The Tweed Ring was voted out of public office in the municipal elections of 1871.  After the election, reformers brought criminal charges against all four members of the Tweed Ring for stealing millions of dollars. Facing jail terms, Peter Sweeney and Richard Connolly left the country and never returned. After Mayor A. Oakey Hall finished his term of office, he was brought to trial three times, but was never convicted.

 

Due to various technicalities, William “Boss” Tweed did not go on trial for almost two years. The six-day trial ended in a hung jury—the jurors could not agree whether Tweed was guilty. Ten months later, a new trial began. Tweed was found guilty, sentenced to thirteen years in prison, and fined $12,500. It was a small fine considering the millions of dollars he had stolen.

Tweed still had friends in high places. After a year in jail, his conviction was overturned. Nast, still determined to see Tweed punished for his crimes, continued to draw cartoons portraying Tweed as a thief.

In 1874, due to the effort of New York Governor Samuel Tilden, a law was passed giving the attorney general of New York the power to bring a civil suit against “Boss” Tweed. The civil suit was an attempt by the state to recover the money Tweed had stolen. Tweed was charged in a six million dollar lawsuit and bail was set at three million dollars.

Tweed was arrested again and placed in Ludlow Street Jail. At Ludlow, he was treated like a prince and allowed a great deal of liberty. He went for morning rides in his coach with a prison guard. In the evening, he was permitted to dine with his family while a bailiff acted as his butler.

On December 4, 1875, Tweed arrived at his home for dinner and went upstairs to visit his wife. While his guard was preoccupied, Tweed sneaked out of his house and escaped. For several months he hid in New Jersey and New York. In April, he obtained a passport under the name of John Secor and sailed to Cuba. He arrived in Santiago de Cuba on June 9, 1876. Ninety days later, he left Cuba and sailed to Vigo, Spain, arriving on September 6.

Cuban authorities detected Tweed’s movements and informed United States authorities when he left Cuba for Spain. No photographs of Tweed were available, so the American minister in Madrid sent a copy of Harper’s Weekly containing one of Nast’s drawings to the Spanish authorities. In the drawing, Tweed is holding what appeared to be two children by the scruff of the neck. The Spanish police used the drawing to identify Tweed. They could not read English and assumed that Tweed was a kidnapper. Ironically, this was one crime Tweed never committed.

[Excerpt from Thomas Nast:  Political Cartoonist by Lynda Pflueger]