Eugene Lunsford was a resident of the Five Points section of Manhattan, New York City during the 1860s. In 1864, he was arrested by the NYPD as a suspect in the murder of Gillis Devery, but Lunsford revealed that his neighbor, butcher Hans Elek, had given him a fruit cake from Deroot Nellis's shop as a peace offering over a rent dispute, only for Lunsford - who did not like fruit cake - to re-gift the cake to Devery, who died after consuming the poisoned cake.