John Morrissey
John Morrissey
John Morrissey, also known as Old Smoke, was an Irish American bare-knuckle boxer and a gang member in New York in the 1850s and later became a Democratic State Senator and U.S. Congressman from New York, backed by Tammany Hall. Morrissey began his bare-knuckle boxing career after a confrontation with a man known only as "Chroel" who was notorious for troubling his fellow townsmen. Although Morrissey was on the bitter end of his first bare knuckle bout, his display of...