time, and Tweed's exploits came
to the attention of the Democratic politicians who ran the Seventh
Ward, who put him up for Alderman in 1850, when Tweed was 26. He lost
that election to the Whig candidate Morgan Morgans, but ran again the
next year and won, garnering his first political position.[9]
Tweed was elected to the
United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives in
1852, but his two-year term was undistinguished.[10] In an attempt by
Republican reformers in Albany, the state capital, to control the
Democratic-dominated
New York City

New York City government, the power of the New
York County Board of Supervisors was beefed up. The board had 12
members, six appointed by the mayor and six elected, and in 1858 Tweed
was appointed to the board, which became his first vehicle for
large-scale graft; Tweed and other supervisors forced vendors to pay a
15% overcharge to their "ring" in order to do business with the
city.[10] By 1853, Tweed was running the seventh ward for Tammany.[4]
Although he was not trained as a lawyer, Tweed's friend, Judge George
G. Barnard, certified him as an attorney, and Tweed opened a law
office on Duane Street. He ran for sheriff in 1861 and was defeated,
but became the chairman of the Democratic General Committee shortly
after the election, and was then chosen to be the head of Tammany's
general committee in January 1863. Several months later, in April, he
became "Grand Sachem", and began to be referred to as "Boss",
especially after he tightened his hold on power by creating a small
executive committee to run the club.[4] Tweed then took steps to
increase his income: he used his law firm to extort money, which was
then disguised as legal services; he had himself appointed deputy
street commissioner – a position with considerable access to
city contractors and funding; he bought the New-York Printing Company,
which became the city's official printer, and the city's stationery
supplier, the Manufacturing Stationers' Company, and had both
companies begin to overcharge for their goods and services.[4] He also
started to form what became known as the "Tweed Ring", by having his
friends elected to office:
George G. Barnard
_(14592180978).jpg/340px-Thrity_years_of_New_York_politics_up-to-date_(1889)_(14592180978).jpg)
George G. Barnard was elected Recorder of
New York City;
Peter B. Sweeny
_(14776456534).jpg/340px-Thrity_years_of_New_York_politics_up-to-date_(1889)_(14776456534).jpg)
Peter B. Sweeny was elected New York County District
Attorney; and
Richard B. Connolly
.jpg)
Richard B. Connolly was elected City Comptroller.[10]
Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast depicts Tweed in
Harper's Weekly
.jpg/440px-Hon._Abraham_Lincoln,_born_in_Kentucky,_February_12,_1809_(Boston_Public_Library).jpg)
Harper's Weekly (October 21, 1871)
With his new position and wealth came a change in style: Tweed began
to favor wearing a large diamond in his shirtfront – a habit
that
Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast used to great effect in his attacks on Tweed in
Harper's Weekly
.jpg/440px-Hon._Abraham_Lincoln,_born_in_Kentucky,_February_12,_1809_(Boston_Public_Library).jpg)
Harper's Weekly beginning in 1869 – and he bought a brownstone
to live in at 41 West 36th Street, then a very fashionable area. He
invested his now considerable illegal income in real estate, so that
by the late 1860s he ranked among the biggest landowners in New York
City.[4]
Tweed was a member of the
New York State Senate

New York State Senate (4th D.) from 1868 to
1873, sitting in the 91st, 92nd, 93rd and 94th New York State
Legislatures, but not taking his seat in the 95th and 96th New York
State Legislatures. In the Senate he helped financiers
Jay Gould

