Early life

Wilkes was born in 1817 in New York state in the United States. His parents may have been George Wilkes, a cabinet maker, and Helen, although this is not certain. The younger Wilkes became a law clerk for Enoch E. Camp, but left the legal profession for journalism. His first efforts were with a series of short-lived newspapers in New York City, the Flash, the Whip, and the Subterranean. He lost a libel case and was sentenced to a term in the city jail, The Tombs

The Tombs

"The Tombs" is the colloquial name for the Manhattan Detention Complex, a jail in Lower Manhattan at 125 White Street, as well as the popular name of a series of preceding downtown jails, the first of which was built in 1838 in the Egyptian Revival style of architecture.The nickname has been used...

. From his experiences there, Wilkes wrote a pamphlet entitled The Mysteries of the Tombs: A Journal of Thirty Days Imprisonment in the N. Y. City Prison, which came out in 1844.

Early writings

In 1845 Wilkes joined forces with Camp, and began the National Police Gazette. Camp and Wilkes operated the Gazette until 1857.

The Gazette quickly became popular, and within a few weeks of its founding had a circulation of 15,000. Collier's Magazine once called the Gazette a most interesting record of "horrid murders, outrageous robberies, bold forgeries, astounding burglaries, hideous rapes, vulgar seductions, and recent exploits of pickpockets and hotel thieves." Because of Wilkes' and Camp's efforts to combat crime in New York through the Gazette, the offices of the newspaper were the subject of attacks by mobs stirred up by criminals.

Also in 1845, Wilkes wrote a History of Oregon, Geographical and Political, which was inaccurate. Notwithstanding this, an extract from the work was published as Project for a National Railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, also in 1845. It was popular, and was in its fourth edition by 1847. In 1849 Wilkes went to California, either with or shortly after his friend David Colbreth Broderick, who left Wilkes his estate. In 1853 Wilkes traveled to Europe, turning the experience into another book, this one entitled Europe in a Hurry.

In 1866, Wilkes and Camp sold the Gazette to George W. Matsell

George W. Matsell

George Washington Matsell was the first New York City Police Commissioner.-Biography:He was born in New York City, New York in 1811 to George Joshua Matsell. His father was an English immigrant from Norfolk. Matsell worked as an apprentice in his father's bookstore during his childhood, eventually...

 who had previously been Chief of Police.

Spirit of the Times

When Wilkes returned from California to New York City, he began to work for William T. Porter

William T. Porter

William Trotter Porter was an American journalist and newspaper editor who founded an early American newspaper devoted to sports. After working at a number of small newspapers, Porter moved to New York City in the 1830s...

 at Porter's newspaper The Spirit of the Times. Porter sold the paper in 1856 to Wilkes, who retained Porter on the newspaper's staff until Porter's death in 1858. Wilkes, however, renamed the paper to Porter's Spirit of the Times, which it remained until 1859. In September 1859, Abraham C. Dayton, who had previously worked for the Spirit, left the paper and because he had purchased a share of the paper at one point from Porter, began publishing a paper he called Porter's Spirit of the Times. Dayton also got a court order preventing Wilkes from using Porter's name, so Wilkes changed the name of the paper to Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, while Dayton published Porter's Spirit of the Times. Dayton was only able to publish until August 1861, however, as Wilkes drove the older paper out of business. Wilkes owned the surviving paper until his death in 1885.

Under Wilkes' ownership, the Spirit, which previously had covered mainly sporting events, expanded its coverage to include political matters. When the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 began in 1861, Wilkes covered the battles also. He was present at the First Battle of Bull Run

First Battle of Bull Run

First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas , was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the City of Manassas...

, and wrote up an account of it. He continued to serve as a war correspondent throughout the war, and contracted the kidney disease which he later died from during his war journalism.

Later life

Wilkes was active in Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 political affairs, and ran for the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 against James Brooks, losing the race in 1870, with Brooks receiving 12,845 votes and Wilkes 7149 votes.

It was Wilkes, along with John Chamberlain and Marcus Cicero Stanley, who introduced parimutuel betting

Parimutuel betting

Parimutuel betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vig" is removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets...

in the United States. Wilkes also was active in promoting boxing, acting as the promoter for some prizefights.

Married twice, Wilkes had two adopted children, George and Alicia. He also had a sister, Catherine and a brother Henry.