The letter-writer called themselves a devil. The city called them the Axeman. And for one night in 1919, New Orleans danced not out of joy — but to stay alive.

The interesting thing about the Axeman, however (and the part that’s ultimately the most relevant to us), is that, in March 1919, he wrote a menacing letter ordering residents of New Orleans to ...

David C. Hennessy the New Orleans chief of police, 1897. Hennessy's murder in 1890 was blamed on Sicilian immigrants, 11 of whom were lynched by a mob seeking revenge in 1891.

A serial killer dubbed "The Axeman" terrorized New Orleans in 1918-1919. One day, the local paper published a letter he'd written saying that he would strike again on a particular night. The only ...

The Axeman preyed on Italian-American families such as these who ran grocery stores in the New Orleans region. American Italian Cultural Center By August of 1918, the city of New Orleans was ...