Although reportedly described as a pimp and rival Five Points thug, Quinn is described in newspaper accounts as "..a respectable young man, who for nine years past has been employed at the Cotton Exchange." A well known local athlete, he was a skilled amateur wrestler as a member of the Pastime and New York Athletic Clubs, whose career included winning the latter organization\'s spring competition as well as the State Championship\'s middleweight "catch-as-catch-can" wrestler. He also appeared at the first exhibition held by the Crib Club on April 9, 1885 in a catch wrestling match with fellow Pastime Club member John O\'Brien both scoring a fall each.\n', "

He would again face O'Brien in a catch-as-catch-can match, with each man gaining a pinfall before a draw was declared after wrestling another 10 minutes for the deciding third fall at an exhibition held by the New York Athletic Club on December 10, 1885.\n", '

Although having no prior association to Lyons, the two men had recently been seeing a local girl, Kitty McGowan. Released from Sing Sing Prison only seven months before on burglary charges, Lyons confronted Quinn on the corner of Thirty-eighth Street and Second Avenue on the night of July 2, 1887. Although Quinn initially refused to fight, the two soon became involved in a heated argument resulting in Quinn striking Lyons, causing a cut above his left eye.\n', '

Return to Joseph Quinn Autograph Profile