Among these was the capture of the confidence man John McDermott whom he pursued through Europe until finally tracking him down at New York's popular Delmonico's on May 28, 1890.

McDermott was dining with Sir Robert Peel and Viscount Clifford Talbot, having befriended them on his return voyage to the United States, when McClusky confronted the trickster.

One summer evening, he visited the Hotel Knickerbocker wearing "a straw hat of a colored check pattern with a six-inch brim".

A few days later, McClusky allegedly saw his hat in a Broadway store under a sign which read "Step in and buy a Merry Widow.

The arrests were met by fierce and violent fighting which in some cases, again according to the New York Times, ended only when suspects heads were "slammed into the pavement to overcome resistance".

Petto, the Times claimed, had "fought like a wild beast" until a police officer knocked him out in "a stunning blow" with a blackjack.

[3] He later marched the Morellos through the streets of Little Italy, a move that has been described as an early version of the perp walk that later become a common practice of law enforcement in New York and the country as a whole.

Flynn criticized McClusky's recklessness, noting the mobsters now had time to "get their stories straight", however the NYPD had brought significant attention to organized crime in New York.

Vito Cascio Ferro fled from the city, living in New Orleans for a time, before returning to Sicily where he resided as a powerful figure in the Mafia for several decades.

[3] On May 20, 1904 McCluskey came upon a vaudeville performer named Lew Dockstader who, on the streets of New York, was making a Kinetoscope film with the Edison Kinetscope Company.

Dockstader agreed to turn the film over to the New York City Police Department to be forwarded to Washington, and then destroyed.

[1] McCluskey was present when the survivors of the Titanic were received by Mayor William J. Gaynor and Commissioner Waldo, the police inspector handling crowd control with 12 mounted police officers and a squad of plainclothes men who established an area covering a two-block radius which was closed to the general public barring passes from the federal government or the Cunard line.

It was first believed he had become sick with ptomaine poisoning after eating shellfish at a recent shore dinner and took a leave of absence on September 18.

[1] Although his last wishes were to have a small and quiet ceremony with no oration, the large attendance and number of floral tributes made the service more elaborate than was intended.