Timothy Sullivan

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Timothy Daniel Sullivan (July 23, 1862 – August 31, 1913) was a New York politician who controlled Manhattan's Bowery and Lower East Side districts as a prominent figure within Tammany Hall. Euphemistically known as "Dry Dollar," the "Big Feller" and later "Big Tim" due to his physical stature. He controlled much of the city's criminal activities from 14th Street to the Battery in New York City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He is also credited as one of the earliest political ward bosses to develop the relationship between criminal street gangs and local government.

Contents

[edit] Personal Life and Political Career

Born to Daniel O. and Catherine (nee Conley or Connelly), immigrants from Kenmare, Co. Kerry, Ireland in the slum of Five Points. Daniel Sullivan, a Union veteran of the American Civil War, died of Typhus in October 1867 at the age of thirty-six leaving his wife to care for four children. Catherine remarried in 1870 to an immigrant, alcoholic laborer named Lawrence Mulligan, eventually having six more children. [1]

At the age of eight, Sullivan began shining shoes and selling newspapers on Park Row in lower Manhattan. By his mid-twenties, Sullivan was the part or full owner of six saloons which was the career of choice for an aspiring politician. Sullivan soon caught the attention of local politicians, notably Thomas "Fatty" Walsh, a prominent Tammany Hall ward leader. In 1886, at the age of twenty-three, he was elected to the state Assembly in the old Third District.

That year, Sullivan had married Helen (nee Fitzgerald). Gradually, he began building one of the most powerful political machines which controlled virtually all jobs and vice below 14th Street in Manhattan. His base of operation was his headquarters at 207 Bowery. By 1892, Tammany Hall leader Richard Croker appointed Sullivan leader of his assembly district of the Lower East Side.

Sullivan briefly served one term in the U.S. Congress from March 4, 1903 until his resignation on July 27, 1906. According to some accounts, Sullivan was dissatisfied with the graft and anonymity of political life in the Capitol prompting his resignation while remarking that "In NY, we use Congressmen for hitchin' posts."[2] He was later elected to Congress in 1912, but due to ill health, never took his seat. (See, A.F. Harlow, Old Bowery Days). Instead, Big Tim chose to remain a state senator for most of his political career serving two terms in the New York State Senate from 1894-1903 and again from 1909-1912.

It could be said that Sullivan was one of the earliest political reformers and was aligned with women's rights activist Frances Perkins and sponsored legislation limiting the maximum number of hours women were forced to work; improving the conditions of stable and delivery horses and of course, gun control legislation euphemistically termed the Sullivan Law.[3]

[edit] Rise to Power in Tammany Hall

Despite his political and criminal activities, Sullivan was undeniably a successful businessman involved in real estate, theatrical ventures (at one point partnering with Marcus Loew), boxing and horseracing. [4]

Along with various other Sullivans (Big Tim also branched out into popular amusement venues such as Dreamland in Coney Island, where he installed a distant relative, Dennis, as the political leader. [5] Sullivan, whose control extended to illegal prizefights through the National Athletic Club, influenced the New York State Legislature to legalize boxing in 1896 before ring deaths and other scandals caused the law's repeal four years later.

Among other laws he helped pass was the Sullivan Act, a state law that required a permit to carry or own a concealed weapon, which eventually became law on May 29, 1911. However, with many residents unable to afford the $3 registration fee issued by the corrupt New York Police Department and guaranteed his bodyguards could be legally armed while using the law against their political opponents.[6]

He was extremely popular among his constituents. In the hot summer months, tenement dwellers would be feted to steamboat excursions and picnics to College Point in Queens or New Jersey. In the winter months, the Sullivan machine doled out food, coal and clothing to his constituents. On the anniversary of his mother's birthday, February 6th, Sullivan dispensed shoes to needy tenement dwellers. The annual Christmas Dinners were a particularly notable event covered in all of the city papers.[7] Although he had a loyal following, his involvement in organized crime and political protection of street gangs and vice districts would remain a source of controversy throughout his career.

