Sadie Farrell

Sadie Farrell was born and raised in the Fourth Ward near the East River, known today as the Lower East Side. Sadie made a name for herself in the 1860s among the street hustlers and thieves for her signature tactics of charging and headbutting her victims in the stomach before robbing them. This iconic move earned her the moniker “Sadie the Goat.”

According to popular folklore, Sadie met her match “Gallus Mag”, a six-foot-tall female bouncer, at the Hole-in-the-Wall bar where an altercation ensued. After the two engaged in slurs (on Sadie’s end) and blows (on Mag’s end), Gallus Mag ended the fight by biting Sadie’s ear off. Mag plopped her ear in a jar of pickle juice and proudly displayed it on the bar. 

Leaving the Fourth Ward out of embarrassment, Sadie took her talents to the West Side where she took charge of the Charlton Street Gang who were in much need of some leadership. Under Sadie, the gang set off flying the Jolly Roger. They wreaked havoc up and down the Hudson and Harlem rivers, making them the notorious "River Pirates".

Sadie retired back to the Fourth Ward as “Queen of the Waterfront”. She went back to Hole-in-the-Wall bar to make up with Mag and as a truce, Mag gave Sadie her pickled ear. Sadie wore her ear in a locket for the rest of her life. 

Sadie’s Ward stands as a tribute to the indomitable spirit of Sadie Farrell and the era she once ruled.

Cheers to Sadie the GOAT & our Queen of the Waterfront!