New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-26
A. S. Williams,
Former Police
Inspector, Dead
Fighting Alec" Seventy
seven, Gave Tender
loin" Its Name
A Terror to Toughs
Declared There Was More
Law in Nightstick Than
in Court Decision

Alexander S. Williams, one of the
most picturesque Of the dwindllng
number Of survivors of the ante-Lexow
police force, died yesterday at his
home. 8 West Ninety-ffth Street. He
was seventy-seven years old and had
been i'll since December. The funeral
will be held on Wednesday.
Fighting Alec" and "Clubber" Will
Jams were titles that he won in the
turbulent days of the department. 1t
was often said that he had dubbed his
way to the top, but though few police
men were oftener ION the carpet none
had better record Of arrests and con-
victions.
Out of the wealth OF his vocabulary
he minted the word "Tenderloin," and
from the moment it left his lips it has
stuck TO a section of New York and has
been applied to the more succulent por-
tons of other cities.
Another pungent phrase that came
from Fighting Alec" was: "There's
more law in the end Of a policeman's
nightstick than in decision of the Su-
preme Court" 1t was Alec Williams
whose defiance of the Lexow committee
has passed down into history along
with more apocryphal tales Of his ex-
PLOTS.
Lie Was Passed
Captain Schmittberger, now CHIEF
Inspector, had testified that Williams
had received money collected from NE
gal resorts. Williams swore that
Schmittberger was a liar, and when the
committee expressed curiosity as to the
source of bank accounts he had ad-
mitted said that he got the money spec
ulating in real estate in Japan.
While he realized that his frankness
at times approached a point that ham
pered his ambition, Williams always
credited TO it his appointment TO the
force. He was shpwright and had
sailed the seven seas in barks and clip
pers and boosted OF being the hrst
white man TO lay the keel Of a vessei
in Japan. when he called at the Police
Commissioners office in 1866.
Commissioner Bergen, who received
him, told the big applicant that, Tor all
the commissioners knew, he was JUST
out of Sing Sing. Williams thumped the
officials desk till the lnkstand rattleo
and vowed that he'd have nothing 20
DO with such force anyhow. he nsd
got as for as Broadway and Houston
l.. zee al nnor'g =
senger caught up with him and called
him back. He was appointed.
He was sent to Brooklyn TO break in
hut il was only few months before
he was assigned to- the Broadway
squad. On July 10, 1871, he was made
roundsmau, and in the following Sep
TENDER ne became a sergeant and was
nlaced in command of the mounted
squad. On May 81, 1872, he was made
a captain and put in command or the
21st Precinct. The station house was IN
Thirty-irst Street near Third Avenue
and the precinct included the Gas
house District.
II was VIGOROUSLY tough and it
was there that Williams laid the visible
foundations of his career. The locust
wood law swept the place as clean as a
rev whistle, and after few months
there, according 10 one story, VIII
Jams proved it to doubling acquaInt-
ance.
Sent to Tenderloin
Tough, is it," he is said to have
inquired. Full OF thieves an rob
bers! | tell you what III do; I'll just
hang nv watch and chain on this lamp
post and we'll walk around the block
and when We come back twill still be
there"
And. as the story goes, 1t was. Inc
lamp post is still TO be seen at Inir-
ty-iifth Street and Third Avenue.
In 1876 Williams was sent 70 the
still unchristened Tenderloin.
ave been eating chuck steak ever
since I've been on the force" said
Williams, "and now I'm going to have
a bit Of tenderloin."
For two years he was detailed 10
take charge of the Street Cleaning
Department, and in 1887 he was MADE
inspector. The Roosevelt Police
Board retired him in 1894, under the
compulsorv retirement act. with a
nension Of s1,750. The board was IN
secret session at the time, and details
~ its action never became known.