Just saw this in the AWADmail:
From: Hugh Rawson and Margaret Miner (hugh.rawsonATsnet.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--tenderloin

Some details on "tenderloin:: The New York City policeman who gave the midtown Manhattan district (the 29th precinct) its nickname was Alexander S. "Clubber" Williams (1839-1917). Previously a patrolman in Hell's Kitchen on the West Side, then a captain in the Gas House district on the East Side, Williams is said to have remarked to a friend upon learning of his transfer to midtown, where the opportunities for graft were much richer, "I've had nothing but chuck steak for a long time, and now I'm going to get a little bit of tenderloin." Williams rose to inspector and resigned (under fire) a wealthy man, with a yacht and estate in Connecticut, despite his relatively meager salary over the years. He earned his own nickname, "Clubber", through his usual method of enforcing the law, as indicated by another statement attributed to him: "There is more law at the end of a policeman's nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court." See Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York and our own Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations, scheduled for publication toward the end of this year.