He is alleged to have been somewhat of an underworld figure, under the alias Paddy Corcoran, founding the "Rag Gang", which operated with his sons on the Manhattan waterfront during the late 19th century.
Frequent fighting led to altercations with police, whom the squatters often turn against to the amusement of onlookers, and Corcoran would often put up bail for offenders and was reputed to have "a caustic tongue and a ready wit" when he arrived at the local station house.
[citation needed] The Corcoran family eventually left the colony and moved to a nearby brick house on East 40th Street but remained involved in the shanty's affairs for another two decades.
[citation needed] After his wife's death, Corcoran lived for another year before he died at his home "shrived and regretted" on November 12, 1900, age 80.
The earth from Dutch Hill was later partly used to construct present-day Cob Dock at the New York Navy Yard and its site became a tenement district.