Dead Rabbits

The Dead Rabbits was the media-bestowed name of an Irish American gang in New York City, and were one of the infamous Gangs of New York in the mid-19th century. The Dead Rabbits were named because they supposedly carried a dead rabbit on a pike or were said to throw a dead rabbit in the middle of a fight before it commence. They often clashed with Nativist political groups seeking to eliminate Irish immigrant communities from New York City, and were instrumental in protecting their ethnic communities and identities from these radical groups. Their chief rival gang were the Bowery Boys; Native-born New Yorkers who supported Know Nothing political party in favor of kicking out the immigrant groups. These two rival gangs fought over 200 gang battles in a span of 10 years beginning in 1834, and they often outmanned the police force and even the state militias. They were also in the forefront of the Dead Rabbits Riot and the New York Draft Riots.

Besides street-fighting, the Dead Rabbits also supported politicians such as Fernando Wood and the Tammany Hall whose platforms included the welfare and benefit of immigrant groups and minorities, and under the leadership of Isaiah Rynders the gang also acted as enforcers to violently persuade voters during elections to vote for their candidates. One of the Dead Rabbit leader, John Morrissey, would later become a Democratic State Senator and U.S. Congressman who alleviated the conditions of the Irish-American communities for years to come. The Dead Rabbits would become the precursor of today's msot notorious organized crime syndicates: The Irish Mob.