Francis Joseph Heney (March 17, 1859 – October 31, 1937) was an American 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.
Personal life
Heney was born in Lima, New York to Richard Heney and Juliana Schreiber Heney. He had two younger sisters and an older brother, Ben. He grew up in San Francisco where his family was relocated in 1863. He worked in his father's furniture and carpet store while attending high school at night and, later, taught night school while attending the University of California during the day. After graduation, he moved to Idaho where he served as principal of a high school, but soon realized it was not his calling. He returned to San Francisco, enrolled in law school, and became a member of the bar in 1883.
In 1884, health problems prompted him to move to the Arizona Territory. During the next four years, he ran a cattle business with his brother Ben and operated the trading post at Fort Apache. In 1889 he moved to Tucson. He married Rebecca Wentworth McMullin on November 17, 1906 in San Francisco. After Rebecca died in 1911, he married Edna I. Van Winkle on February 13, 1915. Edna Van Winkle had managed Heney's campaign for the U.S. Senator from California the previous year on the Progressive ticket. He lost the election to Democrat James Phelan.
Kills John Handy in self defense
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]."