Jay Gould and
Big Jim Fisk

Big Jim Fisk to take control of the
Erie Railroad

Erie Railroad from Cornelius
Vanderbilt by arranging for legislation that legitimized fake Erie
stock certificates that Gould and Fisk had issued. In return, Tweed
received a large block of stock and was made a director of the
company.[4]
Corruption[edit]
After the election of 1869, Tweed took control of the New York City
government. His protégé, John T. Hoffman, the former mayor of the
city, won election as governor, and Tweed garnered the support of good
government reformers like
Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper and the Union League Club, by
proposing a new city charter which returned power to City Hall at the
expense of the Republican-inspired state commissions. The new charter
passed, thanks in part to $600,000 in bribes Tweed paid to
Republicans, and was signed into law by Hoffman in 1870. Mandated new
elections allowed Tammany to take over the city's Common Council when
they won all fifteen aldermanic contests.[11][12]
The new charter put control of the city's finances in the hands of a
Board of Audit, which consisted of Tweed, who was Commissioner of
Public Works, Mayor
A. Oakey Hall

A. Oakey Hall and Comptroller Richard "Slippery
Dick" Connolly, both Tammany men. Hall also appointed other Tweed
associates to high offices — such as Peter B. Sweeny, who took
over the Department of Public Parks[11] — providing the Tweed
Ring with even firmer control of the
New York City

New York City government[13] and
enabling them to defraud the taxpayers of many more millions of
dollars. In the words of Albert Bigelow Paine, "their methods were
curiously simple and primitive. There were no skilful manipulations of
figures, making detection difficult ... Connolly, as Controller, had
charge of the books, and declined to show them. With his fellows, he
also 'controlled' the courts and most of the bar."[14] Contractors
working for the city – "Ring favorites, most of them –
were told to multiply the amount of each bill by five, or ten, or a
hundred, after which, with Mayor Hall's 'O. K.' and Connolly's
endorsement, it was paid ... through a go-between, who cashed the
check, settled the original bill and divided the remainder ... between
Tweed, Sweeny, Connolly and Hall".[15]
For example, the construction cost of the New York County Courthouse,
begun in 1861, grew to nearly $13 million—about $178 million in
today's dollars, and nearly twice the cost of the
Alaska Purchase
.jpg/600px-Alaska_Purchase_(hi-res).jpg)
Alaska Purchase in
1867.[12][16] "A carpenter was paid $360,751 (roughly $4.9 million
today) for one month's labor in a building with very little woodwork
... a plasterer got $133,187 ($1.82 million) for two days' work".[16]
Nast depicts the Tweed Ring: "Who stole the people's money?" / "'Twas
him."
Tweed and his friends also garnered huge profits from the development
of the Upper East Side, especially Yorkville and Harlem. They would
buy up undeveloped property, then use the resources of the city to
improve the area—for instance by installing pipes to bring in water
from the Croton Aqueduct—thus increasing the value of the land,
after which they sold and took their profits. The focus on the east
side also slowed down the development of the west side, the topography
of which made it more expensive to improve. The ring also took their
usual percentage of padded contracts, as well as raking off money from
property taxes. Despite the corruption of Tweed and Tammany Hall, they
did accomplish the development of upper Manhattan, though at the cost
of tripling the city's bond debt to almost $90 million.[17]
During the Tweed era, the proposal to build a suspension bridge
between New York and Brooklyn, then an independent city, was floated
by Brooklyn-boosters, who saw the ferry connections as a bottleneck to
Brooklyn's further development. In order to ensure that the Brooklyn
Bridge project would go forward, State Senator Henry Cruse Murphy
approached Tweed to find out whether New York's aldermen would approve
the proposal. Tweed's response was that $60,000 for the aldermen would
close the deal, and contractor
William C. Kingsley put up the cash,
which was delivered in a carpet bag. Tweed and two others from Tammany
also received over half the private stock of the Bridge Company, the
charter of which specified that only private stockholders had voting
rights, so that even though the cities of
Brooklyn

Brooklyn and
Manhattan

Manhattan put
up most of the money, they essentially had no control over the
project.[18]
Tweed bought a mansion on
Fifth Avenue

Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, and stabled
his horses, carriages and sleighs on 40th Street. By 1871, he was a
member of the board of directors of not only the
Erie Railroad

Erie Railroad and the
Brooklyn

Brooklyn Bridge Company, but also the Third Avenue Railway Company and
the
Harlem

