Kevin "Corky" Corcoran was an Irish-American NYPD detective and American Civil War veteran who lived in the Five Points section of Manhattan, New York City during the late 19th century.
Biography[]
Kevin Corcoran was born in Ireland, and he immigrated to the United States as a boy and came of age in the rough Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. He became a prize fighter before joining the Union Army at the start of the American Civil War. Corcoran saved the life of wealthy Yankee heir Robert Morehouse at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, amputating Morehouse's leg before he could succumb to his wounds. In December 1863, the two men were mustered out of the army, by which time Corcoran had learned that his wife Ellen had disappeared and that his daughter Maggie had been murdered. Corcoran devoted himself to finding out who kidnapped his wife and killed his daughter.
In 1864, he took in the orphaned prostitute Annie Reilly as his adoptive daughter of sorts and avenged the murder of her sister by the businessman Winfred Haverford, foiled a bank robbery, battled the Roderick Gang, learned that his friend Francis Maguire had had an affair with Ellen and paid for her to have an abortion that caused her to become mentally unstable (and that she pushed and killed her daughter Maggie), and thwarted the Confederate Army of Manhattan's attempt to destroy New York City with Greek Fire. 1865 saw Tammany Hall ward boss Brendan Donovan employ Corcoran to deal with the violent brothel owner Buzzy Burke, and Corcoran also investigated the murder and kidnapping of seven boys press-ganged by Union Army recruiters, rescued Annie from the counterfeiter Philomen Keating, worked with Maguire to investigate a father-and-son murder, and eventually battled Donovan's corrupt political machine.