Poole’s assassin, Baker is an associate of John Morrisey, another boxer, who was recently beaten severely by Poole during a fisticuffs battle on a wharf at the foot of Amos Street on the North River (West 10th Street on the Hudson River). Poole left the dock on a rowboat, after quickly defeating Morrisey, and a free for all ensued between both men’s gangs.

Morrisey Terribly Beaten and Left Friendless

Poole, known to throw knives from twenty feet through wood an inch thick, manages to get on his feet after being shot in the leg, abdomen and heart and throw a knife at Baker as he runs for his life. It narrowly misses Baker and solidly lodges in the door jam as he exits. Poole lives for two more weeks with the bullet in his heart. His last words on his deathbed to his sons and friends are “goodbye boys, I die a true American”.

Poole is buried in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery (section 34, lot 9165) on March 11. His funeral is attended by 6,000 people and 6 brass bands. So many people stand on the roofs to watch the procession to the ferry, waiting to take his body to Brooklyn, it is reported that one house collapses killing four people.

– Poole is later the inspiration for the character William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting in Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film Gangs of New York