Legends of the Old West - NED BUNTLINE Ep. 2 | “The Astor Place Riot”

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

Buntline leads a mob to the Astor Place Opera House and ignites the bloodiest episode in New York City since the Revolutionary War. Fueled by anger and alcohol, Buntline starts a riot that claims more than 20 lives and injures more than 100, and it lands him in prison. But the event only serves as a blueprint for another riot to come. Join Black Barrel+ for bingeable seasons with no commercials: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. In 1849, one of the deadliest riots in American history left at least 25 people dead and at least 100 injured. It happened at the Astor Place Opera House in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The riot was triggered by the appearance of a famous British Shakespearean actor, William McCready.

McCready was involved in a bitter rivalry with an American actor, Edwin Forrest. Each man was revered by a contingent of diehard fans. But the root cause of the bloody clash was not the rivalry of the actors. It was the deep divide between two distinct social classes in American urban society. There was the 1%, the upper-class New Yorkers who believed good theater could only come from Europe. They identified with MacReady. Then, there were the working-class

New Yorkers. This class was comprised of native-born citizens and Irish immigrants. Those two groups were usually at odds, but they found common ground in their hatred of the elite and MacReady. MacReady and Forrest's friendly rivalry was inflamed by the press over the years. The actors came to represent hostile class rivalries growing in larger cities, particularly New York. These simmering class rivalries could be compared to a powder keg ready to explode. And the person ready to light the fuse was Ned Buntline. light the fuse was Ned Buntline. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible

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From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is a four-part anthology about one of the greatest scoundrels in American history, Ned Buntline, the man who discovered Buffalo Bill Cody and turned him into a celebrity. This is Episode 2, The Astor Place Riot. On May 10, 1849, popular writer Ned Buntline was on thin ice with his third wife, Anna. She was close to giving birth to their child, but he paid little attention. She was close to giving birth to their child, but he paid little attention. Instead, the 28-year-old was obsessed with revenge.

The object of his revenge was James Gordon Bennett. Bennett was the powerful and respected founder and editor of the New York Herald, and he had a rivalry with Ned Buntline. Buntline's anger started a few weeks earlier. He'd appeared in court with the madam of a high-class house of prostitution. She had ambushed him on Broadway and beaten him senseless with a horse whip. The judge was forced to find the madam guilty on point of law, but the judge was so disgusted by the way Buntline had libeled the madam in his newspaper that he fined her a mere six cents. The proceedings caused Buntline's wife an enormous amount of embarrassment. To make matters worse, Buntline's rival newspaper, the New York Herald,

covered the trial in great detail. Its reporters noted every snicker and every insult pointed at Buntline. The message to New Yorkers was clear. The popular writer Ned Buntline had been bested by a prostitute. In a rage, Buntline wrote up a story about Bennett's sister-in-law. He falsely claimed she was a constant fixture at various houses of ill repute. Bennett responded by taking Buntline to court. The judge ordered Buntline to pay Bennett $3,000. Buntline had been putting all of his earnings back into his business, so once again, his father-in-law had to come up with the cash, and he was not happy about it. Buntline's anger at Bennett was entirely personal. But Bennett was also a Catholic

and he was a British immigrant. Two things Buntline railed against in his writings. And in spite of his dirty tricks, Buntline's work resonated with much of America. He used plain language. He highlighted the problems of the crowded American city. He brilliantly tapped into the fear of a changing society in which the rich seemed to be getting richer on the backs of everyone else.

On May 10, 1849, Ned saw a way to get back at Bennett and the rest of his real or perceived enemies. The writer heard about MacReady's portrayal of Macbeth. It would take place at the fancy Astor Place Opera House in his neighborhood. Anna got on her knees and begged Ned not to go, but he ignored her. He packed two pistols and a dagger and set out toward the opera house. On his way to the opera house, Buntline stopped at a pub. He drank several brandies. The alcohol fueled his courage, but he'd already been preparing for this evening for days. There had been a Macbeth performance at the opera house a few

nights earlier. MacReady, the British actor, was booed and pelted by rocks and rotten fruit. But members of New York's elite theater society convinced MacReady to perform one more time. New York's mayor had only been in office for a couple days, and he did not want any more trouble on his watch. So he ordered extra security for McCready's May 10th performance. 200 police officers would stand inside and outside the theater. In addition, the state militia set up at nearby Washington Square Park. Two regiments were at the ready. The day before McCready's second performance,

