Joseph Quinn

Joseph Quinn (c. 1861-July 5, 1887) was a New York clerk, amateur wrestler and murder victim of Danny Lyons, a co-leader of the Whyos street gang.

Although reportedly described as a pimp and rival Five Points thug, Quinn is described in newspaper accounts as "..a respectable young man, who for nine years past has been employed at the Cotton Exchange." A well known local athlete, he was a skilled amateur wrestler as a member of the Pastime and New York Athletic Clubs, whose career included winning the latter organization's spring competition as well as the State Championship's middleweight "catch-as-catch-can" wrestler. He also appeared at the first exhibition held by the Crib Club on April 9, 1885 in a catch wrestling match with fellow Pastime Club member John O'Brien both scoring a fall each.

He would again face O'Brien in a catch-as-catch-can match, with each man gaining a pinfall before a draw was declared after wrestling another 10 minutes for the deciding third fall at an exhibition held by the New York Athletic Club on December 10, 1885.

Although having no prior association to Lyons, the two men had recently been seeing a local girl, Kitty McGowan. Released from Sing Sing Prison only seven months before on burglary charges, Lyons confronted Quinn on the corner of Thirty-eighth Street and Second Avenue on the night of July 2, 1887. Although Quinn initially refused to fight, the two soon became involved in a heated argument resulting in Quinn striking Lyons, causing a cut above his left eye.

After this incident, Lyons reportedly swore revenge to friends in his neighborhood hangouts and, borrowing a revolver from friend Alexander Neil, he intended to shoot Quinn on sight next time they met. Asking around the neighborhood for Quinn, he failed to find him over the next two days and spent the next afternoon waiting at a Second Avenue liquor store.

At around 5:30 pm, Quinn arrived on a Second Avenue street car and got off at the upper crossing on Thirty-Eighth Street. Although Lyons was in full view, Quinn apparently did not notice him and continued toward his home.

As Quinn arrived at a butcher shop near his tenement building, Lyons ambushed him from the south side of the street and gunned him down as Quinn turned towards him. Shot in the abdomen, Quinn was carried into a nearby drug store where a Dr. C.W. Pfeiffer attempted to treat him. He was later taken by an ambulance to Bellevue Hospital, he died of internal hemorrhaging an hour after his arrival.

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Wikipedia