The Axeman of New Orleans

by Miriam C. Davis

  Background for the cult of Saint Joseph is found in Margavio and Salomone, Bread and Respect; McColloster, “New Light”; Plemer, “Feast of St. Joseph”; “History of the Saint Joseph Altar,” CatholicCulture.org; and Warren, “Sicilian St. Joseph Altar.” Because they are preserved through oral tradition, there are many variations of the Saint Joseph’s Day tradition.

  Personal information on Iorlando Guagliardo (aka Jordano) comes from State v. Guagliardo and Guagliardo, in Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Archives; NODS, March 18, 1919; and “Giolando Guagliardo aka Jordano” and “Frank Guagliardo” in Ancestry .com, One World Tree Project.

  For ethnic clusters in New Orleans, see Campanella, Bienville’s Dilemma and Geographies of New Orleans; Hintz, Ethnic New Orleans; Lewis, New Orleans; Margavio, “Reaction of the Press”; Margavio and Molyneaux, “Residential Segregation of Italians”; Maselli and Candeloro, Italians in New Orleans; and Richey and Kean, New Orleans Book.

  For descriptions of “Little Palermo,” I drew on Adams, “Mafia Riots”; Gambino, Vendetta; McMain, “Behind the Yellow Fever”; and Tallant, Romantic New Orleanians.

  For the history of the muffuletta, see Tusa, Marie’s Melting Pot.

  “hard-working, money-saving race”: Quoted in Sitterson, Sugar Country, 315.

  “like school girls”: “Immigrants from Italy,” NODP, December 17, 1880.

  “foggy cities of the North”: Adamoli, “Letters from America,” 271.

  “Americans, Brazilians, West Indians”: Quoted in Campanella, Bienville’s Dilemma, 169.

  “are ready to start a fruit shop”: Quoted in Jean Ann Scarpaci, “Italian Immigrants” (PhD diss.), 211.

  “black dagoes”: Gambino, Vendetta, 56.

  “Negroes made unabashed distinction”: Carter, Southern Legacy, 106.

  “filthy paupers”: Adams, “Mafia Riots,” 15.

  seat of Saint James Parish: According to Saint James Parish, State of Louisiana, Conveyance Record vol. 52, 1889–1893, in April 1892 “Benedict Jurdano” bought an “oyster saloon . . . consisting of assorted fruits and general merchandise” for $200. Iorlando Guagliardo used the name Benedict or Benedetto Jordano for business purposes. He is referred to as “Benedict” or “Benedetto” Jordanno in several New Orleans newspapers, and a newspaper article mentions he was in business in Saint James Parish. The 1900 Census (Ancestry.com) lists “Benedict Jordano”, a fruit dealer, living in Saint James Parish with his wife Lillie and his daughters “Marywarard” and “Annie.” It’s likely that the names were garbled in the census, as they often were; almost certainly this refers to Jordano’s daughters Mary and Anna (also known as Lena). See also NODS, March 18, 1919.

  “filth and . . . intolerable stench”: Adams, “Mafia Riots,” 16.

  “humble, loud-voiced vendor”: Richey and Kean, New Orleans Book, 129.

  4. The Davi Murder

  Details of Joe Davi’s murder and the police investigation come from NOI, June 27–29, 1911; NODS, June 27–28 and July 2, 1911; NODP, June 28–30, July 1, and August 3, 1911; NOB, June 28–29, 1911; NOTD, June 28–29 and July 2 and 4, 1911; Coroner’s Office, Record Book Journals, June 28, 1911, in New Orleans Public Library; and NOPD, Reports of Homicide, June 28, 1911, in New Orleans Public Library.

  For murder in New Orleans, see Adler, “Murder, North and South”; Asbury, French Quarter; Metcalf, “Race Relations”; Wheeler, “Homicides and Suicides”; NOPD, Reports of Homicide, in New Orleans Public Library; and NOPD, Annual Report, 1910, in New Orleans Public Library.

