Theodore Allen, known as “The.”(ca. 1833–1908) was an New York gambler, political organizer, saloon keeper the head of a family of criminals in the mid-to-late 19th century.
Jerry Kuntz, a librarian and historical researcher whose interests have focused on people involved in American subcultures in the 1850s-1930s has assembled a series of articles purport to present Theodore Allen “in his own words,” as ‘The.’ Allen: The Rough and Tumble Years (Wickham House, 2025).
These essays originally appeared serially the weekly sporting newspaper the National Police Gazette from August 28, 1880 through November 20, 1880.
The central events of the chapters tell of the lead-up to, and aftermath of, the 1855 shooting death of nativist Bill “The Butcher” Poole by Lew Baker, a friend of the boxing champion John Morrissey.
“The.” Allen was an apprentice butcher to Poole and shared his tendency to resolve disputes with vicious street fights. The Poole-Morrissey feud reflected the tensions between opposing political factions in the city of New York in the 1840s and 1850s, particularly between Irish Americans and anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party supporters.
Allen’s perspective of the Poole-Morrissey conflict in these chapters is incomplete and one-sided. According to this account, Poole and his cohorts only responded defensively to provocations from Morrissey and his supporters; and fought fairly while their opponents did not.
Missing from this account are the years of strife that came before these events, in which nativist sentiment oppressed and marginalized Irish Americans and the Catholic religion. Also absent are the slights, insults, and injuries that led to Morrissey identifying with the New York’s Democratic Party.
The text clearly implicates Morrissey in the murder of Poole, yet Morrissey himself was not present when his hot-headed entourage returned to Stanwix Hall. Morrissey died in 1878 after a very successful career as a casino owner and politician, but old foes like Allen still held a grudge, and persisted in accusing Morrissey even after his passing.
Allen was hardly worthy of admiration outside the sporting fraternity. In August 1880, when these columns first appeared, Allen was widely known as the proprietor of one of New York’s most scandalous dance halls, the American Mabille.
Allen’s Mabille was named to evoke Le Bal Mabille, a Parisian pleasure garden known for lively dancing, including the can-can. Allen’s Mabille, along with Harry Hill’s theater, Francis Stephenson’s Black and Tan, and Billy McGlory’s Armory Hall, were the leading nightlife venues of the 1870s and early 1880s.
These venues catered to men seeking assignations with prostitutes; and thrived by charging drinks per dance and staying open beyond legal hours. They bribed officials to ignore their transgressions of the law.
Theodore Allen’s parents produced six children, five boys and one girl, before they divorced and each remarried. Their separate affairs caused a scandal in their Lutheran congregation. The oldest son, John, became a jeweler, but later in his career was set up as a saloon owner by his brother Theodore.
“The.’s” younger brothers — Jesse, Martin, and Charles Wesley — were all lifelong professional thieves, and each served at least one term in Sing Sing for grand larceny. Charles Wesley, known as “Wes,” was profiled in NYPD Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes’s book, Professional Criminals of America (1886). Martin, “Mart” Allen, was the hardest case of the lot, and likely was only omitted by Byrnes for lack of a mug shot.
In addition to the “American Mabille” saloon, Allen owned the St. Bernard Hotel and several gambling houses, known as “pool rooms.” The “pool” refers to betting pools, but as these establishments offered billiard tables for waiting bettors, the term became associated with billiard rooms. Allen avoided legal problems by having these managed and licensed in other’s names.
Whatever his faults, Allen had business acumen, knew how to bribe the right authorities, and was keenly aware of legal loopholes he could exploit. He was able to retire comfortably and left a small fortune to his adopted granddaughter. His will was unsuccessfully contested by his brother Martin.
The text closes with a tease of future memoirs of Allen, including episodes in New York, Washington, and Canada. Upon his death, stories appeared in newspapers that Allen had been in the Secret Service during the Civil War and went to Canada as an undercover Confederate sympathizer.
The tale was told that U.S. authorities in St. Albans, Vermont, arrested Allen once he returned from Canada, and did not believe he was working undercover. He was saved from hanging only by the intervention of celebrity preacher Henry Ward Beecher, who contacted Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on Allen’s behalf.
It is true that Allen, who was probably the most successful broker of draft bounties (obtained fraudulently), was recruited by the Secret Service to help secure evidence against other bounty brokers. However, we must remain deprived of the National Police Gazette’s version of those events, since they never appeared in print.
Jerry Kuntz has also compiled The American Prize Ring: Its Battles, Its Wrangles, and Its Heroes, 1812-1881 (2022), which reprints important boxing history columns by William E. Harding, one of America’s most prolific sportswriters of the bare-knuckle boxing period. That book features a Foreward by New York Almanack founder and editor John Warren. You can read about that here.
You can find all of Jerry Kuntz’s book here.
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