[edit] Involvement in Criminal Activity

During the turn of the century, he would develop contacts with many influential figures including Monk Eastman, Paul Kelly, Arnold Rothstein and disgraced NYPD lieutenant Charles Becker, who was able to attain the latter a high-ranking position on the New York police force in 1893.[8]

A close associate of Charles Francis Murphy, who succeeded the exiled Richard Croker as head of Tammany Hall in May 1902, the two forced corrupt police chief Bill Devery out of Tammany's Executive Committee as part of Murphy's campaign to eliminate any direct links between vice districts and Tammany Hall.

However, Sullivan was allowed to keep his kickbacks from the Lower East Side and Chinatown as a means of keeping him from becoming Murphy's political rival (he had used his considerable political influence from keeping Croker's reform group, the Committee of Five, out of the Bowery only two years before). In exchange, Sullivan would have to furnish gang leaders Monk Eastman and Paul Kelly to commit election fraud on behalf of Tammany Hall.[9]

At the time, it was widely known that Sullivan and his subordinates were active in a number of illegal activities including prostitution, white slavery, gambling and extortion. A number of these revelations came to light in the New York State Lexow Committee hearings as well as through the investigations of the Rev. Charles Henry Parkhurst.[10]

[edit] Later Years

Suffering from tertiary syphilis during his later years, his health continued to deteriorate until he was judged mentally incompetent and finally committed to a sanitarium in 1912. According to the Incompetency hearings, Sullivan elicited paranoid delusions, believed he was being spied upon and his food was being poisoned.[11]

After nearly a year, he managed to escape from his brother's house after eluding nurses on the early morning of August 31 (although other accounts claim he had escaped from orderlies after an all-night card game). Within a few hours, his body was found on the tracks in the Eastchester area of the Bronx, NY.

Sullivan was brought to the local Fordham morgue. Because his family failed to report him missing for more than a week after his death, no thought was given to the body's real identity, despite the tailored clothing and "TDS" monogrammed diamond cufflinks. After going unclaimed for nearly a fortnight, Sullivan was classified as a vagrant and scheduled for burial in Potter's Field.

After thirteen days, his body was finally recognized by Police Officer Peter Purfield who was assigned to the morgue detail. (The New York Times later speculated that Sullivan might have been killed and placed on the tracks. In fact, the engineer of the train that struck Sullivan stated that he thought the body was already deceased. And, adding to the speculation of foul play, Thomas Reigelmann, the coroner and political appointee who signed the death certificate, failed to recognize the body of his long time friend despite the lack of trauma to the decedent's face)[12]

Sullivan's wake was held at his clubhouse, located at 203 Bowery and over 25,000 people turned out for his funeral at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, New York on Mott Street. He was interred at Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.[13]

For the next seven or eight years, there was a protracted battle over Sullivan's estate, which, by some estimates, ranged as high as $2.5 million. After creditors were satisfied, the bulk of the assets went to Sullivan's full siblings, Patrick H., Mary Anne, and half-brother, Lawrence Mulligan. (For several years after Big Tim's death, Patrick H. Sullivan, attempted to maintain his late brother's political and criminal clout. However, he proved to be an ineffectual leader and requitted himself from politics to pursue real estate ventures).[14]

Although married, Sullivan had one biological child, a daughter who died in infancy, with his wife, Helen. He did, however, father at least six illegitimate children many with actresses affiliated with his theatrical ventures.[15]

[edit] In Popular Culture

He was portrayed by Joseph Sullivan in the 1914 silent film The Life of Big Tim Sullivan; Or, From Newsboy to Senator, [16] one of the earliest people to be the subject of a biographical film. He was also a main character in Kevin Baker's novel, Dreamland, about turn-of-the-century New York crime, set in the Coney Island amusement park of the same name.[17]

[edit] Further reading

  • Czitrom, Daniel . "Underworlds and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889-1913." The Journal of American History. 78.2 (1991).
  • Harlow, A.F. Old Bowery Days: Chronicles of a Famous Street. (1931).
  • MacIllwain, Jeffrey Scott. Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race and Racketeering in New York City, 1890-1910. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004. ISBN 0-7864-1626-2
  • Dave Ranney, or Thirty Years on the Bowery - Autobiography of a Bowery Dweller, published in 1910, from Project Gutenberg

