 A photo of David Hennessey, courtesy of the Tulane University's Louisiana Collection. David C. Hennessey (??-1890) was the police chief of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1888 until his death. Image File history File links Hennessy File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File links Hennessy File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ...
Chief of Police in United States usage is the title typically given to the head of a police department. ...
Nickname: The Crescent City, The Big Easy, The City That Care Forgot Location in the State of Louisiana and the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Louisiana Parish Orleans Founded 1718 Mayor Ray Nagin (D) Area - City 350. ...
1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ...
His death, supposedly at the hands of Italian immigrants, was the catalyst of a large anti-Italian lynching in New Orleans. Anti-Italianism is a hostility toward Italian people and Italian culture. ...
Lynching is a term loosely applied to various forms of violence, usually murder, conceived by its perpetrators as extra-legal punishment of offenders by a summary procedure, ignoring, or even contrary to, the strict forms of law, notably execution, or used as a terrorist method of enforcing social domination. ...
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. The barrel murders was the name used in the American media for a method of execution used by early American mafiosi in the 1870s. ...
A secret society is an organization that requires its members to conceal certain activities—such as rites of initiation—from outsiders. ...
For other uses, see Mafia (disambiguation). ...
Assassination is the deliberate killing of an important person, usually a political figure or other strategically important individual. ...
October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years). ...
1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ...
A frameup refers to the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence in order to prove someone guilty of a crime. ...
An Italian-American is an American of Italian descent. ...
His dying words to another officer were reported to have been "Dagos did it", dago being an insulting slur for Italians. Look up dago in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
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. 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...
In the common law legal system, an indictment is a formal charge of having committed a serious criminal offence. ...
For with(out) prejudice in law, see Prejudice (law). ...
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." Riots occur when crowds of people have gathered and are committing crimes or acts of violence usually due to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. ...
Lynching is a term loosely applied to various forms of violence, usually murder, conceived by its perpetrators as extra-legal punishment of offenders by a summary procedure, ignoring, or even contrary to, the strict forms of law, notably execution, or used as a terrorist method of enforcing social domination. ...
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. Organized crime is crime carried out systematically by formal criminal organizations. ...
This article is about race as an intraspecies classification. ...
An ethnic group is a group of people who identify with one another, or are so identified by others, on the basis of a boundary that distinguishes them from other groups. ...
The death of Hennessey became a rally cry by law enforcement and nativists to stop the immigration of Italians into America. The term Nativism is used in both politics and psychology in two fundamentally different ways. ...
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.
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See also
[edit] Anti-Italianism is a hostility toward Italian people and Italian culture. ...
Charles Lucky Luciano, one of the most famous American bosses (La) Cosa Nostra (our thing or this thing of ours in Italian) is a worldwide alliance of criminals, linked through both familial and conspiratorial ties, that is dedicated to pursuing crime and protecting its members. ...
Look up dago in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Lynching is a term loosely applied to various forms of violence, usually murder, conceived by its perpetrators as extra-legal punishment of offenders by a summary procedure, ignoring, or even contrary to, the strict forms of law, notably execution, or used as a terrorist method of enforcing social domination. ...
In the United States, Lynching, i. ...
Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left) and Nicola Sacco (right) Nicola Sacco (real name: Fernando) (April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were two Italian-born American anarchists, who were arrested, tried, and executed via electrocution in the American state of Massachusetts. ...
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
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