Sullivan’s Bullet Justice: A Saloon Brawl Ends in Hard Labor

In a tense trial that unfolded in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, John Sullivan was found guilty of manslaughter in the fourth degree for the shooting of James Mullancy in a Pearl Street saloon on November 1, 1873. The verdict was met with a stern sentence: 18 months of hard labor. The case was a tangled web of rivalries and alliances between members of the same target company, with Sullivan and Mullancy both being part of the group. On the fateful evening of November 22, 1873, the company held a meeting at Thomas McMahon’s liquor saloon, where the events that led to the shooting took place.