John Y. McKane began his career as a corrupt politician in a very modest way. As a young man he started a small construction business in the village of Sheepshead Bay. He kept busy building ramshackle bathing establishments and lager-beer saloons for businessmen attracting the summer tourist trade. He was shrewd and knew how to judge character and when to advance credit. When people like the Vanderveers wanted to enter the bathhouse business, he built …showed first 75 words of 3185 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3185 total…the inmates. McKane was released two years early for good behavior from prison on April 30, 1898. He returned to Coney Island but all had changed. He was old and embittered and his friends were gone. He began selling life insurance policies to keep busy for he didn't need the money; there were plenty of mortgages that were in his wife's name. He suffered a stroke in August 1899 and died after a second stroke a month later.