page_title: Francis J. Heney
section_title: Kills John Handy in self defense
hierarchical_section_title: Francis J. Heney / Kills John Handy in self defense
caption_attribution_description: English: Francis Heney, as depicted in Looters of the Public Domain by Puter and Stevens, 1908
context_page_description: Francis Joseph "Frank" Heney was a lawyer, judge, and politician. Heney is known for killing an opposing plaintiff in self-defense and for being shot in the head by a prospective juror during the San Francisco graft trials. In 1891, while an attorney in Tucson, Arizona Territory, he defended the abused wife of John C. Handy. Handy attacked Heney, who shot and killed Handy. Heney later served as Attorney General of the Arizona Territory between 1893 and 1895. He was the chief prosecutor of the Oregon Land Fraud scandal from 1904 to 1910 and served as US District Attorney for the District of Oregon, from January 9 to December 3, 1905. He prosecuted corrupt San Francisco politicians, from 1906 to 1908.
  During 1906, Heney prosecuted San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz and political boss Abe Ruef, for bribery. Heney revealed that a prospective juror was ineligible because he was an ex-convict. The man deeply resented Heney's action and while court was in recess, walked into the courtroom and shot the attorney in the jaw. Heney survived the wound, and the trial went on. He ran for the US Senate from California on the Progressive Party ticket in 1914.
context_section_description: Dr. John Christopher Handy was a skilled and well-respected physician in Tucson. His wife, Mary Ann Page Handy, was eight years younger than her husband, and in poor health. She complained to her neighbor, the wife of Heney's' brother, Ben, that her husband abused her. In December 1888, she filed for divorce; rumors circulated that Handy had threatened to kill the judge and her lawyers, and she withdrew her suit within the next month. Judge Sloan described Handy as "a man of strong will, aggressive, and both quarrelsome and vindictive." The following year, John sent the couple's four oldest children to his mother's home in Oakland. Over the next four years Mary developed an addiction to morphine, possibly administered to her by her husband. Morphine was readily available at the time and was prescribed for a variety of ailments.
  In July 1889, Dr. Handy filed for divorce. The town gossip was that Handy wanted to marry another woman he had been seeing, Pansy Smith. Due to her husband's continual threats, Mary had difficulty finding an attorney. When C.W. Wright agreed to represent her, he asked Heney to assist him, who reluctantly agreed, and Wright promptly withdrew from the case. Heney refused to continue on his own, and Mary Ann went from attorney to attorney seeking representation. Eventually Heney agreed to reconsider. Handy let it be known that he would kill any attorney who dared defend Mary Ann. When Heney agreed to become her attorney, Handy stated to a court clerk, "I will kill him! Mary Ann is a morphine fiend and a common slut. She does not deserve [representation]."
  Handy publicly proclaimed that any attorney foolish enough to represent his wife in the divorce case "would be sorry." His attempts to intimidate Heney had the opposite effect, pricking Heney's conscience. Heney told his brother, Ben, that "If a lawyer can't take any case he feels it is right for him to handle, then he should take down his shingle." Heney and Handy had several confrontations. Handy intentionally attempted to run Heney over with his buggy more than once, and slandered Heney a coward, and also tried to provoke a fight. Clerk of the Court Brewster Cameron, a friend of both men, warned Handy that his threats might negatively influence the court, and Handy desisted for a while.
  The divorce trial dragged on for eight months, amounting to a stack of legal documentation more than 5 inches (130 mm) high, consisting of complaints, counter-charges, motions, and depositions from prominent Tucson citizens. Despite witnesses supporting his wife's allegations of abuse, Dr. Handy prevailed and obtained custody of all five children. But the judge ordered him to pay his wife $30 a month in alimony, gave her the family home, and rejected Handy's demand for a new trial. In July 1891, Handy, acting in his mother's name, sued his ex-wife for unlawful detainer of property, trying to force her out of the house that the court had granted her. His suit was dismissed but he went to a second judge and presented a deed that his wife had signed under duress two years previously. Heney represented Mary again and Handy made more death threats. Fearful for his life, Heney began carrying a pistol. Heney's brother Ben, who lived across the street from Handy, began accompanying his brother to and from the office. Ben reported that Handy said he would "take Frank's gun away and kill him with it." Handy hired a former policeman named McCarthy as a bodyguard. On two occasions the four men confronted each other with their guns drawn.
  On September 24, 1891, while his brother, Ben, was in San Francisco attending to family business, Heney left his office for lunch at noon. Handy was waiting near the corner of Pennington and Church Streets, where he attacked the much smaller Heney, grabbed him by the neck and pushed him up against a building. The Tombstone Epitaph reported that "A pistol cracked, the men grappled and fell to the ground. A deputy sheriff dashed [to] the spot where the two were struggling for possession of the gun. Other officers were there in almost no time. T
caption: Heney as illustrated by Harry Murphy for Puter's Looters of the Public Domain
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