His taste and reputation for violence spread and it wasn’t long before he was working as a collection agent for various crime lords in troy and thieving from cargo ships in the docklands area in which he became a renowned local brawler, what he lacked in finesse and grace in the fighting art he excelled in grit and determination.

It seemed that his parents dream of a better life had turned sour when John was convicted of burglary and assault with intent to kill, and was fortunate to only be sentenced to 2 months in Albany prison, and upon his release he moved to the centre of the action, at the time, New York City.  He decided upon New York City to visit a fighter called Charlie Duane who had rejected an offer to fight John, when he lived in Troy, as a barman. As soon as John got to New York he barged into the club where he thought Duane was and announced that he would “fight anyone in the house” similar to the great John L. Sullivan’s famous saying. John was attacked by many of the locals and beaten up, one of his attackers is believed to have been William Poole, better known as “Bill the Butcher”, the owner of the club Isaiah Rynder, who was a gang leader and politician admired John’s tenacity and bravado and was reputed to have nursed his wounds and cared for him until he made a full recovery. The club was a resting place and meeting point for many of the city’s best brawlers and criminal underworld including the Bareknuckle champion of America Tom Hyer and it’s ironic that the building was directly opposite city hall.

It was not long after while in New York that John earned his nickname which he would be known as, throughout his fighting career. “OLD SMOKE”. He had already become a renowned street-fighter and a man to be feared and when he fought a local gang member by the name of Tom McCann his reputation as the most feared man in New York was cemented. McCann was convinced that John had taken a liking to his Mistress Kate Ridgely, who he visited on several occasions, and so the 2 men fought for the affections of  her. In the ensuing fight with McCann, John was knocked to the ground and fell against a lit stove, his back and clothing was burnt as he lay in the hot embers but rose like a Phoenix from the ashes and with smoke coming from his back he gave McCann a proper beating. Word spread quickly throughout the underworld and John’s name of “Old Smoke” stuck with him until his death.

Around this time many Americans got “Gold fever” and being a man of chance, John sailed for California with the intention of prospecting and striking it rich, but instead of backbreaking work looking for gold he set up various gambling dens and took the gold from the other prospectors in a game of cards called Faro, originally a French game of chance and the most popular card game in the 19th century. The Gold rush was responsible for the growth of many settlements as 1000,s flocked as they were bitten by the “Fever”, San Francisco for example had a population of 200 in 1846 and just six years Later it had grew to over 30,000 and by 1870 150,00.

While In California John had his first official Prize-fight against an the newly crowned Californian champion George Thompson, the fight went ahead on August 31st 1852 and although many reports suggest that John won by KO its alleged that Thompson was giving John a Boxing lesson, so John’s supporters threatened Thompson’s corner-men and he deliberately fouled John to purposely loose the fight, a small price to pay for his own life and that of his friends. John moved back to New York with plenty of  coin in his pocket and he wanted to fight the best around, and that man was the former American Champion Yankee Sullivan.


At first Sullivan snubbed John’s call out for a fight but he eventually decided to teach the kid a lesson, so it was arranged for October the 12th 1853. The experienced Sullivan who had only lost to Tom Hyer, a friend of William Poole’s was the underdog against John who had no boxing ring craft but had lots of heart and courage and age on his side, Sullivan was nearly 40 at this time. The venue was in Boston Corners, which was on the edge of 3 states making it difficult for lawmen to put a halt to the fight, it also meant that many of John’s supporters from Troy would be present. The fight itself would have been a disappointment for anyone going who wanted to see a classic fight, Sullivan was in complete control and when it looked like John was going to be stopped in the 37th round Sullivan momentarily dropped his guard, John rushed him, pinned him against the ropes and proceeded to choke him, one of Sullivan’s supporters entered the ring and knocked John down, although this rule of choking wasn’t deemed an illegal move then, someone interfering in the fight was. While John was still on the ground, Sullivan hit him, which was another foul move. All chaos then ensued and the ref struggled to gain control after the ring was invaded with men fighting. The ref awarded to win to John when Sullivan, who was too caught up in other disputes, failed to come to scratch in the allotted time. John was now the Champion of America and he used this prestigious title to further his business endeavours, in and out of the ring.

