THE AXEMAN OF NEW ORLEANS

Article BY William A. Kingman

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Hereafter is the story of the Axe-Man of New Orleans, a true-life, American version of “Jack-The-Ripper.” I realize it is a bit lengthy, but the length is needed to tell the depth and breath of the killings.

Almost every English speaking person has heard of or seen a movie based on London’s most notorious killer, “Jack-The-Ripper.” The United States has its own version; just as diabolical, just as sadistic, just as murderous, “The Axe-Man Of New Orleans.” A killer or killers, who from 1910 to 1919 gripped the city of New Orleans in panic and hysteria, as a mad-man cut and murdered his way across the city. The press was soon to dub the killer, “The Axe-Man of New Orleans.”

Starting in 1910 with the murder of an Italian grocer named Crutti, a series of bloody attacks and murders gripped the city in fear until the last victim met their fate in 1919. The similarities between “Jack-The-Ripper” and “The Axe-Man Of New Orleans” are numerous, but then they are few. Both attacked a certain kind of victim, both taunted the police, both “wrote” letters to the media, and both were never captured, irrespective of the fact that two cases of the “Axe-Man” actually went to trial with significant questions still unresolved to conclusively believe that justice was served.

On the evening of August 13, 1910, August J. Crutti, an Italian grocer, was attacked while in bed with his wife at 4301 Royal Street. Although badly wounded in the head and chest, Crutti survived his meat cleaver wounds, not axe wounds, and worked until his death in 1943. It was believed that the attacker used one of Crutti’s own tools, which set the stage for what was to frequently be the case in future attacks; use of the victim’s own objects as weapons.

On September 20, 1910, Joseph Risetto and his wife, both also Italian grocers, were brutally attacked by an unknown assailant(s) in their home/grocery. One of the newspapers of the day, the Daily News, ran the headline, “’Jack the Axe Man’ May Seek ‘The Rippers Honors.’” Some newspaper articles questioned if the attacker of the Risetttos’ was actually a woman, because a size number four shoe print is found outside the residence. Several weeks later a man named John Feehan, is arrested after he attacks several women on Canal Street with a knife. Feehan is dubbed by the newspapers as “Jack the Stabber,” and “Jack The Slasher.” Feehan is put away in an asylum for the criminally insane, but that is not the end to the attacks.

The next victim is Mr. Joseph Davi and his sixteen-year-old “child-wife.” Joseph is killed, while his wife is severely wounded. This murder, again done with a meat cleaver, is dubbed one of the “Axe” murders. Several men are arrested and released, fingerprints and a bloody mark on the wall provide clues for the police, as well as measurements obtained by the Bertillon Operator.

As with the other murders, some suspect the “Black-Hand,” others blame a depraved maniac. A little over ten years earlier, the “Black Hand” assassinated the New Orleans Chief of Police. A mob later killed the “Black Hand” killers. In the Davi case, the chief investigator, an Italian, is threatened by some “Black Hand” members. Friends of Davi try to help police in the investigation, but are turned away in their efforts, although some of the developed clues are further investigated by the police, to no avail.

The next victim, in May of 1912, is Mr. Anthony Sciambra. Sciambra is killled by several bullets, while asleep in his bed, next to his wife, Johanna, who is also wounded. Although killed by bullets, Anthony Sciambra is also listed as one of the “Axe-Man” victims. When attacked, two of the bullets that killed Anthony, pass through his body and strike Johanna in the hip area, all while their infant lies untouched in the same bed. Although not mortally wounded, Johanna Sciambra dies ten days later from her bullet wounds, and the killer(s) are never caught and no one is ever arrested.

In 1914 a man is arrested after he cuts the tresses of several young girls. One is cut while watching a movie, another is cut while on the St. Charles beltcar (streetcar,) while another loses her hair on the way to school. He is soon dubbed “Jack the Clipper” by the Daily Picayune, one of the many local newspapers. An interesting feature of one of the newspapers of the day, is that on the masthead of the New Orleans States, is featured a backwards swastika, which before the Nazi rise to prominence was considered a good luck symbol.

The next attack is listed as dairy farmer Vincent Miramon, who is beaten to death with a hammer, and in spite of the lack of the use of an axe, is nonetheless listed as a victim of the “Axe-Man.” One person is arrested, but no one is ever convicted of the murder.

Three days before Christmas in 1917, a New Orleans Italian grocer named Andollina and his two sons are attacked with a hatchet. All of them survive the attack, but once again, no one is arrested and convicted.

The period of 1917-1918 is a strange period of history in the world, the United States, and New Orleans in particular. While World War I rages across the globe, in New Orleans the “Axe-Man” strikes seven more times. Not all of the attacks end in murder, but while some are listed as simple break-ins, most are brutal assaults that leave the victims either dead, dying or wounded.

The first of this era’s killings is the double murder of a husband and wife named Joseph and Catherine Maggio, of 4901 Magnolia. Only one person is arrested, Andrew Maggio, the brother of the murder victim. Andrew also happens to be the person whose razor is found on the scene of the crime, the person who found it, the person accused, the person arrested, and the person released. The only other clue, a message written in chalk, several squares (blocks) away, “Mrs. Joseph Maggio is going to sit up tonight. Just write Mrs. Toney ” Police re-run through old leads, but are baffled about the clue.

