Legacy
The death of Hennessy became a rallying cry for law enforcement and nativists to stop the immigration of Italians into America. For decades after, New Orleans children of other ethnicities would often taunt Italian-Americans with the phrase, "Who kill-a the chief?"
The murder of Hennessy had been in keeping with the Mafia custom of killing any government official who dared cross them. However, the backlash made the leaders of the nascent American Mafia realize that killing a policeman would generate far too much heat, unlike in Italy. Since then, it has been a hard and fast rule that policemen and other law enforcement officials are not to be harmed.
The Matranga gang developed into the New Orleans crime family, with Charles Matranga as boss until he retired in 1922.
Hennessy is buried in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans.
Read more about this topic: David Hennessy
Famous quotes containing the word legacy:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)