David Hennessey
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David C. Hennessey (??-1890) was the police chief of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1888 until his death.
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.
His dying words to another officer were reported to have been "Dagos did it", Dagos being insulting slang for Italians.
This killing became the first widely publicized Mafia incident in the United States, and resulted in hundreds of arrests and a major trial in 1891 in New Orleans in which nineteen people were indicted.
A riot occurred after those indicted were acquitted, with a mob lynching the accused along with a number of other Italian Americans, some at least likely not involved. The lynching was one of the largest mass lynchings in Southern history.
For decades after, New Orleans children of other ethnicities would often taunt Italian Americans with the phrase, "Who kill-a the Chief?"
See also
- Anti-Italianism
- Cosa Nostra
- Dago
- Italian Americans
- Italian people
- Lynching
- Lynching in the United States
- Sacco and Vanzetti
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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