in the city including Isaiah Rynders, prizefighters Yankee Sullivan and Tom Hyer, and minstrel Dan Bryant. Pat Hearne, according to one article by the New York Tribune, won "not less than half a million dollars" at his Broadway casino, but he "loved to play for its own sake"; He was so much of a gambler, in fact, that he lost his house's take more than once, and eventually the gambling-house itself. Eventually, New York too began to go after certain gambling operations as well. A number of gamblers, such as faro dealers, had their establishments seized by authorities and tried by police magistrates at the Court of General Sessions. None of the cases ever went to a conviction with the single exception of a complaint against Pat Hearne. In early 1855, Hearne was apprehended and taken to the Eighth Ward Station-House, where he was detained for the night. Earlier that year, theologian Henry James, Sr. had found his brother John was deeply in debt to Hearne, whom he called the "barracuda of New York gamblers", and who owed Hearne approximately $2,124 at the time of his death. James began writing a series anti-gambling columns for the New York Tribune in which he referred to Hearne and other gamblers as "social vermin". James was also upset that Hearne's gambling resort was located next door to John Jacob Astor's old mansion at 685 Broadway. James, whose father had been a close friend of Astor, asked readers what Astor would have thought if he knew that a "social pest house sat next to his honest mansion". Hearne, at one point, actually purchased the mansion before it was sold to the Buckleys who converted it into their opera house. Then recently elected Mayor of New York Fernando Wood showed little interest in reform or cleaning up the vice districts and Hearne continued to run his establishment. Henry James left New York that same year. His biographer Alfred Habegger believed this may have been due to threats of retaliation from the New York underworld. Hearne was eventually arrested in another gambling raid the following year and, this time, gained his release only after promising to close his gambling resort for good. His release was arraigned by his lawyer Daniel Sickles. Death After the close of his Broadway resort, Hearne retired from gambling and quietly lived with his wife and two adopted daughters at No. 6