Bundline took the opportunity to stir trouble. He printed hundreds of handbills. He had local boys plaster them all over the neighborhood. In large print, the bills addressed working men. They asked if New York City should be ruled by America or by England. Bundline also posted bills that claimed British ships in the harbor were sending their sailors to the opera house. While this might seem innocuous, it wasn't at the time. The very idea of British military of any kind assembling in the streets of New York was enough to inflame even the calmest neighborhood. The posters were meant to be provocative, and they were. On the night of the 10th, Ned and his brother-in-law walked downtown toward the theater. Street toughs soon recognized Ned Bunline and fell into lockstep

next to him. They knew something exciting was going to happen, and they wanted to be part of it. They knew something exciting was going to happen, and they wanted to be part of it. Half a block from the opera house, Ned suddenly stopped in his tracks. He yelled at the top of his lungs, Now was the time for real Americans to take a stand, he bellowed over and over again. As a crowd grew around him, Ned stoked their fury and excitement even more. True Americans, he said, should be insulted by soldiers protecting a British actor. And he said the first thing the crowd needed to do was to sound an alarm of fire.

While Buntline gathered agitators outside, the first scene of Macbeth started on stage. It went smoothly, but the audience inside was anxious. It could hear yelling outside. It could hear rocks hitting the wall of the theater. The play started to fall apart when Macready appeared in the second scene. The majority of the audience clapped and cheered loudly, showing him their support. But about 50 carefully placed hecklers began hissing and booing. Police from outside ran into the theater to drag the hecklers into a holding cell beneath the stage. The action by the police inflamed the crowds of troublemakers on the outside.

Rioters began throwing stones and bricks they'd ripped up from the street. Several people pushed open the door to the opera house. Rioters trickled into the theater. They harassed the well-dressed patrons. Still, security guards and stagehands were able to push them back out. For a while, it seemed like the security inside the theater could keep things calm. But then, the clip-clop of horses could be heard. The crowd realized the military was approaching. It whipped the crowd into a frenzy. By now, William McCready, the actor playing Macbeth, had had enough. He and the other

actors stopped their performance and walked off stage. That angered the majority of the audience, who'd paid top dollar for their tickets. And rioters who'd forced their way back into the theater began throwing objects at the departing actors. The chief of police was now terrified, but he kept his officers from rushing into the building. He could hear screams of pain and panic, but he thought the mayhem inside might burn itself out. And then he saw the smoke. Several men told Buntline that ladders were already in place against the theater. Fire was a common and deadly occurrence in 19th century structures.

The Astor Place Opera House was probably better equipped against fire than most buildings, but it wasn't equipped for the dark mind of Ned Buntline. The writer urged several young men to gather some wood shavings from a nearby construction site. He directed several others to grab large paving stones and smash the glass windows on the bottom tier of the opera house. The shattering of glass whipped the audience into a frenzy of fear, and the rioters outside became more energized. They continued to throw rocks and bricks into the windows. They beat up patrons who managed to get out of the building,

and they started to set little fires all over the streets. Buntline got a message to the conspirators who were being held in the cell under the stage. He said, start a fire down there. Somehow, the agitators did it, but stagehands saw the flames and quickly put them out. However, the damage was done. People who were still trapped in the theater smelled the smoke. They trampled each other as they tried to get out of the building. At the same time, the police and the military outside the theater saw the smoke. The commanders ordered their troops to move closer to the building,

and the rioters changed their targets. They stopped throwing rocks at the building and the audience members who made it outside, and started throwing them at the soldiers and the officers. A few men inside the theater managed to lift the theater's fire hose through a broken window. They tried to blast the rioters with water to disperse them. It only made the rioters more angry. One bystander likened it to a bunch of hornet's nests that had been kicked over. In the middle of all this mayhem, Ned Buntline ran from group to group, screaming orders to continue stoning the building.

The police fell back and let the military move forward. The police fell back and let the military move forward. At about 9.15 p.m., a company of mounted troops on white horses approached the swirling hordes of people. The soldiers rode two by two with their swords drawn. They were followed by two divisions of National Guard infantry. They marched with their bayonets held high and fixed ahead. When the procession turned down nearby 8th Street, rioters turned their attention to the soldiers. The two generals who led the contingents got their men to stay in formation even in the face of the violence. The generals

shouted to the crowd that if it didn't disperse, they would have to use their weapons. The crowd continued to surge. Fires started in streets adjacent to the theater, and innocent people trampled each other to get away from the scene. Some of the horses tossed off their riders. The rest galloped away as riders threw rocks and debris at the animals. The infantry filled the spots vacated by the horsemen. They, too, were pelted with rocks and bricks and whatever else people could find. Nevertheless, they charged with their bayonets. At first, it seemed like the infantry was going to be able to clear a path so help could get through. But then, the two generals ordered a couple soldiers to fire warning shots over the heads of the crowd.

