John C Heenan

John Camel Heenan, aka the Benicia Boy (2 May 1834–28 October 1873) was an American bare-knuckle prize fighter. Though highly regarded, he had only three formal fights in his entire career, losing two and drawing one.

Heenan is best remembered for his second contest, when he travelled to England to fight British champion Tom Sayers. The bout, generally seen as boxing’s first world championship, ended in chaos when spectators broke into the ring and the police intervened. The referee finally called a draw.

The Benicia Boy came home to a hero’s welcome, but later returned to England where he had just one more fight, losing controversially to new British champion, Tom King. He died at Green River Station, Wyoming Territory in October 1873, and is buried at St Agnes Cemetery, Albany, NY.

John Camel Heenan was born in May 1834 in West Troy (now Watervliet), NY, on the Hudson River. The family had come to upstate New York from Templemore, County Tipperary in Ireland shortly before, and after receiving an elementary education, the boy began work at Watervliet Arsenal, where his father was also employed.

Meanwhile, at Troy on the opposite bank of the river, lived John Morrissey. Three years older than Heenan, Morrissey had been born in America, but his family had also emigrated from Templemore. Their fathers had in fact been friends, but they fell out over a cock fight, and the two Johns inherited a bitter enmity.

At the age of seventeen, John Heenan crossed the continent to California, which had become a lawless and chaotic place following the 1849 gold rush. There is no detailed record of what he did there, but he is known to have spent some time in the workshop of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in Benicia, which served as state capital in 1853–54. Six feet two inches tall, and weighing around 190 pounds, his strength and endurance became legendary, and his success in many casual brawls earned him the nickname Benicia Boy. Spotting his talent, itinerant English trainer Jim Cusick took him to New York, where it might best be exploited.

The prize ring was in fact outlawed, but Heenan fought a legal exhibition bout against Joe Coburn, and made a living as a “shoulder hitter” – a strong-arm man who might be hired for enforcement or protection in the seamy and often violent worlds of New York business and politics. His efforts earned him a sinecure in the New York Customs House.

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