Zachariah Simmons

Who is Zachariah Simmons?

Zachariah Simmons was an underworld figure involved in running policy games in New York during the late 19th century. Supported by the Tweed Ring, he took over the policy rackets from Reuben Parsons and John Frink following the end of the American Civil War. He would run three-fourths of the city's six or seven hundred policy operations and eventually held interests as far away as Milwaukee and Richmond. He would eventually retire during the 1880s and turned control over to one of his runners, Albert J. Adams who would continue to run Simmons' policy games until the reform movements during the 1910s.