Dead Rabbits

The Dead Rabbits were a gang in New York City, USA, originally part of the Roache or Roach Guards, organized to honor the name of a Five Points liquor seller. But internal dissension developed, and at one of the gang's 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 (in the slang of the period a rabbit was a rowdy, and a dead rabbit was a very rowdy, athletic fellow.) 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 pike. 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.

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, Roche Guard, and Dead Rabbits in Bayard Street.

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

Song

The following song about the Dead Rabbits fight with the Bowery Boys was written at Hoboken, by Saugerties Bard on July 4, 1857.

They had a dreadful fight, upon last Saturday night,
The papers gave the news accordin;
Guns, pistols, clubs and sticks, hot water and old bricks,
Which drove them on the other side of Jordan.

CHORUS.
Then pull off the coat and roll up the sleeve,
For Bayard is a hard street to travel;
So pull off the coat and roll up the sleeve,
The Bloody Sixth is a hard ward to travel I believe.

Like wild dogs they did fight, this Fourth of July night,
Of course they laid their plans accordin;
Some were wounded and some killed, and lots of blood spill'd,
In the fight on the other side of Jordan

Chorus

The new Police did join the Bowery boys in line,
With orders strict and right accordin;
Bullets, clubs and bricks did fly, and many groan and die,
Hard road to travel over Jordan.

Chorus

When the new police did interfere, this made the Rabbits sneer,
And very much enraged them accordin;
With bricks they did go in, determined for to win,
And drive them on the other side of Jordan.

Chorus

At last the battle closed, yet few that night reposed,
For frightful were their dreams accordin;
For the devil on two sticks was a marching on the bricks,
All night on the other side of Jordan.

Chorus

Upon the following day they had another fray,
The Black Birds and Dead Rabbits accordin;
The soldiers were call'd out, to quell the mighty riot
And drove them on the other side of Jordan.

Chorus