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John Morrissey (February 12, 1831 – May 1, 1878), also known as Old Smoke, was an Irish American politician, bare-knuckle boxing champion, and criminal. He was born in 1831 in Ireland. His parents moved to New York State when he was a young child.
5 Apr 2024 · Learn about John Morrissey, a Tipperary-born fighter who became a US Congressman and a rival of Bill the Butcher. Find out his boxing career, his role in Tammany Hall and his legacy in Saratoga Springs.
12 Feb 2021 · John Morrissey was born in Ireland on February 12th, in 1831. As a result of bigoted attacks by his political enemies being carried forward by later writers like Herbert Asbury in Gangs of New York (1928), he’s been falsely accused of being in criminal league with Tammany Hall, for leading “the dead rabbits gang,” and for being involved ...
John Morrissey was elected to the House of Representatives in 1866 representing New York’s fifth district. Photograph: Mathew Brady/Wikicommons. In October 1858 he fought John C Heenan in ...
5 Feb 2021 · Of all the longshots to achieve improbable glory in the storied history of American thoroughbred racing, there is arguably no more astonishing rags-to-riches odyssey than that of John Morrissey, the driving force behind the inaugural Saratoga meeting in 1863 and the founder of Saratoga Race Course.
A harsh combination of crop failures, a rising population, and civil unrest ravaged much of County Tipperary at the time of Morrissey’s birth there, in 1831, causing thousands to flee to Canada and the United States in the pre-Famine years.
John Morrissey endured to find great success in prizefighting, gambling, and politics. He became that rarest of the boxing world, one who was able to translate the fame of the ring into subsequent successful careers.
