On September 24, 1891, while his brother, Ben, was in San Francisco attending to family business, Heney left his office for lunch at noon. Handy was waiting near the corner of Pennington and Church Streets, where he attacked the much smaller Heney, grabbed him by the neck and pushed him up against a building. The "Tombstone Epitaph" reported that "A pistol cracked, the men grappled and fell to the ground. A deputy sheriff dashed the spot where the two were struggling for possession of the gun. Other officers were there in almost no time. Then one of the contenders jumped to his feet and ran toward the courthouse ... for the first time we ... recognized the hurrying man as Frank Heney."