Justice At Last!

"Justice at Last!
W. M. Tweed Convicted"
New York Times
(November 20, 1873)
Newspaper
Serial & Government Publications (53.4)

During William M. "Boss" Tweed's stewardship of Tammany Hall, he acquired almost total control of New York City Democratic politics and managed to loot the city's coffers of between $50,000,000 and $200,000,000. The New York Times entered into one of the toughest journalistic fights in New York history when it published editorials questioning how "Boss" Tweed and his associates managed to acquire such vast wealth. At first the Times lacked hard evidence, but a Tweed rival provided the newspaper with copied pages from the Ring's secret books detailing the extent of corruption, as reported in this November 20, 1873, edition of the paper. Tweed was sentenced to twelve years in prison and fined $12,500, but served only twelve months after paying a $250 fine. Later, he was rearrested in connection with a $6,0000,000 civil suit. Tweed fled to Spain where he was identified from a Thomas Nast cartoon, apprehended, and escorted back to the United States.