{"product_id":"the-first-ward-ii-fingy-conners-the-new-century-paperback","title":"The First Ward II: Fingy Conners \u0026 The New Century - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRichard Sullivan\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Ultimate Anti-Hero Was In Fact An Actual Historic Figure: Fingy Conners. But a forgotten and discredited actual hero, James \"Big Ben\" Parker, is deprived his due. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAfrican American James \"Big Ben\" Parker\u003c\/b\u003e stood in line to meet \u003cb\u003ePresident William McKinley\u003c\/b\u003e, unknowingly waiting directly behind McKinley's assassin \u003cb\u003eLeon Czolgosz.\u003c\/b\u003e Parker jumped on\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eCzolgosz, driving him to the ground and helping disarm him before the President's secret service detail could react. Praised initially, within days his story has been re-written to remove him totally from his valorous interception.\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBased on the lives and histories of the actual real-life characters, THE FIRST WARD saga continues in Volume 2 with the turn of the century story of infamous millionaire saloon-boss murderer \u003cb\u003eFingy Conners\u003c\/b\u003e and the \u003cb\u003eSullivan Brothers\u003c\/b\u003e. Their lives being hopelessly intermingled both genetically and socially, family allegiances stand in the way of justice.\u003cp\u003eDeprived of the very enterprise that initiated his vast fortune after his loss to laborers in the infamous \u003cb\u003eScooper's Strike of 1899\u003c\/b\u003e, Fingy Conners sets out on a path of retribution: scorched-earth revenge on the entire city of Buffalo by way of destroying its economy and upending its multi-million dollar investment in the construction of the \u003cb\u003e1901 Pan American Exposition\u003c\/b\u003e. Fingy schemes to control the entirety of the grain shipping and milling trade by moving the entire business out of the country to \u003cb\u003eMontreal\u003c\/b\u003e, where he enjoys dual citizenship. However, Alderman John P. Sullivan has an ace up his sleeve: his wife's powerful \u003cb\u003eCanadian cousin\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on actual events and the real people who drove them, \u003cb\u003e The First Ward II: Fingy Conners and The New Century\u003c\/b\u003e documents the rivalry between dock-walloper-turned-multi-millionaire politician Fingy Conners and two brothers who emerged from the Buffalo Orphan Asylum to claim political power: \u003cb\u003eAlderman John P. Sullivan \u003c\/b\u003eand\u003cb\u003e Buffalo Police Detective-Sergeant James E. Sullivan.\u003c\/b\u003e Their lives intersect with the giants of their day; world champion boxing hero cousin \u003cb\u003eJohn L. Sullivan, \u003c\/b\u003ehumorist\u003cb\u003e Mark Twain, Presidents William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt \u003c\/b\u003eand\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003epublisher\u003cb\u003e William Randolph Hearst. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInterwoven amid the drama are details surrounding the challenging construction, and ultimate triumph, of \u003cb\u003eBuffalo's 1901 Pan American Exposition\u003c\/b\u003e, followed in 1907 by the most successful \u003cb\u003eOld Home Week\u003c\/b\u003e ever held in the US-which doubled the city's population-bringing the past vividly to life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eEmbarking on his writing career at age 15 as news editor of his high school newspaper, Richard Sullivan's first serious venture into the world of journalism came at age 18 as an undercover reporter in Toronto at the height of the Vietnam War, where he posed as a draft dodger in order to document the plight of the thousands of young Americans who had fled there. At age 19 he joined up with the Clyde Beaty-Cole Bros. traveling circus for an expose on the social order within that world, then at age 20 hitch-hiked his way around Europe for three months on a budget of only $500, ending up in a Polish hospital suffering from dysentery during the apex of communism. With no money to pay the bill, the hospital staff opened a window, turned their backs, and listed Sullivan officially as \"escaped\". Sullivan completed 55 extensive photojournalism assignments for the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine and 13 for Los Angeles Magazine. In 1987 he traveled to Veracruz for the Wall Street Journal at the invitation of the European engineers constructing Mexico's Solo Palma nuclear power plant, which was being built with bastardized and discarded materials. In 1992 he was awarded his first exhibition as an artist at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the following year won the American Airlines Travel Journalism Award for his Hawaii photo-guidebook, Driving \u0026amp; Discovering Oahu. In 1997 he repeated that success with Driving \u0026amp; Discovering Maui \u0026amp; Molokai. Both books are updated with each printing and continue to be steady sellers to this day. Reclaim Your Youth, published in 2009, was the product of twenty-five years in the world of fitness and bodybuilding. The First Ward Volume I, Sullivan's first novel, was published in 2011, followed by Volume II, Fingy Conners \u0026amp; The New Century, in 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 360\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.75 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 26, 2012\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52534299656499,"sku":"9781478172932","price":31.28,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/Z3NJMDVhc016cFc0L3pBeGY2Z1NEdz09.webp?v=1760745510","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/the-first-ward-ii-fingy-conners-the-new-century-paperback","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}