article_snippet.sent: the New York Police Department's first chief of police, William Devery, who held the post from 1898-1901, was known as the king of kickbacks.
article_snippet.sent: A former bar tender, Devery had to give a backhander just to get into the force, and was never shy about trading dollars for ranks, the New York Post reported.
article_snippet.sent: In his early career, when taking command of a lower East Side Police Precinct, Devery was recorded as saying that there was a great deal of 'grafting' going on among his subordinates and that his would put a stop to it so his could line his own pockets.
article_snippet.sent: On the back of bribes paid to his Devery was able to buy a baseball team, the New York Highlanders, a forerunner to the New York Yankees, which his eventually sold for $300,000 in 1915.
article_snippet.sent: Devery (left) was the king of kickbacks