43 Facts About George Wilkes

George Wilkes was an American journalist and newspaper editor.

In 1856 George Wilkes bought a sporting newspaper called the Spirit of the Times, which he had previously worked for.

George Wilkes wrote a couple of books on non-sporting topics, and introduced pari-mutuel betting to the United States.

George Wilkes was born in 1817 in the state of New York in the United States.

George Wilkes's family was likely of Irish origin and he had a working class background.

George Wilkes left the legal profession for journalism, first working for a series of short-lived newspapers in New York City, the Flash, the Whip, and the Subterranean.

The scholar Donna Dennis says of George Wilkes at this time that he was "a clever writer, with a tempera- ment that was at once ambitious, adventurous, and entrepreneurial".

In 1841 and 1842, George Wilkes was one of a group of writers and publishers who were prosecuted and convicted of "publishing an obscene paper", for their depictions of prostitution in their newspapers.

George Wilkes had been charged with libel, and he pled guilty and printed an apology to the person he was accused of libeling, but he chose to fight the obscenity charge, and went to trial in January 1842.

In 1843, George Wilkes was brought before a judge for violating the previous agreement to stop working for "obscene papers".

George Wilkes had been covering the trial of Walsh as a reporter for Walsh's Subterranean and the district attorney claimed that this constituted a violation of his previous agreement.

George Wilkes returned to the study of law after his stint in jail, and even called himself an attorney for a short time.

In 1845 George Wilkes joined Camp and began the National Police Gazette.

George Wilkes wrote a History of Oregon, Geographical and Political in 1845, which was inaccurate.

In 1848 and 1849, Wilkes wrote a novel, The Lives of Helen Jewett, and Richard P Robinson, loosely based on the life and murder of Helen Jewett, a New York prostitute.

George Wilkes did have access to some of Jewett's letters, which had been held by the district attorney's office since Jewett's murder in 1836 and the subsequent trial.

George Wilkes, who obtained the letters in 1848, acquired the hatchet which had murdered Jewett.

Around 1849 George Wilkes went to California, either with or shortly after his friend David Colbreth Broderick.

George Wilkes was a political advisor of Broderick's, but they quarreled over water issues in 1853 and George Wilkes left California.

George Wilkes then traveled to Europe, turning the experience into another book, this one entitled Europe in a Hurry.

George Wilkes was the recipient of Broderick's estate, and George Wilkes wrote a long eulogy to his friend that appeared in the Spirit in October 1859.

In 1856, George Wilkes briefly took part in William Walker's invasion and seizure of Nicaragua, the Filibuster War.

George Wilkes appears to have spent two months in Central America with Walker, but fled the country in April 1856 when Costa Rica invaded to oust Walker.

Some likely reasons for George Wilkes supporting Walker was the goal of spreading American ideals of equality and the need for land for further American expansion.

George Wilkes had been a member of the National Reform Association which sought to provide land for the urban poor as a way of improving their conditions.

George Wilkes' championing of Walker continued after he left Central America as he organized and took part in groups supporting Walker from New York City.

When Wilkes returned New York City, he began to work for William T Porter's newspaper Spirit of the Times.

Porter sold the paper in 1856 to George Wilkes, who retained Porter on the newspaper's staff until Porter's death in 1858.

George Wilkes renamed the paper to Porter's Spirit of the Times, a title it retained until 1859.

Dayton was only able to publish until August 1861 as George Wilkes drove the other paper out of business.

George Wilkes owned the surviving paper until his death in 1885.

George Wilkes was present at the First Battle of Bull Run which he then narrated for the Spirit.

George Wilkes continued as a correspondent throughout the war, but during the war contracted the kidney disease which he later died.

Wilkes was one of the first newspaper reporters to criticize General George McClellan, printing a series of articles in summer 1862 claiming that the general had pre-war ties efforts to expand slavery and was too sympathetic to Southerners.

George Wilkes claimed that the general did not usually arrive at the battlefield until after the fighting was concluded, a behavior that conflicted with McClellan's jingoistic dispatches.

George Wilkes's widely reprinted reports effectively tarnished McClellan's reputation and it never recovered.

George Wilkes used literary feuds with other newspapers, both in and out of the sporting press, to help his subscription rates.

George Wilkes was active in Republican Party political affairs and ran for the United States Congress against James Brooks, losing the race in 1870, with Brooks receiving 12,845 votes and George Wilkes 7149 votes.

George Wilkes was active in promoting boxing, acting as the promoter for some prizefights.

George Wilkes became involved in an effort to colonize Baja California, becoming trustee of a colonizing company in 1867.

George Wilkes had a sister, Catherine, and a brother, Henry.

George Wilkes died on September 23,1885, in New York City, and was buried on September 26,1885.

Patricia Cohen, author of a history of Helen Jewett's life and murder, described George Wilkes' as having an "articulate wit and a talent for sarcastic social criticism".