(1823–78) US politician; known as Boss Tweed. As a New York City official and a state senator 1867–71, he became the leader of Tammany Hall, the executive committee of New York City's Democratic Party and a ring of political corruption, that swindled the state treasury out of as much as $200 million. Convicted in 1873, he fled to Cuba and then Spain, but was extradited in 1876 and returned to a New York jail, where he died.