After the first shots, everything stopped for a minute. And then, because no one appeared to be hurt, the angry mob assumed the military had fired blank cartridges. That energized the mob even more. It violently attacked the soldiers. The troops now feared for their lives, and they fired directly into the crowd. Rioters fell to the ground, wounded or killed, but the mass of people still pushed against the soldiers. In the dark, flashes of gunfire illuminated men, women, and even children scrambling in every direction. The militia fired everywhere, over and over again, for several minutes.

Then Buntline and the other rioters fired back. But they were no match for the firepower of New York's militia. At last, the mob broke up, and the rioters scattered. Shop with Rakuten, and you'll get it. What's it? Rioter Scattered. other stores you love. You can even stack sales on top of cash back. Just start your shopping with Rakuten to save money at over 750 stores. Join for free at rakuten.ca or get the Rakuten app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N. When the smoke cleared, more than a hundred people lay in the streets around the opera house. Most were wounded. They'd been hit with rocks or cobblestones. Some had been beaten.

Others were worse. They were dead or dying. Many had been shot by either the rioters or the National Guard. Many of the people killed or wounded had taken no part in the riot. They'd been passing by at the wrong time. There were victims as far away as a city block who'd been struck by stray musket balls. The dead and the wounded were taken to the drug stores nearby. Surgeons were summoned from all over the city to attend to them.

Some dead and wounded were carried by police to the 15th Ward Station House, and a few were carried to the city hospital. Some were laid on the billiard tables of a nearby saloon until they could be treated. The opera house itself became a makeshift hospital for dying and wounded police officers. Many witnesses said the ground around the opera house was stained red with blood. Here and there were little processions of people moving off with the dead or mutilated bodies of their friends or relatives. Many New Yorkers were confused when their loved ones didn't come home that night. They trudged to the coroner's office for the awful chore of seeing if one of the bodies belonged to them. And they begged for answers as to how all of this could have happened. Estimates said that at least 25 people had been killed and more than

100 injured. Ned Buntline had been captured by militiamen just as he was raising a paving stone to throw at somebody. Ultimately, he and 50 others were arrested for inciting the Astor Place riot. Bundline was singled out as the leader. At noon the next day, a friend of Bundline's paid his $1,000 bail, and Ned went home to sleep. A few days later, Bundline wrote an article in his newspaper. In it, he condemned the grand jury proceedings against him. He claimed that on the evening of the riot, he was mostly ministering to his pregnant wife. He claimed to have just been observing the riot. And in the months between the riot and his trial, he went back to drinking

heavily and savaging people in his newspaper. And those people continued to include his own father-in-law. Ned was free on bail until his trial in September, and he published more stories than ever. He wrote a second installment of his best-selling series about life in New York City. It sold faster than vendors could stock it. And he continued to party fiercely. He took a trip to Philadelphia, where he started a fight with a policeman outside a saloon and received a severe beating for his trouble.

And that summer, Buntline hosted frequent parties on a yacht in New York Harbor. Buntline hosted frequent parties on a yacht in New York Harbor. On the evening of July 11th, in Brooklyn, a man stumbled onto shore from the ocean. He'd been drinking with Ned Buntline on the yacht, and he had several gunshot wounds. The man survived, but he wouldn't say if it was Buntline who shot him or someone else. Regardless, it cast attention on the yacht itself. The vessel was repossessed because Buntline had not made any payments on it. Buntline's wife Anna and her entire family had reached their breaking point.

Thanks to the notoriety of his role in the Astor Place riot, his writings were selling more than ever. But he'd also taken advantage of every last kindness Anna's family could provide. He spent all his nights drinking and virtually none with his new son. In August, Anna's father decided enough was enough. Three months ago, Anna's father had put up $2,000 in bond to get Buntline out of jail in the matter

of the James Gordon Bennett libel case. Anna's father knew that Buntline's erratic behavior made it extremely unlikely he was going to show up for that trial. And so, Anna's father revoked the bail and had authorities re-arrest his son-in-law. Once again, Bundline's friends paid his way out of jail. When Bundline was free, he took aim at his father-in-law with his pen. Among many things, he called Anna's father an imp of hell, which delighted his readers. But he also threatened to put a bullet in the man's head, and that pushed Anna's father way over his limit. He sued his son-in-law for libel

and locked him out of the house. On September 13th, 1849, Ned was supposed to appear in court for his libel suit against the sister-in-law of his newspaper rival, James Gordon Bennett. He didn't show up, but he had a good reason. The day before, he and several others were put on trial for their roles in the Astor Place Riot. The trial lasted 11 days.

