Five Points by Tyler Anbinder

Author:Tyler Anbinder [Anbinder, Tyler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Frank Leslie’s depiction of a typical Roche Guard supporter. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, (July 11, 1857). Collection of the Library of Congress.

While the origin of the term “Dead Rabbit” is uncertain, it is clear that the Five Pointers referred to by that name were all loyal adherents of Matthew Brennan. When Brennan became police justice in 1854, he put Roche in charge of his Monroe Hall saloon. Roche also served as assistant foreman of Brennan Hose Company No. 60 in 1858. Horbelt was a member of the same fire company. He was also appointed an election inspector for the lower Mulberry Street district for the November 1857 canvass (the polling place was in Roche’s saloon there) and was elected a ward constable in that contest—honors he could not have achieved without Brennan’s approval. The extent to which Roche or Horbelt participated in the actual rioting cannot be determined, though we do know that Fatty Walsh, one leader of the rioters, was affiliated with Brennan as well. The riot was clearly a political fight between the adherents of Brennan on the one hand, and those of Mathews and Kerrigan on the other.33

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