David Hennessy

For the British politician, see David Hennessy, 3rd Baron Windlesham. For the journalist and novelist, see John David Hennessey.

David Hennessy
Born	1858 New Orleans, USA
Died	October 16, 1890 (aged 31–32) New Orleans, USA
Relatives	Margaret and David Hennessy Sr. (Mother/Father)
Police career
Department	New Orleans Police Department
Rank	Police chief
Other work	Killed in the line of duty

David C. Hennessy (1858 – October 16, 1890) was a police chief of New Orleans, Louisiana. As a young detective, he made headlines in 1881 when he captured a notorious Italian criminal, Giuseppe Esposito. In 1888, he was promoted to superintendent and chief of police. While in office he made a number of improvements to the force, and was well known and respected in the New Orleans community.

His assassination in 1890 led to a sensational trial. A series of acquittals and mistrials angered locals, and an enormous mob formed outside the prison the next day. The prison doors were forced open and 11 of the 19 Italian men who had been indicted for Hennessy's murder were lynched. The March 14, 1891 lynchings were the largest known mass lynching in U.S. history.

Early life

David C. Hennessy was born to Margaret and David Hennessy Sr., 275 Girod St., New Orleans. David Sr. was a member of the First Louisiana Cavalry of the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. After the war, he was a member of the Metropolitan Police, a New Orleans force under the authority of the governor of Louisiana. This force was considered a form of occupation army by local white supremacists because they protected the right of African Americans to vote, in accordance with the Fifteenth Amendment. David Sr. was murdered in 1869 by a fellow member of the Metropolitan Police named Arthur Guerin, leaving young David fatherless at the age of eleven.

Career

Hennessy joined the New Orleans police force as a messenger in 1870. While only a teenager, he caught two adult thieves in the act, beat them with his bare hands, and dragged them to the police station. He made detective at the age of 20.

With his cousin Michael Hennessy, he arrested the notorious Italian bandit and fugitive Giuseppe Esposito in 1881. Esposito was wanted in Italy for kidnapping a British tourist and cutting off his ear, among numerous other crimes. Esposito was deported to Italy, where he was given a life sentence.

In 1882, Hennessy was tried for the murder of New Orleans Chief of Detectives Thomas Devereaux. At the time, both men were candidates for the position of chief. Hennessy argued self-defense and was found not guilty. Hennessy left the department afterwards and joined a private security firm given police powers by the city. He handled security for the New Orleans World Fair of 1884–1885. The New York Times noted that Hennessy's men were, "neatly uniformed and are a fine-looking and intelligent body of men, far superior to the regular city force."

In 1888, Joseph A. Shakspeare, the nominee of the Young Men's Democratic Association, was elected mayor of New Orleans with Republican support. Having promised to end police inefficiency, Shakspeare promptly appointed Hennessy as his police chief.

Hennessy inherited a police force that was (according to the local press) incompetent and plagued by corruption. Under his supervision, it began to show signs of improvement.

Assassination

Hennessy memorial tomb

On the evening of October 15, 1890, Hennessy was shot by several gunmen as he walked home from work. Hennessy returned fire and chased his attackers before collapsing. When asked who had shot him, Hennessy reportedly whispered to Captain William O'Connor, "Dagoes." Hennessy was awake in the hospital for several hours after the shooting, and spoke to friends, but did not name the shooters. The next day complications set in and he died.

There had been an ongoing feud between the Provenzano and Mantranga families, who were business rivals on the New Orleans waterfront. Hennessy had put several of the Provenzanos in prison, and their appeal trial was coming up. According to some reports, Hennessy had been planning to offer new evidence at the trial which would clear the Provenzanos and implicate the Mantrangas. If true, this would mean that the Mantrangas, and not the Provenzanos, had a motive for the murder. A policeman who was a friend of Hennessy's later testified that Hennessy had told him he had no such plans. In any case, it was widely believed that Hennessy's killers were Italian. Local papers such as the Times-Democrat and the Daily Picayune freely blamed "Dagoes" for the murder.

Aftermath

Main article: March 14, 1891 lynchings

Hennessy had been popular in New Orleans, and the pressure to catch his killers was intense. The police responded by arresting dozens of local Italians. Eventually 19 men were indicted for the murder and held without bail in the Parish Prison. The following March, nine of the accused men were tried. A series of acquittals and mistrials angered locals, and an enormous mob formed outside the prison the next day. The prison doors were forced open and 11 of the men were lynched. The incident strained U.S.-Italian relations for a time, but was eventually settled with a cash indemnity.

Press coverage of the assassination and lynching was sensational and anti-Italian in tone, and generally would not meet modern journalistic standards. It was almost universally assumed that the lynched men were Mafia assassins who had deserved their fate. Since then, many historians have questioned this assumption.

The lynchings were the subject of the 1999 HBO movie Vendetta, starring Christopher Walken. The movie is based on a 1977 book by Richard Gambino.

On November 24, 1893, John Williams, an African-American, was sentenced to life in prison for the rape of the 10-year-old, Rafael D'Amico. Williams was one of the state witnesses in the Hennessy murder trial. Ironically, Joseph Shakespeare had ordered the sentence. Hennessy is buried in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans.

External links

• "Shot Down at His Door; The Chief of the New-Orleans Police Brutally Murdered"; The New York Times, October 17, 1890
• "Crimes of the Mafias. The Suspected Assassins of Chief Hennessy"; The New York Times, October 20, 1890
• "Indictments Found at Last; The New-Orleans Grand Jury Acts on Chief Hennessy's Murder"; The New York Times, November 22, 1890
• "Chief Hennessy Avenged; Eleven of His Italian Assassins Lynched by a Mob"; The New York Times, March 15, 1891
• "Signor Corte's Farewell; His Story of the Lynching of the Italians"; The New York Times, May 24, 1891
• crescentcity lynchings
• Persico, Joseph E., "Vendetta in New Orleans"; American Heritage Magazine, June 1973