The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Jul 17, 2026 · 49 min · 13 segments
It’s a scene more commonly imagined today in a Wild West saloon -- a shootout at Stanwyx Hall, across from the most elegant hotel in New York York. The year was 1855, and the combatants were bitter…
One major reason for this interest in gangs of the 19th century is, of course, the reporting by journalist Herbert Asbury.
In 1928, he produced a landmark work called The Gangs of New York, an informal history of the underworld, a survey of the city's criminal tapestry before the ascent of Prohibition-era organized crime.
It is a mixture of reporting and legend, narrative flourish and hearsay, a one-of-a-kind lurch into arenas of New York cultural life that are shadowy, strange, and thrilling.
And one of the most memorable figures from Gangs of New York is the subject of today's show, William Poole, Unquote.
Now in 2002, Martin Scorsese turned Gangs of New York into a film, remixing and combining many elements from the original book and producing a memorable character played by Daniel Day-Lewis, William Cutting, also known as Bill the Butcher.
On my challenge, by the ancient laws of combat, We are met at this chosen ground to settle for good and all.
Who holds sway over the five points? Us natives born right-wise to this fine land or the foreign hordes defiling it?
So a movie that is a loose adaptation of a book that was itself loaded with legends and folk tales about a group of 19th century men that often cloaked their own stories in fiction while operating in the shadowy corners of New York's roughest saloons and back alleys, thus granting these thugs and roughs of Gotham an aura of mystery and even immortality.
His story stands in for thousands of young men who came of age during the years when New York itself was evolving from a colonial port town to a rapidly growing city, growing perhaps too quickly for some of its residents to handle.
William Poole was born on July 24, 1821, in Sussex County, New Jersey, right as the United States was entering an extraordinary moment of expansion.
That same year, the U.S. took possession of the territory of Florida, and a few weeks after Poole's birth, Missouri became the country's 24th state.
And that city on the other side of the Hudson River, well, that was also growing rapidly thanks to the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal.
By the time Bill went to work here, it had become the largest wholesale market in the entire country.
Each day in the early morning, young Bill helped set up the stall, preparing slabs of meat for buyers from grocers, restaurants, and hotels.
By six or seven in the morning, the dirt streets splattered with blood and animal parts were already packed with carts and carriages.
It was here and in the local slaughterhouses that Bill learned the tricks of the trade, surrounded by carnage, the way to handle a knife, the proper ways to sever and cut, and the best ways to barter.
He was introduced to jobbers, grocers, delivery men, the working class who kept the growing city in operation, and at least in his mind, all similar to himself.
According to the New York Times, during the period of his apprenticeship, he attended to his business with marked zeal, taking pride in his character of a butcher.
But his disposition was not of the most peaceful or forbearing kind, and he found himself in frequent quarrels, both with strangers and those whom he knew well.
The butcher boys called him a hard customer, and many of them dreaded, while some envied, his pugilistic powers." He soon branched out to his own butcher stall here at Washington Market.
One major reason for this interest in gangs of the 19th century is, of course, the reporting by journalist Herbert Asbury.
In 1928, he produced a landmark work called The Gangs of New York, an informal history of the underworld, a survey of the city's criminal tapestry before the ascent of Prohibition-era organized crime.
It is a mixture of reporting and legend, narrative flourish and hearsay, a one-of-a-kind lurch into arenas of New York cultural life that are shadowy, strange, and thrilling.
And one of the most memorable figures from Gangs of New York is the subject of today's show, William Poole, Unquote.
Now in 2002, Martin Scorsese turned Gangs of New York into a film, remixing and combining many elements from the original book and producing a memorable character played by Daniel Day-Lewis, William Cutting, also known as Bill the Butcher.
On my challenge, by the ancient laws of combat, We are met at this chosen ground to settle for good and all.
Who holds sway over the five points? Us natives born right-wise to this fine land or the foreign hordes defiling it?
So a movie that is a loose adaptation of a book that was itself loaded with legends and folk tales about a group of 19th century men that often cloaked their own stories in fiction while operating in the shadowy corners of New York's roughest saloons and back alleys, thus granting these thugs and roughs of Gotham an aura of mystery and even immortality.
His story stands in for thousands of young men who came of age during the years when New York itself was evolving from a colonial port town to a rapidly growing city, growing perhaps too quickly for some of its residents to handle.
William Poole was born on July 24, 1821, in Sussex County, New Jersey, right as the United States was entering an extraordinary moment of expansion.
That same year, the U.S. took possession of the territory of Florida, and a few weeks after Poole's birth, Missouri became the country's 24th state.
And that city on the other side of the Hudson River, well, that was also growing rapidly thanks to the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal.
By the time Bill went to work here, it had become the largest wholesale market in the entire country.
Each day in the early morning, young Bill helped set up the stall, preparing slabs of meat for buyers from grocers, restaurants, and hotels.
By six or seven in the morning, the dirt streets splattered with blood and animal parts were already packed with carts and carriages.
It was here and in the local slaughterhouses that Bill learned the tricks of the trade, surrounded by carnage, the way to handle a knife, the proper ways to sever and cut, and the best ways to barter.
He was introduced to jobbers, grocers, delivery men, the working class who kept the growing city in operation, and at least in his mind, all similar to himself.
According to the New York Times, during the period of his apprenticeship, he attended to his business with marked zeal, taking pride in his character of a butcher.
But his disposition was not of the most peaceful or forbearing kind, and he found himself in frequent quarrels, both with strangers and those whom he knew well.
The butcher boys called him a hard customer, and many of them dreaded, while some envied, his pugilistic powers." He soon branched out to his own butcher stall here at Washington Market.
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