David Hennessey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David C. Hennessey (??-1890) was the police chief of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1888 until his death.
His death, supposedly at the hands of Italian immigrants, was the catalyst of a large anti-Italian lynching in New Orleans.
While investigating the barrel murder of an Italian immigrant, he discovered the existence of a secret society operating in New Orleans, the Mafia. After collecting enough evidence to go public, shortly before he could come forward, he was assassinated on October 15, 1890, execution-style. However historians dispute this explanation. Humbert S. Nelli concluded that Hennessey as chief of police was involved in some way regulating organized crime activity. Nelli also concluded that his execution might have been a way to frame Italian Americans.
His dying words to another officer were reported to have been "Dagos did it", dago being an insulting slur for Italians.
This killing became the first widely publicized Mafia incident in the United States, and resulted in hundreds of baseless arrests of newly arrived Italian immigrants and a major trial in 1891 in New Orleans in which nineteen people were indicted. Rumors about the Sicilian "Mafia" trying to take over New Orleans spread throughout the city, adding to the extreme prejudice and fear of the poor Italian immigrants that many native United States citizens had already developed.
A large riot occurred after those indicted were acquitted, with a mob storming the jailhouse and lynching the accused Italians, along with ten other Italians, none of whom had been involved in the case[1]. The lynch mob brutally mutilated the Italian immigrants, apparently shouting, "Hang the dagos!" According to witnesses, the "cheers were deafening."
It is important to note that the Italians lynched were not involved in any organized crime. The lynching is considered just as much - or more- of a racial and ethnic modivated lynching as it is a criminal lynching.
The death of Hennessey became a rally cry by law enforcement and nativists to stop the immigration of Italians into America.
For decades after, New Orleans children of other ethnicities would often taunt Italian Americans with the phrase, "Who kill-a the Chief?"
Consult: Humbert S. Nelli, “The Hennessy Murder and the Mafia in New Orleans.” Italian Quarterly 1975 19(75-76): 77-95.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- New Orleans Know-It-All page on David Hennessy
- A timeline of Mafia activity
- FBI page on history of Mafia activity in United States
- Information about the 1891 New Orleans Mafia trial
- http://www.americanlynching.com/infamous-old.html
Categories: American police chiefs | Assassinated American people | American police officers killed in the line of duty | Murdered police officers | History of New Orleans | Mob-busters | People from New Orleans | History of racism in the United States | Irish-Americans | Year of birth missing | 1890 deaths
