Who knows about these old time bare knuckle brawlers? I havent been able to find much information on Poole.
Check out wiki for William Poole, there are some newspaper quotes & links. I think you mean John Morrissey who's also there & if you don't mind digging yourself then try sites fultonhistory & chroniclingamerica
william poole was a gang leader and a 'rough and tumble' fighter. poole is usually described as a pugilist, but the only recorded bout I've located for him was with john morrissey and that was not a real prize fight. poole took morrissey down, then gouged and bit his face til morrissey gave in. afterwards in true new york gang culture fashion, pooles group beat down morrissey's and poole left without interference.
Thanks Amhlilhaus! Thats what I was curious about. All I could find was the fight between he and Morrissey. I havent done any historical research though so I was wondering if you had read the old papers to see if there were more fights for Poole? His fight with Morrissey sounds brutal. I wonder if the heavy beard Morrissey wore in later life was to hide the scars of the battle.
yeah, from what i've been able to locate that's the only recorded fight for him. I suspect that the papers didn't record the no rules bouts (which morrissey and poole was) for the same reasons they were hesitant to report on the organized prize ring. the organized fights at least had a semblance of rules and fair play (not true). I'd imagine that especially for up and comers there were more than a few unorganized fights within the gangs and with other gangs that went unrecorded. the gang leaders like hyer, morrissey and sullivan burnished their reputations in the ring, but outside the ring they were probably more dangerous.
and as for morrissey's beard, I think it was the style especially for older gentleman. ironically, morrissey was the least talented fighter amongst the three but ended up wealthy and somewhat respected.