  For the development of the police force in New Orleans, see Jackson, New Orleans in the Gilded Age; Metcalf, “Race Relations”; Rousey, “Cops and Guns” and Policing the Southern City; Vyhnanek, Unorganized Crime; NOPD, Annual Reports, in New Orleans Public Library; Rules and Regulations Governing the Police Department, in New Orleans Public Library; NOPD, Fifty Years of Progress; and NODP, February 19, 1912.

  Information on Martin Berhman’s administration and the Ring comes from Berhman, Martin Behrman; Deacon and Coleman, Martin Behrman Administration; Kendall, “Sixteen Years”; Reynolds, Machine Politics; Schott, “New Orleans Machine”; and Williams, “Martin Behrman.”

  For James Reynolds as chief of police, see NOTD, February 10, 1911; NOI, February 10–11, 1911; and NODP, February 19 and April 19, 1912.

  For the development of scientific police investigation, see James Morton, Catching the Killers; Ramsland, Beating the Devil’s Game; Thorwald, Century of the Detective; and Wilson and Wilson, Written in Blood.

  For the tools the NOPD had to solve crimes with, see Rules and Regulations Governing the Police Department, in New Orleans Public Library; NOTD, February 28, 1908; NODP, July 18–19, 1908; and NOI, August 3, 1917.

  To understand why suspects confess, see Tousignant, “Why Suspects Confess.”

  For use of the third degree, see Keedy, “The Third Degree”; Skolnick and Fyfe, Above the Law; NOTD, December 9, 1907; NOI, February 10, 1911; NOTP, March 17, 1915; NODS, August 19, 1917; and NOTP, April 10, 1920. In 1919, a grand jury found that New Orleans policemen frequently relied on the third degree to “extort a confession,” per NOI, February 27, 1919. See also NODS, February 28, 1919; and NOTP, February 28, 1919.

  For accusations that George Long used the third degree to attempt to coerce a confession from a suspect, Andrew Whitfield, for the murder of Leopold Cordova, see NOTP, April 16–18, 1920.

  Details of John Dantonio’s career are found in NODP, October 21, 1900, and September 13, 1910; NODS, July 13, 1911; NOTP, March 28 and April 2, 1920; and NOPD, Annual Reports, especially for 1896 and 1902, in New Orleans Public Library.

  For the relationship between police and newspapermen, see Ramelli, “Scenes in the ‘Underworld’”; Kendall, “Old-Time New Orleans”; and NODS, August, 3, 1917. For Andy Ojeda, see NOTP, April 12, 1950.

  For a description of police headquarters, see Kendall, “Notes on the Criminal History”; NOPD, Fifty Years of Progress; and sketch in NODS, August, 3, 1917.

  For John Flannery’s plea to DA Adams and his ultimate fate, see NODS, July 3, 1911, and August 14, 1916; and NOTP, August 15, 1916.

  a city of 339,000: University of Virginia Library, Historical Census Browser.

  Robberies and burglaries were common: In the period 1900–1910, the homicide rate for New Orleans was 22.2 per 100,000 residents, which made it among the most violent of southern cities and gave it a murder rate three times that of Chicago. Adler, “Murder, North and South,” 301.

  a hundred years later: “Historical Crime Data 1990–2004,” City of New Orleans official website, accessed October 13, 2016, www.nola.gov/getattachment/NOPD/Crime-Data/Crime-Stats/Historic-crime-data-1990-2014.pdf.

  “keep the police force entirely out”: NOI, February 11, 1911.

  “steady, sober and good young man”: NODP, June 28, 1911.

  a man near the wardrobe: The New Orleans Item says she didn’t see him rummaging in the wardrobe, that people took stuff out of it to wipe her face. NOI, June 28, 1911.

  “Where is your money?”: NOI, June 29, 1911.

  “Call your husband”: NOI, June 27, 1911.

  “a blow with a sharp-edged though heavy blade”: NOTD, June 29, 1911.

  “Are you sure about the man”: NODP, June 29, 1911.

  “delicate state”: NODP, June 29 and July 6, 1911.

  two Bertillon operators: NOPD, Annual Reports, 1897, 1898, and 1911, in New Orleans Public Library.

