5 Disgraced New York Icons and How They Recovered (Or Not)
Boss Tweed; The Orange Riots of 1871
William M. “Boss” Tweed headed up what was once the most important, influential political institution in New York City—Tammany Hall. While Tweed did hold political office, his real power came from heading up the NYC Democratic Party machine and he wielded his influence to great effect, amassing the third largest fortune in New York, while also guaranteeing the elections of men who would perpetuate his sphere of influence. For a long time, it seemed that Tweed was unstoppable and that the corruption went too deep to be unrooted. Although Tweed was frequently criticized in the New York Times (there were no front page NYT Magazine profiles about Tweed and his wife, à la Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin), the only thing that really bothered Tweed were Thomas Nast’s mocking cartoons, about which Tweed famously said, “My constituents can’t read. But, damn it, they can see the pictures.” Although Tweed was guilty of all sorts of graft, brutality, and corruption during his reign, his major scandal came during the Orange Riots of 1871, when over 60 Irish-Americans were killed during a parade celebrating the anniversary of an Irish-Protestant victory over Irish-Catholics. Tweed’s failure to control his base constituents proved fatal to his popularity with the city’s elite and he was found guilty of siphoning city funds directly into his own pockets not long after that and sent to jail.
Was There a Second Act?
Not really, no. Tweed did manage to escape from jail, and fled to Spain where he found work as a seamen on a Spanish ship. However, he was eventually captured and returned to New York, where he died in a jail on Ludlow Street. Flags were pointedly not flown at half-staff when he died. No second act here, you guys, but Tweed is definitely iconic in New York history, and certainly set a precedent for how dirty local politics can be.