Handy's son John "Jack" Handy Jr. grew up in Oakland, California, living with his paternal grandmother, Roseanna Handel, and with his father's sister, Cornelia Holbrook. Holbrook told John and his siblings that Heney had been the one who threatened and ambushed Handy, and that he had been tried for murder and acquitted only because he was the sole witness. Young Jack grew up hating Heney. He ran away from his aunt's home in 1896, at age 14, and went to sea on a whaling ship. Jack returned to San Francisco in 1902, married Beatrix Walter, and moved to Tucson, where they lived with his maternal grandmother Larcena Pennington Page for about two years. After the couple returned to San Francisco, Jack eventually became an executive for Standard Oil.