While some saw this as a crude insult, the splinter group adopted the carcass as an omen and a battle standard, mounting a dead rabbit on a pike during their street wars. The name itself may have carried a double meaning: in "flash" lingo of the era, "dead" was a slang intensifier meaning "greatest" or "very," while "rabbit" (possibly a corruption of the Gaelic word ráibéad ) referred to a "man to be feared". Life in the Shadows: The Secret Society Element
The gang’s notoriety peaked during the Dead Rabbits Riot of July 4–5, 1857. What started as a small-scale skirmish between the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys spiraled into a two-day civil disturbance involving up to 1,000 gang members. The violence was so severe that the state militia had to be called in to restore order. secret society dead bunny gang
In an era of rampant anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant sentiment, the gang acted as a buffer against nativist gangs like the Bowery Boys . While some saw this as a crude insult,