John Morrissey, also known as Old Smoke, was a bare-knuckle boxer and a gang member in New York in the 1850s and later became a Democratic State Senator and U.S. Congressman from New York, backed by Tammany Hall. Morrissey began his bare knuckle boxing career after a confrontation with a man known only as "Chroel" who was notorious for troubling his fellow townsmen.



