David C. Hennessy
New Orleans Chief of Police, shot near midnight on 15 October 1890 and dead the next morning; the 1890 newspaper pages here report the shooting and the arrests, and the State Department's later correspondence calls the prosecution the case of the murder of 'Chief D. C. Hennessy.'
- Died
- 1890-10-16
- Aliases
- David C. Hennessey (spelling in several 1890-91 papers), Dave Hennessy
- Role
- Chief of police of New Orleans: a list of 17 December 1890 printed in the State Department's correspondence names the Italians "charged with the murder of Chief D. C. Hennessy" (Foreign Relations of the United States, 1891, Document 614).
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records and the filed newspaper pages state.
On the record
- 17 October 1890 — The St. Paul Daily Globe reported from New Orleans on 16 October that Chief of Police David C. Hennessy was shot down by three men shortly before 12 o'clock the night before and died at 9 o'clock that morning at the Charity Hospital; it said the assassination was "supposed" to be the work of Italians whose vendettas he had determined to suppress. A newspaper's supposition, not a finding.
- 17 October 1890 — The Beatrice Daily Express printed a statement attributed to Capt. William J. O'Connor placing the shooting near the corner of Girard (Girod) and Basin streets, with the chief found on a doorstep on Basin Street saying "Dagoes." A reported statement; the word is quoted as printed.
- 21 October 1890 — Secretary of State Blaine telegraphed Governor Nicholls the Italian minister's request that the law "punish the murderers of the chief of police" (FRUS 1891, Document 602).
- 15 March 1891 — The Indianapolis Journal reprinted an interview attributed to William A. Pinkerton saying Hennessy had been a messenger boy in the police department, later worked with Col. Thomas Boylan in a detective agency, and was made superintendent of police when Mayor Shakespeare took office. One detective's recollection reprinted in a newspaper.
The papers spell the name Hennessy and Hennessey; one calls him Dave Hennessy. This page records the shooting and its immediate reporting from the pages filed. Accounts of the motive are the press’s assertions, which this archive does not adopt, and the 1890-91 papers’ statements about a secret society are quoted as the papers’ claims only. The killings of March 1891 and the verdict are described on the clipping pages and in the State Department’s correspondence.
Records
clippingArizona Republican, 17 October 1890, page 1: Policeman killedA short telegraphic item datelined New Orleans, October 16, reporting that Police Chief David C. Hennessy was fatally shot at midnight near the corner of Basin and Girod Streets, with the assailants unknown.
clippingSt. Paul Daily Globe, 17 October 1890, page 1: Died of His WoundsA New Orleans dispatch of 16 October reports that Chief of Police David C. Hennessy, shot down by three men shortly before midnight, died at 9 o'clock that morning at the Charity Hospital; the paper says the assassination was supposed to be the work of Italians.
clippingNew-York Tribune, 17 October 1890, page 2: Assassination in New-OrleansA special dispatch of 16 October reports that Chief of Police Hennessy was shot at midnight by assailants posted on Rampart and Basin streets and died hours later; nine men were in jail by daylight. The paper repeats a claim that an Italian society orders assassinations.
clippingThe Sun (New York), 17 October 1890, page 1: report on the shooting and death of Chief of Police HennessyFront-page New Orleans report on the shooting of Chief of Police David C. Hennessy near midnight and his death the next morning; it says two groups of men lay in wait, that he fired back, and that arrests of Italians followed, and repeats allegations about societies called the 'Mafia' and 'Stoppaglieri.'
clippingBeatrice Daily Express, 17 October 1890, page 3: Chief of Police Hennessy of New Orleans AssassinatedA wire report prints a statement attributed to Capt. William J. O'Connor that, after parting from the chief at Girard (Girod) Street, he heard shotgun reports from a house at the corner of Girard and Basin streets and found the chief on a doorstep, who said 'Dagoes.'
clippingFort Worth Daily Gazette, 17 October 1890, page 4: Italians Did ItA special dispatch dated 16 October under the heading 'Italians Did It' gives the same account as the Tribune: an ambush on Rampart and Basin streets, six wounds, nine suspicious Italians in jail by daylight, one witness who identified three. The subhead repeats a claim about a society ordering murders.
clippingThe Times (Richmond), 18 October 1890, page 1: The Hennessy Homicide. A Bloody Sequel to the Recent AssassinationDispatches of 17 October: a newspaper carrier shot prisoner Antonio Scaffidi in the Parish Prison; 'John Matranga alias Caramba, the leader of the Matranga faction' was arrested as an accessory; the paper describes the Provenzano and Matranga factions; the chief lay in state and was buried.itemList of those whose status is unknown, U.S. Attorney William Grant, New Orleans, 17 December 1890 (FRUS 1891, Document 614)U.S. Attorney William Grant's list of nine Italian-born men 'in custody, charged with the murder of Chief D. C. Hennessy' who do not appear from any record to have been naturalized, with their ages; the companion to the registered-voters list.