Born in the ghettos of Chicago, Bill Byrne grew up on the mean streets, and became "a mucker, a hoodlum, a gangster, a thug, a tough." He was a violent criminal with almost no morals at all, no respect for the law, and absolute disdain for the wealthy . After he was falsely accused of a Chicago murder, he ran to San Fransisco and from there, he was shanghaied into serivce on a pirate's ship. While on the ship, he was forced to become sober and learned to carry his own weight with hard labor. The ship ended up raiding a millionaire's yacht and kidnapping the rich man's daughter, Barbara Harding, for ransom. Billy brutally beat Barbara's fiance, Bill Mallory, and Barbara stood up to Byrne, calling him a coward. Barbara's opinion of him began to make Byrne re-evaluate his life and change his