Dead Rabbits
| Named After | A dead rabbit interpreted as an omen (later account) |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founder | Not established |
| Founding Location | Five Points, Manhattan, New York City |
| Territory | Five Points and nearby Lower Manhattan |
| Lineage | |
| Predecessor(s) | Roach Guards (later account) |
| Profile | |
| Ethnicity | Irish American |
| Activities | Street fighting Political violence Rioting (attributed) |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Kit Burns (later account) Tommy Hadden (later account) |
| Notable Members | Hell-Cat Maggie (traditional or disputed accounts) John Morrissey (traditional or disputed accounts) Black Dog (traditional or disputed accounts) Jack the Rat (traditional or disputed accounts) |
| Rivals | Bowery Boys |
| Activity | |
| Status | Defunct; existence as a distinct organization disputed |
| Years Active | 1830s–1850s (reported) |
| Founded Date | 1830s (reported) |
| Dissolved Date | 1850s (reported) |
The Dead Rabbits were described in nineteenth-century newspapers and later histories as an Irish-American street gang associated with the Five Points neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. Traditional accounts place the group from the 1830s through the 1850s, link it to fighting and political violence, and identify the nativist Bowery Boys as its principal rival.[1]
History
[edit]Herbert Asbury's influential 1928 popular history describes the Dead Rabbits as a faction that split from the Irish-American Roach Guards after an internal dispute. In his telling, a dead rabbit thrown into a meeting was taken as an omen by the departing faction, which adopted the name and a red trouser stripe.[2] This colorful origin story is a later account, not firmly established by contemporary evidence.
The name became especially prominent during the Dead Rabbits riot of July 4–5, 1857. Fighting around Bayard Street and the Bowery grew from gang confrontations into a broader disturbance while New York's rival Municipal and Metropolitan police forces were in conflict. State militia units eventually restored order.[3]
Members and alleged associates
[edit]Because the group's status and membership are disputed, these associations vary in reliability:
- Kit Burns and Tommy Hadden — identified by Asbury as former Dead Rabbits leaders who later moved into the Fourth Ward underworld.[2]
- Hell-Cat Maggie — identified by Asbury and later histories as a Dead Rabbits fighter; many details are folkloric.[2]
- John Morrissey — boxer, gambler and politician associated with the gang in later accounts; formal membership is uncertain.
- Black Dog — identified in later lore, but no contemporary biography has been located.
- Jack the Rat — underworld performer and Burns's son-in-law; formal Dead Rabbits membership has not been established.
Historical dispute
[edit]Historian Tyler Anbinder argues that a distinct gang called the Dead Rabbits may not have existed. In his reconstruction, newspapers and Bowery informants applied the expression to members of the Roach Guards and other Five Points fighters during the 1857 violence. The name should therefore be treated as disputed rather than as an uncontested formal organization.[4]
Legacy
[edit]The Dead Rabbits became a durable symbol of the Five Points underworld. Asbury's book helped popularize the traditional account, which was later heavily fictionalized in Martin Scorsese's film Gangs of New York (2002).
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Carter F. Smith, Gangs and the Military (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), p. 11.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York (Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), chapters 1–3.
- ↑ Nate Hendley, American Gangsters, Then and Now (ABC-CLIO, 2009), pp. 65–66.
- ↑ Tyler Anbinder, Five Points (Free Press, 2001), pp. 353–354.