Bundlein and the other agitators were convicted of instigating the bloodiest event in the city's history since the Revolutionary War. But Bundline was the only one who received a severe sentence because of his leadership in provoking the riot. The judge sentenced him to one year in prison at Blackwell's Island in the East River. He also fined Bundline $250, which was a large sum at the time. On the day Buntline was sentenced, his wife Anna divorced him. She and her baby son immediately sailed to England, where she eventually remarried and started a new life. In his first few weeks of prison, Buntline refused to eat or participate in his work detail.

But he eventually started eating again and acquiesced to moving rocks in the prison quarry. He then demanded that he be able to write and publish his newspaper from prison, and he was denied. But he was able to write stories to send to other newspapers and book publishers. As usual, they were mostly semi-autobiographical. His story, The Conspirator's Victim, was about a man who was wrongly accused, and it sold very well. Bundline supporters didn't forget about him

while he was in prison. He was a member of an anti-immigrant fraternity. And on the day of his release, in October 1850, the fraternity chartered a steamboat. The group picked him up and brought him back to the city in grand style. An estimated 500 people met Buntline with an expensive carriage

and paraded him down the streets, followed by a marching band. In spite of all the trouble Ned Buntline had been in over the past year, he still cranked out a high volume of stories, and they sold well. He now had a self-titled newspaper and a self-titled magazine. But the writer knew he had worn out his welcome in New York for the time being. He convinced someone to give him the use of an entire steamship. Along with some ardent fans, he took his show on the road, so to speak. He headed to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and other cities. He lectured on Americanism.

In large part, Americanism meant rallying against Catholics, immigrants, and President Millard Fillmore. He also lectured on what he thought the proper role of Native Americans should be, and America's role in Cuban unrest. the proper role of Native Americans should be, and America's role in Cuban unrest. People readily paid 25 cents apiece to attend his lectures, and they were nearly always sold out. At the lectures, Buntline often wore a suit covered with Masonic symbols. Sometimes he wore Native American attire with suede-fringed tunics and makeup. He often had a band behind him playing popular music. While there wasn't exactly a name for it yet, Bundline was tapping into a growing

fear among many Americans. The fear was that the country was changing faster than some of its citizens wanted it to. In many parts of the country, it was no longer possible to make a living from a quiet farm life. The sons and daughters of families who'd been in one place for generations moved west. For some, the goal was a magical place called California, where there was the promise of gold and other riches. And while Buntline did not yet offer a fully formed opinion on the issue of slavery, he did touch on the subject in every city. As with all of his topics, he seemed to know how to assess his audience and tell them what they wanted to hear. But one thing was certain. Buntline's leadership in the Astor Place riot solidified his leadership in a new political party.

It was called the Know Nothing Party. The party was the outgrowth of a strong anti-immigrant sentiment. It called for the prevention of foreign-born Americans from voting or holding public office. The fledgling party called for a 21-year residency requirement for citizenship. It was hostile to the wealthy and intellectual elites.

It condoned violence where it thought it was needed. And its members were supposed to be secret. If someone asked a party member about activities, he was trained to say, I know nothing. And so, in the beginning of the 1850s, Ned Buntline had found a national platform on which he could stand. He would never earn the respect of serious writers or readers, but he didn't care. Large numbers of Americans felt he spoke to them, and they were happy to buy his adventure stories. Buntline drifted west, preaching the values of his new political party.

Bundline drifted west, preaching the values of his new political party. And it seemed his year in prison didn't teach him how to cool off, because when he reached St. Louis, he yet again provoked violence to draw attention to his political beliefs. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Ned Buntline sees an opportunity to add members to his Know-Nothing Party. But in doing so, he literally burns a piece of St. Louis to the ground. They're dead and wounded, but Ned Buntline's career continues to grow. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't

have to wait week to week. They already receive early access and the entire season to binge all at once. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This season was written by Julia Bricklin, author of The Notorious Life of Ned Bundline, a tale of murder, betrayal, and the creation of Buffalo Bill. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show,

please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details, and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thanks for listening.