It was only seven years before scandal flamed again throughout the length and breadth of New York, and strangely enough—strange enough in all conscience for “Gentile fronts” of this day and generation to heed!—it was found again that the traffic in evil and its ramifications all over the land, and even to foreign countries, was in the hands of Jews. There was no doubt about it. There was even no accident about it. The fact was as continuous as it was colossal.
William Travers Jerome, then Justice of the Court of Special Sessions, made in 1901 a ringing indictment of conditions in the city and used the full power of his court to punish wrongdoers; he even went so far as to specify individuals and political connections—but he did not mention the keyword of it all, which was “Jew.” It was doubtless wise for him that he did not, else he could not have enjoyed the subsequent political career which came to him.
Tammany was defeated in the election of 1901. The defeat was due to the same cause—the stigma of Jew-controlled vice traffic under political protection.
It was at this time that Richard Croker “abdicated.” He was a rich man. He sailed for Ireland, where he became a country squire on his Wantage estate.
Public curiosity was fed the statement that Croker had selected Lewis Nixon to be his successor, but this turn in Tammany’s career is too important to be thus misstated. The truth is that when Croker left he surrendered Tammany to the Jews.
Croker could confirm this if he would talk, if he should be permitted to talk. It is, however, not well to have garrulous old men spilling the secrets of other days. Croker in his age took a bride who is said to be of “Indian descent,” and he has not been much in touch with his family nor the public since.