Harlem Gas Light Company. He was president of the Guardian Savings
Banks and he and his confederates set up the
Tenth National Bank to
better control their fortunes.[4]
Scandal[edit]
Tweed's downfall came in the wake of the Orange riot of 1871, which
came after
Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall banned a parade of Irish Protestants
celebrating a historical victory against Catholicism, because of a
riot the year before in which eight people died when a crowd of Irish
Catholic laborers attacked the paraders. Under strong pressure from
the newspapers and the Protestant elite of the city, Tammany reversed
course, and the march was allowed to proceed, with protection from
city policemen and state militia. The result was an even larger riot
in which over 60 people were killed and more than 150 injured.[19]
Although Tammany's electoral power base was largely centered in the
Irish immigrant population, it also needed the city's elite to
acquiesce in its rule, and this was conditional on the machine's
ability to control the actions of its people, but the July riot showed
that this capability was not nearly as strong as had been
supposed.[19]
Nast shows Tweed's source of power: control of the ballot box. "As
long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it?"
Tweed had for months been under attack from
The New York Times

The New York Times and
Thomas Nast, the cartoonist from Harper's Weekly – regarding
Nast's cartoons, Tweed reportedly said, "Stop them damned pictures. I
don't care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don't
know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned
pictures!"[20] – but their campaign had only limited success in
gaining traction. They were able to force an examination of the city's
books, but the blue-ribbon commission of six businessmen appointed by
Mayor A. Oakey Hall, a Tammany man, which included John Jacob Astor
III, banker
Moses Taylor

Moses Taylor and others who benefited from Tammany's
actions, found that the books had been "faithfully kept", letting the
air out of the effort to dethrone Tweed.[21]
The response to the Orange riot changed everything, and only days
afterwards the Times/Nast campaign began to garner popular
support.[21] More important, the Times started to receive inside
information from County Sheriff James O'Brien, whose support for Tweed
had fluctuated during Tammany's reign. O'Brien had tried to blackmail
Tammany by threatening to expose the ring's embezzlement to the press,
and when this failed he provided the evidence he had collected to the
Times.[22] Shortly afterward, county auditor Matthew J. O'Rourke
supplied additional details to the Times,[22] which was reportedly
offered $5 million to not publish the evidence.[23] The Times also
obtained the accounts of the recently deceased James Watson, who was
the Tweed Ring's bookkeeper, and these were published daily,
culminating in a special four-page supplement on July 29 headlined
"Gigantic Frauds of the Ring Exposed".[21] In August, Tweed began to
transfer ownership in his real-estate empire and other investments to
his family members.[4]
The exposé provoked an international crisis of confidence in New York
City's finances, and, in particular, in its ability to repay its
debts. European investors were heavily positioned in the city's bonds
and were already nervous about its management – only the reputations
of the underwriters were preventing a run on the city's securities.
New York's financial and business community knew that if the city's
credit was to collapse, it could potentially bring down every bank in
the city with it.[21]
Thus, the city's elite met at
Cooper Union

