Biography:
Sadie Farrell (fl. 1869) was an alleged semi-folklorish American criminal, gang leader, and river pirate known under the pseudonym Sadie the Goat. She is believed to have been a vicious street mugger in New York’s Bloody Fourth Ward. Upon encountering a lone traveler, Sadie would headbutt the man in the stomach, imitating a charging goat, while her male accomplice would hit the victim with a slungshot and rob him.
According to popular underworld lore, Sadie was engaged in a long-time feud with a tough, six-feet-tall female bouncer known as Gallus Mag. Mag bit off Sadie’s ear in a bar fight, as she had done with male troublemakers before. This incident forced Sadie to leave the area in disgrace and eventually led her to the waterfront area in West Side Manhattan.
While wandering the dockyards in the spring of 1869, Sadie witnessed members of the Charlton Street Gang attempting to board a small sloop anchored in mid-river. Seeing the men being driven back by the ship’s crew, she offered her services and became the gang’s leader. Within days, Sadie engineered the successful hijacking of a larger sloop, with the Jolly Roger flag flying proudly from the masthead. Along with her crew, she set sail up and down the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, raiding small villages, robbing farmhouses and riverside mansions, and occasionally kidnapping men, women, and children for ransom. It is even said she forced some male prisoners to walk the plank.
For several months, Sadie and her crew continued their criminal activities, stashing their loot in various hiding spots along the Hudson and East Rivers. They gradually disposed of their stolen goods through fences and pawn shops. However, by the end of the summer, the farmers had begun resisting the raids, fighting back with gunfire. Faced with mounting resistance, Sadie and her gang abandoned the sloop and she returned to the Fourth Ward, where she had gained a fearsome reputation as the Queen of the Waterfront.
During her time in the Fourth Ward, Sadie claimed to have made a truce with her former enemy, Gallus Mag. Mag returned Sadie’s ear, which she had preserved in a pickled jar and displayed in the bar. Sadie kept the ear in a locket and wore it around her neck for the rest of her life, serving as a twisted memento of her past.
While the details of Sadie Farrell’s criminal exploits and her role as a river pirate may be embellished through folklore, her story remains an intriguing tale from the criminal underworld of 19th-century New York. Her alleged feats of daring, including hijacking a sloop and raiding villages, add color to the history of the era. Although it is challenging to separate fact from fiction, Sadie’s legendary status as a fearsome criminal and her unique nickname, Sadie the Goat, have made her a figure of fascination in popular culture.