John C. Handy

Handy was born in on October 20, 1844 in Newark, New Jersey and moved with his parents to California in 1853. He graduated at age 19 from the Cooper College in San Francisco and received his medical diploma from Toland Medical School in 1865. He served as an Army contract surgeon in Arizona Territory at Fort Apache and Camp Thomas for two years. (b. 14 September 1861). She was the daughter of Larcena Scott and William Fisher Scott. Her mother had earlier in life been kidnapped by the Apaches, wounded, and left for dead. Her mother gained fame after she crawled across the desert for 16 days and lived to tell the story. Her father was killed by Apache Indians before she was born. John and Mary had five children: Charles (b. 1879), Mabel (b. 1880), William (b. 1881), John Handy Jr. ("Jack" b. July 17, 1882), and Spencer (b. 1888). == Practice in Tucson ==

Handy ended his surgery contract with the Army and opened a practice in Tucson in August 1871 == Abuse and divorce ==

Privately, his wife Mary complained to her neighbor, the wife of Ben Heney, that her husband abused her. In December 1888, pregnant once again, 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." Over the next four years she developed an addiction to morphine, possibly administered to her by her husband. Morphine at the time was readily available and prescribed for a variety of ailments. Handy sent their four children to live with his mother and sister in Oakland. By July 1898, Mary later testified that she was a virtual prisoner of her husband who chained her to a bedpost when he left home. She had a fifth child, Spencer, in 1888. Handy told her he had sent Spencer to Oakland as well and threatened to prevent her from ever seeing her children again unless she signed over her interest in their home to his mother as trustee for their children, which she did. The baby was actually still in Tucson. In July 1889 Handy filed for divorce and six months later got the court's permission to place Spencer in hospital custody. The town gossip was that Handy wanted to marry another woman named Mrs. Pansy Smith that he had been seeing for some time. Due to her husband's continual threats, Mary had difficulty finding an attorney. When C.W. Wright agreed to represent her, he asked Francis J. Heney to assist him. Heney reluctantly agreed whereupon Wright promptly withdrew from the case. Heney refused to continue on his own, and Mary went from attorney to attorney seeking representation. Heney finally agreed to reconsider her pleas for help. Handy relayed a message to Heney: "If Frank Heney takes the case I will kill him!" Handy publicly proclaimed that any attorney foolish enough to represent her in the divorce case "would be sorry." He described his wife as "a morphine fiend and a common slut." His attempts to intimidate Heney had the opposite effect, pricking Heney's conscience. Heney told his brother Ben, who lived across the street from Handy, 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. On more than one occasion, as the lawyer walked along the street, Handy intentionally attempted to run Heney over with his buggy. Handy called Heney a coward and a son of a bitch and tried to provoke a fight. Clerk of the Court Brewster Cameron, a friend of both Handy and Heney, warned Handy that his threats might negatively influence the court, and Handy desisted for a while. The divorce trial dragged on for eight months, piling up a stack of legal documentation more than high of complaints, countercharges, motions and depositions from prominent Tucson citizens. Despite witnesses supporting his wife's allegations of abuse, Handy prevailed and obtained custody of all five children. But the judge ordered Handy to pay her $30 a month in alimony, gave her the family home, and rejected Handy's demand for a new trial. Handy sent Spencer to live with his family in Oakland. 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 the 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 lived across the street from Handy and 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. == Shooting and death ==

represented Handy's abused wife in their divorce trial and eviction proceeding despite repeated death threats from Handy. When Handy attacked him, Heney killed him in self-defense. At noon on Thursday, September 24, 1891, Francis Heney's brother Ben, who had been helping guard Francis, was in San Francisco attending to family business. Heney broke away and ran, pulling a pistol from his pocket. The noon-time crowd around the courthouse saw the fracas. Some shouted, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Handy grabbed the pistol and tried to take the weapon from Heney. The two men struggled for control of it when it discharged, striking Handy in the lower abdomen. Handy, although wounded, lifted the smaller Heney off the ground and then both men fell to the street, still grappling for the revolver. But Heney refused to release his grip on the pistol while Handy still struggled for it. Deputy Sheriff John Wiegle and several other people finally removed the gun from Heney's grip and Handy's fingers from Heney's hands. Handy was supported as he walked to his own office a block away where he inspected his own wound. The bullet had nearly penetrated his body. Doctors Michael Spencer and Hiram Fenner removed the bullet from near the base of his spine. Handy was then taken to his home. Handy insisted that his friend Dr. George E. Goodfellow in Tombstone, widely known for his expertise in treating gunshot wounds, be summoned to repair the internal damage. Handy was honored with Masonic funeral rites in Tucson which were followed by a procession up Court Street including "a thousand Mexican women, wearing black rebozos" who had benefited from his services. His body was then transported by rail to Oakland, California, where he was buried in a family plot near his father. == Aftermath ==

Handy named his sister Cornelia Holbrook of San Francisco to administer his estate, which he divided among his five children. His ex-wife Mary unsuccessfully contested the will, and Holbrook sold all of Handy's Arizona property, including his office, horses, buggies, medical books, instruments, and mining claims. Handy's mother Roseanne's name was on the deed that Handy had coerced Mary into signing over. After the divorce, Roseanne Handy dropped the lawsuit to evict Mary from the Handy home. A year later Mary got a judge to cancel the deed and she regained ownership of the home. Young Jack grew up hating Heney. Jack was unhappy in both homes and ran away in 1896 at age 14 and went to sea on a whaling ship. Jack returned to San Francisco in 1902 and at age 19 married Beatrix Walter. They went to Tucson, where they lived with his maternal grandmother Larcena Pennington Page for about two years. They returned to San Francisco, where Jack eventually became an executive for Standard Oil. In 1906, Heney became nationally known when he successfully prosecuted timber fraud in Oregon. He was persuaded to investigate the crooked political system in San Francisco. Abe Ruef, the primary target of his investigation, dug up Cornelia's story that Heney had ambushed Handy and got The Daily News of San Francisco to publish her story. Ruef tried to persuade Jack to file charges. Instead, Jack went to visit Heney and thanked him for the support Heney had offered his mother under difficult circumstances, the true story Jack had heard from his grandmother in Tucson. The two men became lifelong friends, and Jack was a pallbearer at Heney's funeral in 1937. ==References==