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Which spelling is correct? In this case, the truth is in the
tiles.
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Photo by Eileen Loh Harrist
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Hey Blake,
My husband just rented an office near City Park. It's between
N. Solomon and N. Alexander. Can you guess what street it is, and can you tell
me what the proper spelling is supposed to be? I noticed that the spelling
in the tiles on the street is different from the spelling on the sign on the
posts. I figure the spelling on the tiles is correct.
Cindy Cripps
Dear Cindy,
It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the street where your
husband's office is. It's N. Hennessy. On the corner of Hennessy and Dumaine
streets are the tiles that spell out the name correctly. Apparently, sometimes
the sign makers in the city like to get creative with the names they put
on the signposts. This time they put in an extra "e" and spelled the street "Hennessey." There
are other signs around the city with names misspelled. Go figure.
While the question about the spelling of the name is interesting, it is not as interesting as the story behind the man for whom the street was named: David C. Hennessy, who was shot and killed in an ambush on Oct. 15, 1890.
Hennessy rose to the position of police chief -- appointed after the election of 1888 by Mayor Joseph Shakspeare -- after joining the force as a young man to support his widowed mother.
While Hennessy held the position, ethnic
tension was so thick in New Orleans you could cut it with a knife. Immigrants
arrived by the thousands, and they competed with each other for jobs. One
of the largest groups to immigrate to New Orleans was the Italians. The Sicilians
especially were resented by the other ethnic groups and long-time residents.
Many of them settled in the French Quarter, and one part of Decatur Street
known for its lawlessness and violence became known as "Vendetta Alley."
Hennessy, among others, believed that the Mafia was the cause of much of the trouble, so he made a list of the men he felt to be responsible and ordered their arrests. Bad decision.
One night as he was nearing his home on Basin
Street, he was assassinated. The story about his death is still told today.
While he lay dying on the pavement, he is said to have whispered to Captain
William O'Connor, "Oh,
Billy, Billy. They have given it to me and I gave them back the best I could."
"Who gave it to you, Dave?" O'Connor asked.
"Put your ear down here," Hennessy mumbled. O'Connor leaned down, and Hennessy whispered, "Dagoes."
Almost immediately a hundred suspects were arrested. Eventually, 19 were indicted and charged with murder. The first nine went on trial in February 1891, but nobody was convicted. Facing further charges, the men were returned to Parish Prison.
A newspaper editorial declared, "Rise, outraged
people of New Orleans! Let those who have attempted to sap the very foundation
of your Temples of Justice be in one vengeful hour swept from your midst.
Peaceably if you can, forcibly if you must!"
At a meeting of furious citizens, a persuasive
speaker proclaimed, "When courts fail, the people must act. What protection is there left us when the very head of our police department, our chief of police, is assassinated in our very midst and his assassins are turned loose on the community?" With
this, the crowd turned into a lynch mob, and thousands marched to the prison,
broke in, and summarily executed 11 Italians.
The grand jury brought no charges against
those involved having decided that the action was "a spontaneous uprising
of the people."
For many years after, if you wanted to insult
an Italian, all you had to do was ask, "Who killa da chief?"
Hennessy is buried in Metairie Cemetery.
His tomb is a tall, broken shaft of granite rising from an elevated mound
of grass. The shaft is covered with a pall, and a police belt and club hang
from the top. Near the base is the New Orleans Police Department's familiar
star-and-crescent badge. Under his name is his epitaph: "His life was honorable
and brave. His fidelity to duty was sealed with his death."
And his name is spelled correctly.