  “All he needs is to use his eyes”: NOI, August 3, 1917.

  “motive is the clew [sic]”: NOTD, July 4, 1911.

  “I’ve forced confessions”: Quoted in Skolnick and Fyfe, Above the Law, 44.

  “knew the effect of moral suasion”: NODP, February 11, 1911.

  “through persuasion and without”: NOTD, October 17, 1910.

  “There is no apparent motive:” NOTD, June 29, 1911.

  Sam Pitzo: Sometimes spelled Pizzo.

  Philip Daguanno: Sometimes given as D
iavani.

  “beat his brains in”: NOTD, July 2, 1911.

  “The man who attacked my husband”: NOTD, July 2, 1911.

  “closely allied to the [police] department”: Ramelli, “Scenes in the ‘Underworld.’”

  “I came back early”: NODP, July 3, 1911; NOI, July 3, 1911.

  “I do not believe any of these jobs”: NOTD, July 4, 1911.

  named Joseph P. Davi for his father: The 1920 US Census (Ancestry.com) shows Joseph P. Davi living with his maternal grandparents in New Orleans.

  “in very much the same manner”: NODP, July 8, 1911.

  the victims of “vengeance”: NOI, September 20, 1910.

  “fact that all the victims”: NODP, June 29, 1911.

  5. The Black Hand

  For the Mafia generally, see Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime; Dash, First Family; Dickie, Cosa Nostra; Fentress, Rebels and Mafiosi; Hess, Mafia and Mafioso; and Nelli, Business of Crime.

  For the New Orleans “Mafia,” see Asbury, French Quarter; Ralph Carroll, “Mafia in New Orleans” (MA thesis); Chandler, Brothers in Blood; Dulitz, “Myth of the Mafia” (BS thesis); Kendall, “Who Killa de Chief?”; Kurtz, “Organized Crime”; and Nelli, Business of Crime.

  For the true story of the ill-fated Francisco Domingo, see DTD, January 6, 1855; and Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office. For Sicilian criminals in New Orleans in the 1860s, see DTD, June 22 and August 15, 1861; and New Orleans Times, March 19, 1869. For Esposito as merely a bandit, see Baiamonte, “‘Who Killa de Chief’ Revisited”; Kurtz, “Organized Crime”; Nelli, Business of Crime; and NODP, July 9 and July 22, 1881, and November 9, 1881.

  For crime in Sicily in the nineteenth century, see table 1 in Eisner, “Long-Term Historical Trends.”

  Details of David Hennessy’s involvement with the Matrangas and Provenzanos, his murder, and the subsequent lynching of suspected Italians are from the substantial literature on the case: Baiamonte, “‘Who Killa de Chief’ Revisited”; Botein, “Hennessy Case”; Richard Carroll, “Impact of David Hennessey”; Coxe, “New Orleans Mafia”; Dash, First Family; Gambino, Vendetta; Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water; Katz, “Hennessy Affair”; Kendall, “Who Killa de Chief?”; Marr, “New Orleans Mafia”; Nelli, Business of Crime; Tom Smith, Crescent City Lynchings; and Wilds, Afternoon Story. See also numerous newspaper articles, especially NOTD, May 7, 1890; NODP, May 6–7, July 17–20, and October 16–19, 1890; NODS, October 16–17, 1890; NODP, October 17–21, 1890, and March 13–23, 1891; NOTD, March 14 and 18, 1891; Daily City Item, March 17, 1891; NODS, March 18, 1891; New York Tribune, March 18, 1891; Mascot, March 21, 1891.

  For Black Hand crime, see Lombardo, Black Hand; Nelli, Business of Crime; and Pitkin and Cordasco, Black Hand. In New Orleans, see, for example, NOTD, April 12, 1908; NODP, September 10, 1910; and NOTD, May 31, 1912. For examples of the Black Hand as an organization, see NOI, May 20, 1908; and NODP, July 14, 1910.

