wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

William “Boss” Tweed was never mayor of NYC. But he managed to assume almost total control of the city's politics and fortunes in the late 1800s by serving as NYC's Superintendent of Public Works, County Supervisor, State Senator, chairman of the city's Democratic Party Central Committee, supervisor of the County Court House, and head of Tammany Hall...all at the same time. In a Boss Tweed, historian Kenneth Ackerman explains that although Tweed stole millions from NYC, he earned a reputation for honesty because he always kept his word when it cane to spreading the money around to his followers.

Music: Sweet Sixteenths, William H. Krell, William Albright, and William Bolcom: “Mississippi Rag: Two-Step” / “Gladiolus Rag”