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 leader within Tammany Hall. He was known euphemistically as "Dry Dollar", as the "Big Feller", and later as "Big Tim" because of his physical stature. He amassed a large fortune as a businessman running vaudeville and legitimate theaters, as well as nickelodeons, race tracks, and athletic clubs.
Sullivan in 1911 pushed through the legislature the Sullivan Act, an early gun control measure. He was a strong supporter of organized labor and women's suffrage. The newspapers depicted Big Tim as the spider in the center of the web, mentioning his criminal activities and his control over gambling in the city. Welch says that "assigning the role of vice lord to Sullivan gave Tammany's enemies a weapon to be wielded in every municipal election between 1886 and 1912".Richard F, Welch, King of the Bowery, p. 107.
Personal life
He was born in the slum of Five Points to Daniel O. Sullivan, who emigrated from County Kerry, Ireland, and his wife, Catherine Connelly (or Conley), from Kenmare, County Kerry. His father, a Union veteran of the American Civil War, died of typhus in October 1867 at age thirty-six, leaving his wife to care for their four children. Three years later, Catherine Sullivan married an alcoholic laborer of Irish descent named Lawrence Mulligan and had six children by him.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.
At age eight, Sullivan began shining shoes and selling newspapers on Park Row in lower Manhattan. By his mid twenties, he was the part or full owner of six saloons, which was the career of choice for aspiring politicians. Sullivan attracted the attention of local politicians, notably Thomas "Fatty" Walsh, a prominent Tammany Hall ward leader and father of stage actress Blanche Walsh.
In 1886, Sullivan married Helen Fitzgerald. He gradually began building one of the most powerful political machines, which controlled virtually all jobs and vice below 14th Street in Manhattan. His base 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.
In May 1910, Sullivan sailed to England on a boat with many social luminaries among his fellow passengers. One of them, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, wrote years later in her autobiography about Sullivan, calling him "a tall, well-set-up, smooth-shaven Irishman, who talked a blue streak in the voice and phraseology of the New York-Irish of the East Side...." In her judgment years later, Sullivan was "as straight and well-intentioned and genuinely sympathetic in his personal relations and humanitarian enterprises, as he was callous and corrupt politically."
Political career Sullivan was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 2nd D.) in 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893.
He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1894 to 1902, sitting in the 117th, 118th (both 9th D.), 119th, 120th, 121st, 122nd, 123rd, 124th and 125th New York State Legislatures (all seven 11th D.).
He was elected as a Democrat to the 58th and 59th United States Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1903, until his resignation on July 27, 1906. According to some accounts, Sullivan's resignation was prompted by the graft and anonymity of Washington political life. He was quoted as saying, "There's nothing in this Congressman business. They know 'em in Washington. The people down there use 'em as hitchin'-posts. Every time they see a Congressman on the streets they tie their horses to him."
He was again a member of the State Senate (12th D.) from 1909 to 1912, sitting in the 132nd, 133rd, 134th and 135th New York State Legislatures. In November 1912, he was elected to the 63rd United States Congress but, due to ill health, did not take his seat, and died a few months into his term.
It could be said that Sullivan was one of the earliest political reformers, since he 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 the Sullivan Law, city gun-control legislation.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)
Rise to power in Tammany Hall Along with his political and criminal activities, Sullivan was a successful businessman involved in real estate, theatrical ventures (at one point partnering with Marcus Loew), boxing and horseracing.For background about Sullivan's theatrical interests see: Variety, March 13, 1914, 5; Variety, March 27, 1914, 5; Variety, April 3, 1914, 1; Variety, 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)
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.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 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. Upon first passage, the Sullivan Act required licenses for New Yorkers to possess firearms small enough to be concealed. Possession of such firearms without a license was a misdemeanor, and carrying them was a felony. However, with many residents unable to afford the $3 registration fee issued by the corrupt New York Police Department, his bodyguards could be legally armed while using the law against their political opponents.Czitrom, Dan. Underworld and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889-1913. Journal of American History. 78.2. (1991)
He was extremely popular among his constituents. In the hot summer months, tenement dwellers were 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 6, Sullivan dispensed shoes to needy tenement dwellers. The annual Christmas Dinners were a particularly notable event covered in all of the city papers."Fed by Senator Sullivan: Three Thousand Bowery Lodging House Men his Guests." New York Times, December 26, 1899. Although he had a loyal following, his involvement in organized crime and political protection of street gangs and vice districts remained a source of controversy throughout his career.
Electoral fraud Sullivan was an expert in using electoral fraud to retain his power. In a quid pro quo arrangement, constituents voted the way that they were instructed. In return, they were the recipients of Tammany largesse which included coal in the winter, clambakes and outings in the summer, jobs on the city payroll and all-around assistance. In 1892 when his pct went 395 to 4 for Grover Cleveland over Benjamin Harrison in the presidential election he said, "Harrison got one...more vote than I expected, but I'll find that feller!" His most common tactic, with no voter ID, was to use "repeaters." Here's how he described it, "When you've voted'em with their whiskers on you take'em to a barber and scrap off the chin-fringe. Then you vote'em again with side lilacs and a mustache. Then to a barber again, off comes the sides and you vote'em a third time with the mustache. If that ain't enough, and the box can stand a few more ballots, clean off the mustache and vote'em plain face. That makes every one of 'em good for four votes." (Rothstein by David Pietrusza. Pgs 53–55.)
Involvement in criminal activity During the turn of the century, he developed contacts with many influential figures, including Monk Eastman, Paul Kelly, Arnold Rothstein and disgraced NYPD Lieutenant Charles Becker, who was able to obtain for the latter a high-ranking position on the New York police force in 1893.Logan, Andy. Against the Evidence: The Becker-Rosenthal Affair. London: Weidenfeld, 1970
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 William Stephen 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 had to furnish gang leaders Monk Eastman and Paul Kelly, amongst others, to commit election fraud on behalf of Tammany Hall.New York Times, September 17, 1903, p. 8; New York Times, 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
At the time, it was widely known that Sullivan and his subordinates were active in a number of illegal activities, including prostitution, 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.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
Later years, death and aftermath 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.New York State Supreme Court, "In the Matter of the Application for the Appointment of a Committee of the Person and Property of Timothy D. Sullivan." January 24, 1913 On January 12, 1913, the New York Sun reported in a prominent page two article that he was mourned after being committed, "beyond cure" (without naming illness), suffering from "religious mania".New York Sun "BIG TIM MOURNED BY RICH AND POOR" January 24, 1913