Cooper Union in September to discuss
political reform: but for the first time, the conversation included
not only the usual reformers, but also Democratic bigwigs such as
Samuel J. Tilden, who had been thrust aside by Tammany. The consensus
was that the "wisest and best citizens" should take over the
governance of the city and attempt to restore investor confidence. The
result was the formation of the Executive Committee of Citizens and
Taxpayers for Financial Reform of the City (also known as "the
Committee of Seventy"), which attacked Tammany by cutting off the
city's funding. Property owners refused to pay their municipal taxes,
and a judge—Tweed's old friend George Barnard, no less—enjoined
the city Comptroller from issuing bonds or spending money. Unpaid
workers turned against Tweed, marching to City Hall demanding to be
paid. Tweed doled out some funds from his own purse—$50,000—but it
was not sufficient to end the crisis, and Tammany began to lose its
essential base.[21]
Shortly thereafter, the Comptroller resigned, appointing Andrew
Haswell Green, an associate of Tilden's, as his replacement. Green
loosened the purse strings again, allowing city departments not under
Tammany control to borrow money to operate. Green and Tilden had the
city's records closely examined, and discovered money that went
directly from city contractors into Tweed's pocket. The following day,
they had Tweed arrested.[21]
Imprisonment, escape, and death[edit]
"Stone Walls Do Not a Prison Make": Editorial cartoon by Thomas Nast
predicting Tweed could not be kept behind bars (Harper's Weekly,
January 6, 1872)[24]
Tweed was released on $1 million bail, and Tammany set to work to
recover its position through the ballot box. Tweed was re-elected to
the state senate in November 1871, due to his personal popularity and
largesse in his district, but in general Tammany did not do well, and
the members of the Tweed Ring began to flee the jurisdiction, many
going overseas. Tweed was re-arrested, forced to resign his city
positions, and was replaced as Tammany's leader. Once again, he was
released on bail—$8 million this time—but Tweed's supporters, such
as Jay Gould, felt the repercussions of his fall from power.[21]
Tweed's first trial, in January 1873, ended when the jury was unable
to agree on a verdict. His retrial in November resulted in convictions
on 204 of 220 counts, a fine of $12,750[4] (the equivalent of $260,000
today) and a prison sentence of 12 years; a higher court, however,
reduced Tweed's sentence to one year.[25] After his release from
prison, New York State filed a civil suit against Tweed, attempting to
recover $6 million in embezzled funds.[25] Unable to put up the $3
million bail, Tweed was locked up in the Ludlow Street Jail, although
he was allowed home visits. On one of these, Tweed escaped and fled to
Spain, where he worked as a common seaman on a Spanish ship.[21] The
U.S. government discovered his whereabouts and arranged for his arrest
once he reached the Spanish border; he was recognized from Nast's
political cartoons. He was turned over to an American warship,[21] the
USS Franklin, which delivered him to authorities in
New York City

New York City on
November 23, 1876, and he was returned to prison.[12][26]
Desperate and broken, Tweed now agreed to testify about the inner
workings of his corrupt Ring to a special committee set up by the
Board of Aldermen,[4] in return for his release, but after he did so,
Tilden, now governor of New York, refused to abide by the agreement,
and Tweed remained incarcerated. He died in the
Ludlow Street Jail on
April 12, 1878, from severe pneumonia, and was buried in the Brooklyn
Green-Wood Cemetery.[27] Mayor
Smith Ely

Smith Ely would not allow the flag at
City Hall to be flown at half staff.[4]
Evaluations[edit]
According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:
It's hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed's system ... The Tweed
ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid,
strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the
legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a
grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering,
profit sharing and organization.[28]
In depictions of Tweed and the
Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall organization, historians
have emphasized the thievery and conspiratorial nature of Boss Tweed,
along with lining his own pockets and those of his friends and allies.
The theme is that the sins of corruption so violated American
standards of political rectitude that they far overshadow Tweed's
positive contributions to New York City.
Although he held numerous important public offices and was one of a
handful of senior leaders of Tammany Hall, as well as the state
legislature and the state Democratic Party,[12] Tweed was never the
sole "boss" of New York City. He shared control of the city with
numerous less famous people, such as the villains depicted in the
Nast's famous circle of guilt cartoon shown above. Seymour J.
Mandelbaum has argued that, apart from the corruption he engaged in,
Tweed was a modernizer who prefigured certain elements of the
Progressive Era

Progressive Era in terms of more efficient city management. Much of
the money he siphoned off from the city treasury went to needy
constituents who appreciated the free food at Christmas time and
remembered it at the next election, and to precinct workers who
provided the muscle of his machine. As a legislator he worked to
expand and strengthen welfare programs, especially those by private
charities, schools, and hospitals. With a base in the Irish Catholic
community, he opposed efforts of Protestants to require the reading of
the
King James Bible

