Jim Turner (criminal)
Californian thug and "election slugger" for Tammany Hall during the 1850s.
James Turner (fl. 1854–1866) was an American criminal figure, pugilist and "slugger" for Tammany Hall. Turner was one of several men under Captain Isaac Rynders who committed voter intimidation and election fraud for Tammany Hall during the 1850s. He and Paudeen McLaughlin were bodyguards to Lew Baker and were present with him when Baker fatally shot William "Bill the Butcher" Poole in the back in 1855.
Biography
A Californian-born thug and pugilist, Turner was forced to leave the state by the San Francisco Vigilance Committee in 1854. He eventually surfaced in New York City where he found employment with Captain Isaac Rynders and his Empire Club. In a short time, he became one of the Rynders' most feared "sluggers". In January 1855, Turner and Lew Baker entered Platt's Hall and became involved in a verbal altercation with prizefighter Tom Hyer "calling the fighter vile names". The argument escalated until Turner drew his pistol and shot Hyer in the neck. Hyer fired back but missed, hitting the wall instead.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jim Turner (criminal)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.