Suds Merrick was a New York river pirate and member of the Hook Gang

Hook Gang

The Hook Gang was an American street gang and later river pirates active in New York City during the late-19th century. The gang made up some of the most notorious criminals and thugs on the New York waterfront and were a major force in the old Forth Ward and Corlears' Hook districts during the...

 during the 1870s. Merrick, along with Tommy Shay, James Coffee, and Terry Le Strange, operated in the New York waterfront and involved in burglary and pickpocketing as well as raiding the nearby vessels anchored in the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

. Merrick would co-lead the gang with Le Strange during the early 1870s until the arrest of Sam McCracken, Tommy Bonner, and Johnny Gallagher after they had looted the canal boat Thomas H. Brick and sent to Auburn State Prison in 1874. Following this incident, Merrick turned control of the Hookers to Bum Mahoney although he would remain with the gang in a limited capacity until his death in 1884.