King James Bible in public schools, which was done deliberately to
keep out Catholics. He facilitated the founding of the New York Public
Library, even though one of its founders, Samuel Tilden, was Tweed's
sworn enemy in the Democratic Party.[29][30]
Tweed recognized that the support of his constituency was necessary
for him to remain in power, and as a consequence he used the machinery
of the city's government to provide numerous social services,
including building more orphanages, almshouses and public baths.[4]
Tweed also fought for the
New York State Legislature

New York State Legislature to donate to
private charities of all religious denominations, and subsidize
Catholic schools

Catholic schools and hospitals. From 1869 to 1871, under Tweed's
influence, the state of New York spent more on charities than for the
entire time period from 1852 to 1868 combined.[31] Tweed also pushed
through funding for a teachers college and prohibition of corporal
punishment in schools, as well as salary increases for school
teachers.
During Tweed's regime, the main business thoroughfare Broadway was
widened between 34th Street and 59th Street, land was secured for the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the
Upper East Side

Upper East Side and Upper West
Side were developed and provided the necessary infrastructure – all
to the benefit of the purses of the Tweed Ring, but also, ultimately,
to the benefit of the people of the city.
According to Leo Hershkowitz in Tweed's New York: Another Look, there
is no evidence of any personal financial gain on Tweed's part, despite
the implications of
Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast in
Harper's Weekly
.jpg/440px-Hon._Abraham_Lincoln,_born_in_Kentucky,_February_12,_1809_(Boston_Public_Library).jpg)
Harper's Weekly and the editors of
The New York Times, which both had ties to the Republican party. In
part, the campaign against Tweed diverted public attention from
Republican scandals such as the Whiskey Ring.[32]
Tweed himself wanted no particular recognition of his achievements,
such as they were. When it was proposed, in March 1871, when he was at
the height of his power, that a statue be erected in his honor, he
declared: "Statues are not erected to living men ... I claim to be a
live man, and hope (Divine Providence permitting) to survive in all my
vigor, politically and physically, some years to come."[4] One of
Tweed's unwanted legacies is that he has become "the archetype of the
bloated, rapacious, corrupt city boss".[4]
An 1869 cigar box label featuring Tweed
Middle name[edit]
Tweed never signed his name with anything other than a plain "M.", and
his middle name is often mistakenly listed as "Marcy". His actual
middle name was "Magear", his mother's maiden name; Tweed's son's name
was William Magear Tweed, Jr. The confusion derives from a Nast
cartoon with a picture of Tweed, supplemented with a quote from
William L. Marcy, the former governor of New York.[33]
In popular culture[edit]
In 1945 Boss Tweed was portrayed by
Noah Beery, Sr.

Noah Beery, Sr. in the Broadway
production of Up In Central Park, a musical comedy with music by
Sigmund Romberg.[34] The role was played by
Malcolm Lee Beggs for a
revival in 1947.[35] In the 1948 film version, Tweed is played by
Vincent Price.[36]
On the 1963–1964
CBS

CBS TV series The Great Adventure, which presented
one-hour dramatizations of the lives of historical figures, Edward
Andrews portrayed Tweed in the episode "The Man Who Stole New York
City", about the campaign by
The New York Times

The New York Times to bring down Tweed.
The episode aired on December 13, 1963.[37][38][39][40]
In John Varley's 1977 science-fiction novel, The Ophiuchi Hotline, a
crooked politician in a 27th-century human settlement on the Moon
assumes the name "Boss Tweed" in emulation of the 19th-century
politician, and names his lunar headquarters "Tammany
Hall".[41][42][43]
Tweed was played by
Philip Bosco in the 1986
TV movie Liberty.[44]
According to a review of the film in The New York Times, it was Tweed
who made the suggestion to call the
Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty by that name,
instead of its formal name Liberty Enlightening the World, in order to
read better in newspaper headlines.[45]
Andrew O'Hehir of
The New York Times

The New York Times notes that Forever, a 2003 novel
by Pete Hamill, and Gangs of New York, a 2002 film, both "offer a
significant supporting role to the legendary
Manhattan

