Bio: M.F. Mullins

M.F. Mullins. Champion Beef Dresser of the World. Known to fully butcher an 1,800 pound steer in roughly 7 minutes.

Mr. M.F. Mullins was born in New York, 1863. As a young man of 18 years, he joined the butchering operation of Swift & Co. in Indiana. When he was hired the company ran at a leisurely 60 head of cattle a day. By the time Mullins found his calling, he saw the quota rise to nearly 7,000 a day. Much of the success witnessed by the Swift shareholders can be attributed to Mullins' mind blowing speed with a knife. He was considered the undisputed fastest butcher in the world and demonstrated his marvelous skill in front of awestruck crowds countless times in his career.

The first contest he entered was the Butchers Exhibition in Chicago of 1883. He competed against eight of the world's top dressers and was awarded first prize. He would go on to win first prize again in 1887, 1889, and twice in 1890 (in front of 15,000 people, no less). It was obvious that no man in the world could best him. Above is an ad showing the types of knives that would have been used in his time.

He would go on to display his talents in educational demonstrations for agriculture classes throughout the country. One such class was held in Des Moines, Iowa (1902) in front of hundreds of students using cattle purchased from the Omaha Union Stockyards, considered to be the highest quality beef in the world one could purchase at the turn of the century.

Could he have been the inspiration for cinematic badass, Bill "The Butcher" Cutting? Yep.