William Tweed was best known as “Boss Tweed”. He was best known for his sneaky ways and his sneaky ways which helped him find his way into jail. He served some time in jail and even died there. He was an American Politician and with his “Tweed Ring” associates started to financially drain New York City by wrongly taking large amounts of money. Tweed was born the Southeastern part of New York City in 1823. He lived in a heavily immigrant neighborhood. He was born into an average sized family with three siblings. He never did reveal his ethnic background. After finishing public school at age 11, he followed in his father’s footsteps and became an apprentice chair maker. Later, he became a bookkeeper.
When Tweed was 21 he married the
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With this job he began receiving large amounts of cash for his “illegal services” from corporations. With that money, he bought lots of Manhattan real estate. It was known that at his peak, Tweed was the 3rd largest landowner in Manhattan. In 1851, Tweed was elected as alderman on his second try. In 1868, he became leader of Tammany Hall, where he spent lots of time with his scandal associates. He was also elected to senate. Tweed was widely known as “Boss Tweed” because he was the boss of Tammany Hall.
In 1870, he and his associates known as “Tweed’s Ring” took control of the city treasury. They began to financially drain New York City through faked leases, false vouchers, extravagantly padded bills, and other schemes.. They also had full control over all nominations and elections. The public began to support the New York Times efforts to oust Tweed.
In 1873, Tweed was tried and convicted on charges of forgery and larceny. Two years later he was released only to be arrested again. This time New York filed a civil suit against him to recover some of the money. After his second arrest he escaped. When he was let out one day to visit his wife he never returned. He first fled to Cuba and then to Spain where he was captured and brought back to a New York jail. This is where he died on April 12, 1878 of severe pneumonia. In all, New York lost over $200 million from Tweed’s embezzlement and he also