He was a thief, a pickpocket, a Tammany Hall politician, and finally a murderer. However, William J. Sharkey was best known for his daring escape from death row in New York City’s Tombs prison.
Sharkey was born in New York City in 1845, into a wealthy family residing in the Ninth Ward in Manhattan. Despite his family’s wealth, Sharkey gravitated to the dark side. He began hanging out with pickpockets, gamblers, and thieves, and soon became a very capable pickpocket and a gambler of some renown. One sad day, Sharkey was arrested for pickpocketing, and the municipal photographer took his picture, giving him a definite presence in the New York City Police Department’s criminal records section.
Sharkey soon rose up the criminal ladder, dealing in stolen bonds. With the money from his efforts accumulating, Sharkey formed his own gang called “Sharkey’s Guards”, which had its headquarters on the corner of Wooster and Houston streets. It was there that Sharkey insinuated himself into the local political scene, soon becoming a favorite of the thieves who ran Tammany Hall. Sharkey dressed in his best clothes, sporting sparkling diamonds on his fingers and around his neck. Soon, Tammany Hall put up Sharkey as a candidate for assistant councilman. Despite the fact that Tammany Hall had clout and strength working in his favor at the polls, Sharkey somehow lost the election. Disappointed with his political failure, Sharkey decided to return to his first loves: stealing and gambling.
With the money he earned from various illegal endeavors, Sharkey traveled to Buffalo, New York, and started a lighthouse game. However, Sharkey was so unlucky that he managed to lose $4,000 in just five days. Downtrodden, Sharkey returned to New York City and hooked up with his old friend Robert Dunn, whose real name is Bob Isaacs. Dunn was employed by the City Comptroller’s Office, but he was also a lighthouse dealer at a Fulton Street gambling den. Thinking that Dunn was a more capable lighthouse expert than he was, Sharkey gave Dunn $600 and told him to go to Buffalo and try his hand at the lighthouse. Dunn agreed that if he succeeded in Buffalo, he promised to pay Sharkey back the $600, plus half of his winnings. Luckily, Dunn had the same bad luck in Buffalo as Sharkey and lost his entire bet. Dunn returned to New York City and told Sharkey the bad news.
On September 1, 1872, Dunn and Sharkey attended the funeral of James Riley, a leading member of the Michael Norton Association, a political arm of Tammany Hall. After the funeral, Sharkey and Dunn traveled separately to a hall owned by Charles Harvey, called “The Place”, located at 288 Hudson Street. When Sharkey arrived, Dunn had already downed a few rye whiskeys at the bar. Sharkey ordered a rye himself, and after he knocked him down, Sharkey demanded that Dunn return the $600 to him, Dunn told Sharkey that he himself was exhausted and that he couldn’t pay the money back. Sharkey immediately drew a single-shot derringer pistol and aimed it at Dunn’s chest.
Dunn yelled, “Don’t shoot, Billy! I’ll pay you as soon as I can!”
Sharkey wouldn’t have any of that. He yelled, “You better pay me now!”
Before Dunn could reply, Sharkey fired the derringer point-blank at Dunn. The bullet went through Dunn’s heart, killing him instantly. Sharkey fled the crime scene but was captured a few hours later, at a boarding house on Washington Street, near Perry Street.
Sharkey was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged at Tombs Prison on August 15, 1873. However, Sharkey’s connections at Tammany Hall pushed his execution date back to early December.
While Sharkey was incarcerated, the most beautiful Maggie Jourdan, who was also a highly successful pickpocket, visited him daily. Miss Jourdan arrived early every morning and she always stayed up until visiting hours were over. Miss Jourdan was a great friend of Mrs. Wesley Allen, the wife of a thief, whose brother John Allen owned a bawdy ballroom in Water Street. John Allen was known as “The Baddest Man in New York City”.
While most of the prisoners in the Tombs lived in perpetual misery, Sharkey lived quite well on the second level of the prison, in an area called “Murderer’s Row”. With the money Jourdan earned by stealing, and also by pawning his jewelry, including his gold watch, Sharkey was able to decorate his cell number 40 (which was never locked) with the best furniture. Jordan bought Sharkey a walnut table, a Kidderminster rug, a canary in a cage, and a rack for books and magazines, which was suspended from the ceiling with silk ropes. Jourdan also provided Sharkey with a soft mattress for his bed, a comfortable chair to rest on, curtains for his cell door, an elegant robe made of cherry velvet and silk, and velvet slippers.
Jourdan used to tell Sharkey during his visits that if he died, she didn’t want to live anymore. “Willie, I could never let you suffer,” she told him through tears.
On November 19, 1873, at exactly 10 am, Jourdan arrived at the entrance to the Franklin Street Tombs. The guard on duty gave him the usual pass given to all visitors. His lower body was noticeably bulky, but the prison guards thought he had put on extra petticoats to protect himself from the cold November air. Jourdan immediately went to Sharkey’s cell and talked with him for several hours. The prison guards were so used to her being there that they barely paid attention to what she made of her and what she said to Sharkey.
Mrs. Wesley Allen arrived at the prison at 12:30 pm She stopped at Sharkey’s cell on the second level and spoke with Jourdan and Sharkey. So Mrs. Allen went up to the third level to visit a prisoner named Flood. At 1 pm, Jourdan was released from prison, which was quite unusual, as he was always on his feet until the end of the day.
Half an hour later, a strange-looking woman with particularly broad shoulders walked down the second-level corridor, through two lower doors, and out of the prison. When this dubious lady came out of the prison, she handed over her pass to the guard guarding her exit. This woman was wearing a heavy black wool dress, a black coat, an alpine cap, and a thick green veil that covered her entire face. Troopers Dolan was walking down Franklin Street when he saw this woman nimbly jump onto a passing streetcar, even though she was wearing French high heels.
At 2:05 p.m. Mrs. Wesley Allen attempted to leave the prison. As she passed the guard on her way out, the guard asked for her visitor’s pass. Mrs. Allen fumbled nervously in the pockets of her dress for several seconds, before she said, “I put it in my pocket, but I must have lost it.”
The guard, realizing something was up, immediately called Warden Johnson. Mrs. Allen was arrested, while Warden Johnson ordered that all prison cells be searched immediately. During this search, they were dismayed to discover that Sharkey’s cell was empty. His fancy clothes were scattered around his cell, and just above his sink were the remains of his loose mustache, which had obviously just been shaved off.
Ms. Allen was immediately arrested, but since there was no concrete evidence to incriminate her, the police reluctantly released her. Jourdan was arrested that night at her mother’s home at 167 9th Ave. When told by detectives that she was under arrest, Jourdan responded, “I am the happiest little woman in the world.”
Jourdan was tried in General Sessions Court and defended by the infamous attorney Big Bill Howe. Howe was so efficient in defending Jourdan that the jury acquitted her of all charges.
It was later determined that, despite police having searched every dock in the city for Sharkey, Sharkey had escaped on the schooner Frank Atwood and headed for Haiti. Since he did not like that country very much, Sharkey boarded another ship and traveled to Cuba, where he settled.
Two years after Sharkey’s escape from Tombs Prison, Maggie Jourdan joined Sharkey in Cuba. However, for some unknown reason (probably because Sharkey was an incorrigible creature), Sharkey severely mistreated Jourdan, the very woman responsible for Sharkey avoiding the gallows in New York City. Sharkey abused Jourdan so much, the captain of the ship that had taken Jourdan to Cuba pushed her back on board and took her back to New York City.
Shortly after, Jourdan found his true love, whom he married. They presumably lived happily ever after.
As far as can be determined, William J. Sharkey never returned to New York City.