  For the career of Joseph Mumfre, see Convict Record of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, in Louisiana State Archives; State v. Monfre [sic], in New Orleans Public Library; State v. Pamelia, Westlaw, 122 La. 207, 47 So. 508 (1908); State v. Monfre [sic], Westlaw, 122 La. 251, 47 So. 543 (1908); and State v. Monfre [sic], Westlaw, 122 La. 513, 47 So. 846 (1908). Also NOTD, December 6–9, 1907; NOI, December 7–8, 1907, and July 23–25, 1908; NODS, July 24–25, 1908; NOTD, July 24–25, 1908; and NODP, July 24–25, 1908.

  “It’s not necessary for you”: NODP, October 16, 1890; and NODS, October 16, 1890.

  “They’ve given it to me”: NODP, October 16, 1890; and NODS, October 16, 1890.

  “was in essence the Mafia”: Kendall, “Who Killa de Chief?” 506.

  suspected by some later writers: In Deep Water, Hunt and Sheldon argue that Joseph Macheca established the New Orleans Mafia.

  “the law and the evidence”: NODP, August 10, 1890.

  “Scour the whole neighborhood”: NODP, October 16, 1890.

  “We must teach these people”: NODP, October 19, 1890.

  “Who killa de chief?”: Quoted in Wilds, Afternoon Story, 99; and Coxe, “New Orleans Mafia,” 1085.

  “Hang the Dago murderers!”: NOTD, March 15, 1891.

  “a form of behavior”: Lombardo, Black Hand, 122.

  “part armed criminal gang”: Dickie, Cosa Nostra, 52.

  “fact that all the victims were Italians”: NODP, June 29, 1911.

  “Dear Friend”: NODP, August 3, 1911.

  Joseph Mumfre was just: Like many immigrants’ names, Mumfre’s name appears in a variety of spellings: Monfre, Munfre, Monfee, Manfre. I have chosen one of the most common variations to use consistently.

  6. The Cleaver Returns

  For understanding serial killers, I’ve relied on Brown, Killing for Sport; Carlisle, “Divided Self”; Douglas and Dodd, Inside the Mind of BTK; Douglas and Olshaker, Cases That Haunt Us; Hale, “Application of Learning Theory”; Holmes, “Psychological Profiling”; Holmes and Holmes, Serial Murder; Jenkins, “Serial Murder”; Leyton, Hunting Humans; Robert Morton, “Serial Murder”; Newton, Century of Slaughter; and Ramsland, Inside the Minds. I’ve also benefited from discussions with profiler Ralph Stone, retired Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent and instructor in criminal justice at Columbus State University, Rick Chambers, former city of Atlanta homicide detective and now chief investigator at Chambers Consulting & Security, and Dr. Elliot Leyton, professor emeritus of anthropology at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

  For the aftermath of Joe Davi’s murder, see NOI, July 10, 1911; and NODP, December 30, 1912.

  Details of the attack on the Andollinas are found in NODS, December 22–23, 1917; NOI, December 22–23, 1917; and NOTP, December 23, 1917. Additional information about the Andollina family comes from 1920 US Census, Ancestry.com; WWI Draft Registration Cards, Ancestry.com; New Orleans Death Records, Ancestry.com; Louisiana State Board of Health, death certificate for Epifanio Andollina, Parish of Orleans, October 23, 1918; New Orleans Marriage Records, Ancestry.com.

  The story of Chief Reynolds’s murder comes from NODS, August 2–6, 13, 1917; NOTP, August 3–8 and 13–15, 1917; NOI, August 2–10 and 12–14, 1917; and “Testimony, Murder of Superintendent Reynolds” in New Orleans Public Library.

  Background on the development of the New Orleans railroads is found in Downey, Illinois Central Railroad; Jessup, “Golden Age”; Murray, Illinois Central Railroad; Solomon, North American Railroads; and Stover, History of Illinois Central Railroad.

