James T. "Biff" Ellison (born 1862) was an early New York City gangster and member of the Five Points Gang. The City of New York The Five Points Gang was a 19th-century Criminal organization based in the Sixth Ward ( The Five Points) of New York City.

Biff Ellison, a former member and would be leader of the Five Point Gang.

A long time member of the gang, he was later closely affiliated with gang leader Jack Sirocco (or Cirocco) while a member of the Five Pointers during the gang wars against the Eastman Gang during the 1900s. Jack Sirocco (1882 - 1954 was a New York gangster involved in labor Racketeering and Strikebreaking. The Eastman Gang was the last of New York's street gangs which dominated the city's underworld during the late 1890s until early 1910s

He had first come into prominence in the gang after assaulting police officer Jeremiah Murphy while in Sharkey's, a Fourteenth Street saloon, and was so severely beaten that he was left in a hospital for four weeks. As a result, Ellison was convicted of first degree assault in 1902.

On November 23, 1909, he and three other men including Razor Reilly and Jimmy Kelly attempted to gain control of the gang by attempting to murder then gang leader Paul Kelly while at his club the New Brighton drinking with bodyguards Pat "Rough House" Hogan and William J. Harrington. Paul Kelly (1876 - 1936 was a New York criminal who founded the Five Points Gang, one of the last dominant street gangs in New York history and recruited William James Harrington was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. Although Kelly was able to escape from Ellison and Hogan, his bodyguard Harrington was killed in the crossfire. He was tried before the Criminal Branch of the New York Supreme Court and later convicted of first degree manslaughter on June 8, 1911.

The trial itself, in which gang members Pat Hogan and George Wetzel testified against Kelly, saw around fifty members of the "James Kelly" gang and seventy-five members of the Five Points Gang were in attendance. Concerned whether their presence might influence the verdict, they were later forced to leave.

During the trial, Ellison made threats to a court officer regarding Hogan as well as prosecutors stating that he would not rest ". . until those prosecuting guys has got theirs. " if he were found guilty. He later died in the insane asylum in the 1920s (the exact date is uncertain).

Ellison is a minor character in the 1994 novel The Alienist by Caleb Carr. The Alienist is a Crime novel by Caleb Carr first published in 1994 Caleb Carr (born August 2, 1955) is an American novelist and military historian

References

• "Ellison Convicted Of Manslaughter". New York Times 09 Jun. 1909