Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed's corruption

The Tammany Hall political organization, long associated with New York City machine politics and graft, was headquartered in the building at 44 Union Square East for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. William 'Boss' Tweed and his ring embezzled and defrauded the city in the late 1860s and early 1870s; Tweed was later arrested and convicted on charges including embezzlement and larceny. The Tammany Hall building and Tweed's trials are frequently cited in histories of urban political corruption. The 44 Union Square East address is a common reference point in those accounts.