On a rainy October day in 1882, a shotgun blast ripped across Gay Street showering bystanders with stray shot and bringing instant death to the intended target, General Joseph A. Mabry. A volley of shots followed. After their echos faded, the gathered crowd was shocked to find three corpses in the street, several men and a horse wounded, and two men under arrest. One corpse was that of a prominent banker, Major Thomas O'Conner—the very man who had fired the first shot.