Dead Rabbits
| Origins | |
|---|---|
| Founder | Tommy Lynch (claimed in some modern lists; unverified) |
| Founding Location | Five Points, Manhattan, New York City |
| Territory | Five Points and nearby Lower Manhattan |
| Profile | |
| Ethnicity | Irish American |
| Activities | Street fighting, political violence and rioting (attributed) |
| Politics | |
| Notable Members | Hell-Cat Maggie (traditional account); John Morrissey (attributed) |
| Rivals | Bowery Boys |
| Activity | |
| Years Active | 1830s–1850s (reported) |
| Founded Date | 1830s (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
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.
Some modern lists name Tommy Lynch as a founder, but reliable histories reviewed do not corroborate the claim. Asbury instead identifies a man of that name as the Gas House Gang's last leader in 1914, decades after the Dead Rabbits' reported period.[2] The two claims should not be conflated.
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
Because the group's status and membership are disputed, these associations vary in reliability:
- 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.
- Slobbery Jim — a documented leader of the Daybreak Boys, not a confirmed Dead Rabbits member.
- Jack the Rat — Richard Toner, an underworld performer linked to Kit Burns's Water Street saloon; no confirmed Dead Rabbits membership.
- Black Dog — an unverified nickname appearing in later retellings; no documented identity has been established.
Historical dispute
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
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
References
- ↑ Carter F. Smith, Gangs and the Military: Gangsters, Bikers, and Terrorists with Military Training (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), p. 11.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld (Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), chapter 1.
- ↑ Nate Hendley, American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2009), pp. 65–66.
- ↑ Tyler Anbinder, Five Points: The 19th-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum (Free Press, 2001), pp. 353–354.