Jonathan G. Wolcott – Divide the Dawn

Jonathan G. Wolcott – Character in Divide the Dawn

“(Wolcott) will reign from above, unseen. Our greatest enemy resides in a safe distance across a body of water, up high where the future will be orchestrated. . . Our fate will be decided by an untouchable enemy.”
~Liam Garrity

Jonathan G. Wolcott (b. 1853), also known as The Fat Man, is an Anglo-American executive whose family has owned property in the Northeast for over 200 years. Grossly over weight, he boasts of his ancestors arriving on the Mayflower and often fakes an English accent. A supporter of eugenics, he sees the Irish and Italian working class of Brooklyn as being genetically defective, intellectually inferior human beings which justifies his use of murder-for-hire against them. Even so, Wolcott has failed at everything he’s done. But his is a life of great privilege. After being forced to resign as Vice President of Wage and Labor at the New York Dock Company, he “fell upstairs,” and was promoted to Director of the powerful Waterfront Assembly. Desperate to prove himself, he still works even as he could comfortably retire.

What you need to know before starting DIVIDE THE DAWN: While at the NY Dock Co. in 1916, Wolcott paid Dinny Meehan and the White Hand gang to kill Thos Carmody, an International Longshoreman’s Association union recruiter. Instead, the NY Dock Co.’s territory was set ablaze by Meehan and the gang and all of his employees were beaten during the Donnybrook in Red Hook.

Making things worse, Thos Carmody showed up alive. Angrily, Wolcott funded Wild Bill Lovett‘s revolt against Dinny Meehan’s White Hand gang in 1917. But again he lost, resulting in both his Italian and Irish employees becoming unionized. Forced to resign, he was subsequently hired as Director of the Waterfront Assembly, created to oversee all waterfront contracts and breakup the gangs and unions. In 1919, Wolcott sent Patrolman Daniel Culkin and his enforcer Amadeusz Wisniewski to find Garry Barry and pay him to burn down Dinny Meehan’s home while in jail, and assume leadership of the White Hand gang with their assistance.

Historical novel Divide the Dawn is available now:
USA – https://tinyurl.com/qrfgozw Eire & UK – https://tinyurl.com/tvkknel Canada – https://tinyurl.com/yxxwgoc9