[edit] References

  1. ^ Records, Mulligan, Lawrence & Catherine, Transfiguration Church, 29 Mott Street, New York City, May 1869. See also: Schedule 1, "Inhabitants in the 6th District, 6th Ward in the County of New York," p. 11. Census, New York City 1870, 6th Ward.
  2. ^ Harlow, A.F. Old Bowery Days: Chronicles of a Famous Street. "In the Reign of Big Tim Sullivan", 52
  3. ^ 3Chapter 195, "An Act to Amend the [New York State] Penal Law in Relation to the Sale and Carrying of Dangerous Weapons." May 1911. See also: "Suffragists Cheer Big Tim Sullivan..." New York Times, March 31, 1912. C6. For a listing of Sullivan's legislative activity, see: New York Legislative Index, 1909-1912. (New York State Library, Albany)
  4. ^ For background about Sullivan's theatrical interests see, Variety, March 13, 1014, 5; ibid, March 27, 1914, 5; ibid, April 3, 1914, 1; ibid, December 14, 1907, p. 10. For in-depth coverage of Sullivan's boxing interests, see: Riess, Steven A. Riess. "Sports and Machine Politics in New York city, 1870-1920," in Making of America. ed. Donald Spivey. (Westport, CT. 1985)
  5. ^ Dennis, ("Flatnose Denny) was a brother of U.S. Rep. Christopher D. Sullivan. The former, a one-time police detective, was murdered on the Coney Island boardwalk in June 1922, see "Dinnie" Sullivan Slain by Blackjack, New York Times, 21 June 1922, 1. For additional information on the Sullivan clan, see: "Little Tim Dead at Forty." New York Times, December 23, 1909. 1. See also: "Sullivan is Last of a Famous Line, New York Times, August 3, 1937; "Sullivans and Tammany." New York Times, August 6, 1942. Editorial
  6. ^ Czitrom, Dan. Underworld and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889-1913. Journal of American History. 78.2. (1991)
  7. ^ "Fed by Senator Sullivan: Three Thousand Bowery Lodging House Men his Guests." New York Times, December 26, 1899.
  8. ^ Logan, Andy. Against the Evidence: The Becker-Rosenthal Affiar. London: Weidenfeld, 1970
  9. ^ New York Times, September 17, 1903, p. 8; ibid, September 20, 1903, 1. See also: Humbert s. Nelli. The Business of Crime: Italian and Syndicate Crime in the United States. New York , 1976. 101-140
  10. ^ Clarence Lexow, Report and Proceedings of the Senate Committee Appointed to Investigate the Police Department of the City of New York, 5 vols. Albany, 1895. See also, Parkhurst, Charles Henry. My Forty Years in New York. New York: MacMillan, 1923
  11. ^ New York State Supreme Court, "In the Matter of the Applicaton for the Appointment of a Committee of the Person and Property of Timothy D. Sullivan." January 24, 1913
  12. ^ New York World, "Says Blackjack May have Killed Big Tim Sullivan," November 18, 1914, 1; New York Times, September 10, 1913, 1; ibid, September 11, 1913, 4; ibid, September 14, 1913, 1; New York World, September 10, 1913, 3. "Bureau to Identify Bodies Will be Established as a Result of Sullivan Case." New York Times. September 27, 1913
  13. ^ Records of Calvary and Allied Cemeteries, Woodside, NY. Section 9, Plot 197, Graves 1-9. See also: [1] politicalgraveyard.com and findagrave.com, keyword: Sullivan, Timothy D.
  14. ^ "Depose (P.H.) Sullivan as Bowery Leader." New York Times, February 16, 1916. 1.
  15. ^ Aida Sullivan, rumored to be Big Tim's natural daughter, was formally adopted by the Sullivans from the New York Foundling Hospital in 1894. She ultimately received a $50,000 life insurance policy from the Sullivan estate. See: "Says She Will Sue: Miss Sullivan Asserts Big Tim Made a Will Providing for Her." New York Times, September 18, 1913, 2. Sullivan's had another daughter, Margaret Catherine, born to Margaret A. who received a $50,000 life insurance policy from his estate. See, New York World, December 10, 1913, 1; New York Tribune, December 10, 1913
  16. ^ IMDB
  17. ^ The Life of Big Tim Sullivan; Or, From Newsboy to Senator. Gotham Film Co., 1914. Sullivan left no diaries and very few private letters. Autobiographical materials comes largely through his own statements in the press of his era.

[edit] External links