October 27, 2026: New York's Kingpin Meets His Match in Ink

A drawing did what financial records alone couldn't.

On October 27, 1871, officers arrested William "Boss" Tweed, the head of New York's Tammany Hall political machine, on charges of fraud, forgery, and larceny tied to a kickback scheme that had drained tens of millions of dollars from city taxpayers. Tweed had survived years of scrutiny by controlling the courts, the police, and the ballot box, but he couldn't survive political cartoonist Thomas Nast, whose drawings in Harper's Weekly turned a scheme too complicated for most readers into a villain anyone could recognize, or the leaked city ledgers that gave that public pressure legal teeth.

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Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.

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