Manhattan political
godfather Boss Tweed", among other thematic similarities.[46] In a
review of the latter work, Chuck Rudolph praised Jim Broadbent's
portrayal of Tweed as "giving the role a masterfully heartless
composure".[47]
Tweed appears as an antagonist in the novel, Assassin's Creed Last
Descendants where he is the Grand Master of the American Templars
during the American Civil War.[48]
Tweed appears in T.J. English's book Paddy Whacked and the subsequent
documentary film, in regards to his connection to
Irish mob boss John
Morrissey.
See also[edit]
Elbert A. Woodward
William J. Sharkey (murderer)
Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan
References[edit]
Notes
^ "William Magear Tweed (American politician) – Britannica
Online Encyclopedia". britannica.com. Retrieved November 17,
2009.
^ Ackerman, p. 2
^ "Boss Tweed",
Gotham

Gotham Gazette, New York, July 4, 2005.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Share, Allen J. "Tweed, William
M(agear) 'Boss'" in Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995), The Encyclopedia
of New York City, New Haven: Yale University Press,
ISBN 0300055366 , p.1205-1206
^ "The Death of William M. Tweed.; Crowds Of People Around Mr.
Douglass' House No One Admitted Except Relatives Tweed's Religious
Faith Politicians Who Feel Relieved A Letter Written By John D.
Townsend A Month Ago Asking For Tweed's Release" New York Times.
(April 14, 1878)
^ Maher, James (Jan 1, 1987). Index to Marriages and Deaths in the New
York Herald: 1835–1855. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 123.
ISBN 0-8063-1184-3.
^ Lynch, Denis Tilden, "Boss" Tweed: The Story of a Grim Generation,
Transaction Publishers, 1931. Cf. p.418. Tweed was a member of
Palestine Lodge #204, New York City, Grand Lodge of Masons New York
State.
^ Burrows & Wallace, pp.654, 724, 823
^ Burrows & Wallace, p.823
^ a b c Burrows & Wallace, p.837
^ a b Burrows & Wallace, pp.927–928
^ a b c d "'Boss' Tweed Delivered to Authorities" History Channel
website, n.d.g. Accessed: February 3, 2015
^ Paine, p. 140.
^ Paine, p. 143.
^ Paine, p. 144.
^ a b Mintz, Steven. "Digital History". Digitalhistory.uh.edu.
Archived from the original on October 8, 2009. Retrieved July 19,
2009.
^ Burrows & Wallace, pp.929–931
^ Burrows & Wallace, pp.934–935
^ a b Burrows & Wallace, pp.1003–1008
^ Bruce Jackson (November 2, 2000). "lazio". Acsu.buffalo.edu.
Retrieved July 19, 2009.
^ a b c d e f g h i Burrows & Wallace, pp.1008–1011
^ a b Ellis, pp. 347–348.
^ Paine, p. 170.
^ "On This Day: January 6, 1872". The New York Times. Retrieved May
14, 2016.
^ a b Lower Manhattan : News Landmark
Tweed Courthouse

Tweed Courthouse Has a
Checkered History
^ "Tweed, William Marcy, (1823–1878)". bioguide.congress.gov.
Retrieved July 19, 2009.
^ Ackerman, p. 28
^ Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the
Soul of Modern New York New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005; quoted in
Hammill, Pete, "'Boss Tweed': The Fellowship of the Ring" New York
Times (March 27, 2005)
^ Mandelbaum, Seymour J. Boss Tweed's New York (1965)
^ Muccigrosso, Robert ed., Research Guide to American Historical
Biography (1988) 1538–42
^ Ackerman, p. 66.
^ Hershkowitz, Leo (1977). Tweed's New York: Another Look. Garden
City, NY: Doubleday.
^ Nevius, Michelle (2009). Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of
New York City. New York: Free Press. p. 120.
ISBN 978-1-4165-8997-6.
^ Up In Central Park (1945) on Internet Broadway Database
^ Up In Central Park (1947) on Internet Broadway Database
^
Up in Central Park

