Dead Rabbits

The Dead Rabbits were a gang in New York City in the 1850s, originally part of the Roache or Roach Guards, organized to honor the name of a Five Points liquor seller. Internal dissension developed, however, and at one of the Roach Guards' stormy meetings someone threw a dead rabbit into the center of the room. One of the squabbling factions accepted it as an omen and its members withdrew, forming an independent gang and calling themselves the Dead Rabbits. (The word "Rabbit" is the phonetic spelling of the Irish word Ráibéad, a big hulking fellow. "Dead" is a slang intensifier meaning "very." Thus, "Dead Ráibéad" means a "very big lug" in the Irish American vernacular of NYC in 1857.) Sometimes they were also known as the Black Birds, and achieved great renown for their prowess as thieves and thugs. The battle uniform of the Roache Guards was a blue stripe on their pantaloons, while the Dead Rabbits adopted a red stripe, and at the head of their sluggers carried a dead rabbit impaled on a spike. The Rabbits and the Guards swore undying enmity and constantly fought each other at the Points, but in the rows with the water-front and Bowery Boys they made common cause against the enemy, as did other Five Points gangs including the Plug Uglies, Shirt Tails, and Chichesters.

Related Topics:
New York City - 1850s - Roach Guards - Five Points - Irish - Irish American - Bowery Boys - Plug Uglies - Shirt Tails - Chichesters

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New York's Democrats were divided into two camps, those who supported Mayor Fernando Wood, and those who opposed him. The Bowery gangs were one of the latter while the Dead Rabbits were proponents of Wood. Thus the Bowery boys threw their support in league with state Republicans who proposed legislation that would strip Wood of certain powers and place them in the hands of Albany. One of these proposals was to disband the Municipal Police Department, in which Wood's supporters had a controlling interest, and replace it with a state-run Metropolitan Police Department. Wood refused to disband his Municipal Department, and so for the first half of 1857, the two rival departments battled it out on the streets of the city until the courts ordered the Municipals to disband that July. On July 4th a bloody fight occurred with the Metropolitan Police and the Bowery gangs against the Municipal Police, Mulberry Street Boys, Roach Guard, and Dead Rabbits in Bayard Street.

Related Topics:
Democrats - Fernando Wood - Republicans - Municipal Police Department - 1857 - July 4th - Mulberry Street Boys

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The story of the Dead Rabbits is told, in highly fictionalized form, in the film Gangs of New York.

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