Wreck Donovan

Who is Wreck Donovan?

Michael Mahoney, better known as Wreck Donovan or simply The Wreck, was a nineteenth-century American sneak thief, river pirate and underworld figure in New York City. He was a well-known criminal for hire on the New York waterfront during the post-American Civil War era and later became a member of Patsy Conroy Gang.

Mahoney also participated in a number of violent robberies during the early-1870s, including his time leading a group of Fourth Ward railroad thieves, although he usually escaped punishment due to his political connections to Tammany Hall. These activities, however, would lead to his eventual imprisonment by New York District Attorneys Benjamin K. Phelps and Horace Russell in 1873.