Up in Central Park at AFI Catalog
^ "The Great Adventure: The Man Who Stole New York City" TV Guide
^ "The Great Adventure: The Man Who Stole New York City" TV.com
^ "The Great Adventure (1963–64)" Classic TV Archive
^ The Great Adventure: The Man Who Stole
New York City

New York City on IMDb
^ Clute, John "Varley, John" in Clute, John and Nicholls, Peter (eds.)
(1995) The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction New York: St. Martin's
Griffin. p.1271. ISBN 0-312-13486-X. Quote: "...JV's first –
and finest – novel, The Ophiuchi Hotline..."
^ Staff "The Ophiuchi Notline Analysis – John Varley" eNotes
^ Nicholls, James (October 30, 2016) "No father, no mother, she’s
just like the other" James Nicholls Reviews
^ "Liberty: Full Credits" TCM.com
^ O'Connor, John J. (June 23, 1986) "'Liberty,' A Glimpse of History"
The New York Times
^ O'Heheir, Andrew (January 19, 2003) "Not a Bridge-and-Tunnel Guy"
The New York Times
^ Rudolph, Chuck (January 20, 2002).
Gangs of New York Slant Magazine.
^ Rad, Chloi (February 18, 2016) "Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants
Novels Announced" IGN
Bibliography
Ackerman, K. D. (2005). Boss Tweed: The rise and fall of the corrupt
pol who conceived the soul of modern New York. New York: Carroll &
Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1435-2.
Burrows, Edwin G. & Wallace, Mike (1999), Gotham: A History of New
York City to 1898, New York: Oxford University Press,
ISBN 0-195-11634-8
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. High Beam Encyclopedia. 22,
November 2008, [1]
Ellis, Edward R. (2004). The Epic of New York City: A Narrative
History. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1436-0,
"Boss Tweed",
Gotham

Gotham Gazette, New York, July 4, 2005.
Mandelbaum, Seymour J. Boss Tweed's New York, 1965.
ISBN 0-471-56652-7
Paine, Albert B. (1974). Th. Nast, His Period and His Pictures.
Princeton: Pyne Press. ISBN 0-87861-079-0 (The original edition,
published in 1904, is now in the public domain.)
Sante, Luc. Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. Farrar,
Straus, & Giroux, 2003.
Further reading
Hershkowitz, Leo. Tweed's New York: Another Look (1977), a favorable
biography that minimizes the negative.
Lynch, Denis T. Boss Tweed The story of a grim generation. Blue Ribbon
Books NY first print 1927 copyright Boni & Liveright Inc.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to William M. Tweed.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Boss Tweed
United States Congress. "
William M. Tweed
_crop.jpg/440px-William_Magear_'Boss'_Tweed_(1870)_crop.jpg)
William M. Tweed (id: T000440)". Biographical
Directory of the United States Congress.
William M. Tweed
_crop.jpg/440px-William_Magear_'Boss'_Tweed_(1870)_crop.jpg)
William M. Tweed at Find a Grave
Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery page for WM Tweed
Map Showing the Portions of the City of New York and Westchester
County under the Jurisdiction of the Department of Public Parks talks
about Tweed's takeover of the
New York City

New York City parks system, from the
World Digital Library
Texts on Wikisource:
"Tweed, William Marcy". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
"Tweed, William Marcy". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
"Tweed, William Marcy". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
"Tweed, William Marcy". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
George Briggs
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 5th congressional district
1853–1855
Succeeded by
Thomas R. Whitney
New York State Senate
Preceded by
Benjamin Wood
New York State Senate
4th District
1868–1873
Succeeded by
John Fox
Party political offices
Preceded by
Fernando Wood
Head of Tammany Hall
1858–1871
Succeeded by
John Kelly
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 13421305
LCCN: n50019102
ISNI: 0000 0000 2043 1618
GND: 130587621
BIBSYS: 6069513
US Congress: T000