As an Irish immigrant and now a national celebrity he became interested in the local politics in New York, with his notoriety as a man not to be intimidated he was employed to protect the ballot boxes during the local Tammany elections. This is where he ran into his rival and opponent to the Irish, William Poole, also known as Bill the Butcher. John had employed the roughest men he could find to let the votes be cast as fair as possible and the show of force stopped interference by Poole. A fight between Poole and John was only as matter of time and although John was beaten up it is uncertain as whether it was at the hands of Poole in a fair fight or John was jumped on by Poole’s henchmen. The New York Times printed a story to say that John had indeed lost to Poole on July 28th 1854 but regardless of this result for his success in protecting the ballot boxes, John was given permission to open gambling houses in New York.

William Poole was shot by one of John’s gang members, Lew Baker in the heart the year after and survived for nearly 2 weeks before succumbing to the bullet, with Tom Hyer and a room full of Native Americans sitting at his bedside Poole said with his dying breath “Good bye boys: I die a true American!” The funeral procession was huge with thousands in attendance and John had even arranged for people to throw rocks from the rooftops at the mourners. All of those believed to been involved in Poole’s murder were took to court, including John, but all were eventually acquitted after 3 trials.

After a brief retirement from the ring John fought John C  Heenan , who was also from Troy and coincidently his family had also emigrated from the same town as John, in Ireland, both their fathers are believed to have been friends. The fight took place on the 20th of October 1858 in Ontario, Canada, in-front of around 2000 spectators. Although Heenan had a reputation as a strong and fearsome fighter this was his first recognised fight and entered the ring with a reputed injury. Writers described John as “a magnificent animal” and “one of the most splendid specimens of human development we have witnessed.” And the training which John put in against the 200 lb, 6ft 3 Heenan, paid dividends.

It was a bitterly fought contest in which Heenan started off well, hitting John with sickening  shots, Johns conditioning and natural stamina paid off and one writer stated “Heenan would have knocked out any man in the United States — except Morrissey.” but as the rounds went on he grew tired and weak.

The following is taken from the New York Herald and gives an account  of the 11th and final round.

“Heenan came up staggering, and looked pitiful, the fight being
entirely out of him from Morrissey's severe hitting in the latter part of the
fight. He was hardly able to stand up, and when Morrissey went up to him his
guard went down, and Morrissey hit him a very severe blow on the jugular, which
knocked him out of time, and he fell on his face, Morrissey step-
ping away from him. And thus ended the fight for the championship of America Morrissey, at
the end of the fight, jumped over the ropes and walked to the house, while
Heenan did not re-cover his consciousness for half an hour after the fight was
over.Morrissey says this is his last fight, and it is to be hoped he will keep his word”

John walked away with $5,000 in side bets and he retired from prize-fighting after refusing a rematch which in turn let Heenan claim the crown. It was printed in the National Police Gazette that john refused the rematch due to injuries he received from the terrific sledgehammer blows in their first fight and told Heenan to go to the UK and fight Tom Sayers for the Championship of the world.

With his retirement from the ring in 1859 John turned his attention to his two other interests, Politics and Gambling and by 1861 he had opened a gaming house in Saratoga with the funds he had earned as a fighter and the money from his other gambling joints. Within 2 years he had set up a trotting track where he had race meeting with thoroughbred horses, it was such a success that he decided to expand, and after getting some backing and purchasing over 100 acres of land he built the Saratoga Race Course which opened to the public in 1864. Not being a man to sit back and be content with what he had, he built one of the most prestigious gambling houses in Saratoga’s Congress Park in 1870 where the rich and famous gathered in one part of the club house and the normal gambling men and women on the ground floor. The Saratoga racecourse is still open to this day and its considered the oldest sporting venue in the US. It was also used in the film “Diamonds are forever” one of the classic James Bond films.

Considering the time and investment he had put into his gaming houses he still found time to run for congress with the backing of his friends at Tammany hall, furthermore after standing down as a member of congress after getting some of his old crooked friends sentenced to prison he reached his heights in the political world by winning election to state senate twice in 1875 and again in 1877.

The man who had came from such humble beginnings found fame and fortune, and everything he touched seemed to turn to gold, he had lived the American dream but after contracting pneumonia he sadly passed away on May 1st 1878, aged 47. All of the state senate attended his funeral where it’s estimated that between 15 and 20,000 people paid their respects on the streets. He was buried in St Peter’s Cemetery in Troy, New York.