  For Frank Mooney’s background and selection as police superintendent, see NODP, May 21, 1905; NOI, February 7, 12, 1911, and August 8–9, 1917; NODS, August 8, 1917; NOTP, August 8–9, 1917; NODS, August 23, 1923; NOI, August 23, 1923; and NOTP, August 24, 1923.

  For Mooney as head of the ICR, see NOTP, June 20 and July 22, 1914, and January 22, 1916; NODS, February 24, 1916; and NOTP, July 16, 1916.

  Details on John Dantonio’s departure come from NOI, August 3, 1917; NOTP, March 28, 1920; NODS, April 1, 1920; NOI, April 1, 1920; and NOTP, April 2 and 20, 1920.

  Details of Arthur Marullo’s career are from NOI, October 14 and December 25, 1917, and March 11, 1918; NOTP, March 11, 1918; New Orleans States-Item, July 7, 1965; and NOTP, July 8, 1965.

  Information about Vincent Miramon’s murder found in NODS, May 19, 23, and 25, 1917; NOI, May 19–20, 22, and 25, 1917; NOTP, May 20, 1917; and Coroner’s Office, autopsy report, May 24, 1919, in New Orleans Public Library.

  Particulars on the attack on the Girard family and subsequent Sumner trial taken from NODS, May 28–29, 1917; NOI, May 28–29, 1917; NOTP, May 29–30, 1917; NODS, August 14–15, 1917; NOTP, August 15 and September 2, 1917; and State v. Sumner, in New Orleans Public Library.

  Information on the murder of Joseph and Catherine Maggio and the subsequent investigation taken from NOI, May 23–26, 1918; NODS, May 23–26, 28, 1918; NOTP, May 24–26, 1918; NOPD, Reports of Homicide, May 23, 1918, in New Orleans Public Library; and Coroner’s Office, autopsy report, May 23, 1918, in New O
rleans Public Library.

  For the homicide investigations Mooney had been involved in before the Maggio killings, see NOI, January 15 and February 15, 1918; and NOTP, March 20, 1918.

  Details of Franz Reidel’s murder are from NOI, October 11–12, 15–17, and 19, 1910; NOTD, October 12, 16–18, 1910; NODP, October 12–14 and 16–19, 1910; NODS, October 12–15, 17, 1910; State v. Rodin and Bescanon, in New Orleans Public Library; NOPD, Reports of Homicide, October 11, 1910, in New Orleans Public Library; and Coroner’s Office, autopsy report, October 11, 1910, in New Orleans Public Library.

  For details of the Sciambra murders, see NODS, May 16, 18, 26–27, 1912; NOI, May 16–18, 25, and 27, 1912; NOTD, May 17–19 and 27, 1912; NODP, May 17–19 and 27, 1912; Coroner’s Office, autopsy report, May 16, 1912, and May 26, 1912, in New Orleans Public Library; and NOPD, Reports of Homicide, May 16, 1912, and May 26, 1912, in New Orleans Public Library.

  For Joseph Mumfre’s involvement with Vito Di Giorgio, see NODP, June 12, 1908; and NOTD, June 12, 1908. Also, for Di Giorgio, see Warner, “First Mafia Boss?”

  For Detective Obitz’s murder, see NOI, May 27, 1918; NOTP, May 27, 1918; and NODS, May 28, 1918.

  “Shut up!”: NOTP, December 23, 1917.

  “It was too dark”: NOI, December 23, 1917.

  “I have no enemies”: NOI, December 23, 1917.

  “how a man could be shot”: NOI, August 12, 1917.

  “Murder! Murder!”: State v. Sumner, in New Orleans Public Library.

  “Come at once!”: NOI, May 23, 1918.

  “Do you have a father, mother”: WWI Draft Registration Cards, Ancestry.com.

  “Robbery was the motive”: NODS, May 23, 1918.

  “just like Mrs. Toney”: NOTP, May 25, 1918.

  “Just write Mrs. Toney”: NODS, May 23, 1918.

  “just write. Mrs. Tony”: NOI, May 23, 1918.

  “unusually mysterious”: Ibid.

  “the unsettled state”: NODS, May 25, 1918.