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 dating pickpockets, gamblers, and thieves, and soon became a very capable pickpocket and gambler of some renown. One sad day, Sharkey was arrested for pickpocketing, and his photo was snapped by the city photographer, granting 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 money from his efforts piling up, Sharkey formed his own gang called “Sharkey’s Guards,” which was headquartered at the corner of Wooster and Houston streets. It was there that Sharkey insinuated himself on the local political scene, soon becoming a favorite with the crooks who ran Tammany Hall. Sharkey dressed in the best of clothes, sporting sparkling diamonds on his fingers and around his neck. Soon, Tammany Hall ran Sharkey as a candidate for deputy alderman. Despite Tammany Hall having influence 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 money he earned from various illegal endeavors, Sharkey traveled to Buffalo, New York, and started a faro 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 was also a lighthouse dealer at a Fulton Street gambling house. 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 luck at the lighthouse. Dunn agreed that if he was successful 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 saloon owned by Charles Harvey, called “The Place”, located at 288 Hudson Street. By the time Sharkey arrived, Dunn had already downed a few rye whiskeys at the bar. Sharkey ordered a rye himself, and after he downed it, Sharkey demanded that Dunn return his $600. Dunn told Sharkey that he was exhausted himself and he could not repay the money. Sharkey immediately pulled out 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 accept any of that. He yelled, “You better pay me now!”
Before Dunn could respond, Sharkey fired the Derringer point blank at Dunn. The bullet pierced Dunn’s heart, killing him instantly. Sharkey fled the scene of the crime, 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 15 August 1873. However, Sharkey’s Tammany Hall connections 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, a thief’s wife, whose brother John Allen owned a bawdy dance hall in Water Street. John Allen was known as “The Wickedest 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 that is given to all visitors. His lower body was remarkably bulky, but the prison guards thought he had donned extra petticoats to protect himself from the cold November air. Jourdan immediately went to Sharkey’s cell and spoke 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.
Ms. 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. Then Ms. Allen went up to the third level to visit a prisoner named Flood. At 1 pm, Jourdan left the prison, which was quite unusual since he always remained 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 left the prison, she handed her pass to the guard guarding her exit. This woman wore a heavy black woolen dress, a black coat, an alpine hat, 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 at her exit, the guard asked for her visitor’s pass. Ms. Allen nervously rummaged through 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 that something was up, immediately called Warden Johnson. Ms. Allen was taken into custody, while Warden Johnson ordered all prison cells to 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 replied, “I’m the happiest little woman in the world.”
Jourdan was tried in the Court of General Sessions and defended by the infamous lawyer Big Bill Howe. Howe was so efficient in defending Jourdan that the jury acquitted her of all charges.
It was later determined that despite the fact that the police had searched every dock in the city looking for Sharkey, Sharkey had escaped on the schooner Frank Atwood and headed for Haiti. Since he did not like that country too 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’s avoidance of hanging in New York City. Sharkey so abused Jourdan, the captain of the ship that had taken Jourdan to Cuba, pushed her back on board and took her back to New York City.
Soon after, Jourdan found his true love, whom he married. Presumably they lived happily ever after.
As far as can be determined, William J. Sharkey never returned to New York City.
