The Redemption of Uncle Richard is in part, an overview of Ms Caton's family lineage that focuses on the history of this intriguing and colorful individual.
After decades of working on her family genealogy, Ms. Caton discovered Richard Croker, Tammany Boss, was indeed her great great, grand uncle, immigrating to the United States from Ireland. She found during her extensive research, many redemptive qualities in this so-called "crime boss", as she found many of the historical summaries depict him for his negative influence and corruption of New York politics. However, this book investigates and illustrates his character in depth, and ultimately finds him to have some significant endearing attributes while it dives head on into his personal life and his political career.
This biography begins in Ireland, way before Richard and his parents immigrated to the United States and continues throughout his tragedies and triumphs both and out of the spotlight.
Ms. Caton was fascinated to learn about the evolution of our political structure here in the United States and how that structure, in many respects, has modeled the past as well as changed very little from the designs of these formative Tammany bosses, one of which is this Uncle, Boss Richard Croker, The Lion of Manhattan.