 Like many Irish pugilists backed by Tammany Hall, Morrissey was a rival of William Poole, head of the Bowery Boys Gang, and on August 8, 1854, a fight was arranged between Poole and Morrissey at the corner of "West and Amos-street".Poole forced Morrissey to end the fight in an extremely brutal exchange.Hyer was associated financially and politically with William Poole's Bowery Boys gang, native-born New Yorkers who generally supported the Know Nothing anti-immigrant political party, but opposed Catholics, the Irish, and the corrupt Irish political machine, Tammany Hall.