At the same time, there is a “Negro Highwayman” who is terrorizing the early morning delivery drivers. Robbing some, hurting some, but robbing as many as possible. To handle the investigations, in steps a new Detective, Theodore Obitz, who is placed in charge of the Maggio homicide investigation. Within twenty-four hours of being placed in charge of the investigation, Obitz will be dead; killed by the “Negro Highwayman.” While conducting a stakeout for the Highwayman, Obitz and his partner confront a negro at three in the morning. Instead of complying with the officer’s instructions, the highwayman pulls a gun and mortally wounds Obitz on the scene. Police summoned to the scene chase several persons suspected of being the highwayman, and one, an innocent negro security guard, is killed by officers. Obitz’s partner identifies the dead security guard as the highwayman. Even with the “Negro Highwayman” dead, the search for the highwayman intensifies, and he continues with his robbing ways.

Several nights later, another negro is killed, but to little or no notice. During the next night, yet another negro is killed; this time by two civilians when the negro refuses to comply with their commands. The newspapers report that a “Negro Grappling With White Man Is Shot To Death.” On May 30, 1918, four days after the killing of Obitz, Frank Bailey is arrested after police surround the room in which is staying. Bailey tells the police that “he’ll kill anyone who enters the room.” Bailey is arrested after two officers break into the room and tackle and disarm the surprised Bailey. Bailey confesses to being the “Negro Highwayman” and the murderer of Detective Obitz.

During Bailey’s trial, his defense attorney does not call any witnesses in Baileys’s defense, although on cross-examination Bailey’s defense attorney scores several points, such as the misidentification mentioned earlier. Bailey, 19 years old, is found guilty and sentenced to die.

In the early morning hours of June 27, 1918, Steve Zanca attempts to deliver bread to the Peoples Grocery Store at 1540 North Dorgenois. Not getting any answer, Zanca discovers Louis Besumer, and Harriett Anne Lowe, both of them bleeding profusely from axe wounds. Speculation immediately surrounds Besumer and Besumer’s relationship with Lowe. The middle of World War I, Besumer of unknown European birth is suspected of being a German spy; he even has the prerequisite hidden compartment in his trunk. When the Secret Service attempts to interview Besumer, Besumer is “indisposed” and can’t receive the Secret Service. Speculation mounts about Besumer. Newspapers wonder why the apparently “wealthy” Besumer is in New Orleans running a grocery. Besumer tells the press that he and Lowe are drug addicts, that he is sick, and needs the climate. Besumer never explains any of this. A week after the attack, a man is arrested, but is released several days later.

Besumer is arrested in August, when Harriett Anne Lowe, accuses Besumer of being the wielder of the axe. Police can never resolve how Besumer supposedly inflicted the massive injuries upon himself. In September, Lowe takes a turn for the worse and again makes statements accusing Besumer of being the “Axe-Man.” On September 16, 1918, Lowe dies after emergency brain surgery. Besumer is quickly indicted with the murder of Harriett Anne Lowe. Besumer is refused bond while awaiting trial. Within weeks in April of 1919, Frank Bailey is convicted in the murder of Theodore Obitz, and after a short trial, the jury acquits Louis Besumer after seven minutes of deliberation.

Throughout this period the attacks continue unabated. One victim, Mrs. Annie Roig is shot and dies several days later. Although this killing is not directly attributed to the “Axe-Man,” it is mentioned in several accounts of the “Axe-Man.” Another victim, Mrs. Edward Schneider is also attacked, but lives to give birth several days later. She is unable to recall the attack, and thinks that the reason she is in the hospital is to have her baby.

Two days after Mrs. Schneider gives birth, Joseph Romano, another Italian grocer, is killed in his corner grocery store. The next day, Al Durand reports to police that his grocery store had been broken into and a chisel and an axe left behind. Hysteria in the city grows. Headlines of the various newspapers for the next several days read: “Is The Axe-Man Type of Jekyl-Hyde Concept?”, “Ax Man Visit Of Sunday Just Told Police,” “Axman Seen Near His Old Haunts,” “Ax-Man Attempts To Kill Another In N.O.,” “Axman Attempts To Enter Saloon In South Salcedo,” “Police Watch Entire City For Ax Man’s Advent,” and “Still Searching For Axman”. But even when one of the “Axe-Man” sightings is found to simply be a Negro woman who hid behind a tree and fled when she thought she was being confronted by the “Axe-Man,” there is no relenting in the hysteria. During this same period, Paul Lobella, an uptown grocer, is robbed and an axe is found on the scene, but there are no arrests in this crime.

On Sunday March 16, 1919, one of the local newspapers, now the Times-Picayune, publishes a letter dated “Hell,” signed by the ‘Axman.’ In this letter, the “Axe-Man” claims that on Wednesday, he will fly over the city, and if your household is not playing Jazz, then you will get a visit from the “Axe-Man.” Just what New Orleans needs; another reason to party. John Davilla composes “The Axe-Man’s Jazz.” Several local men place an advertisement in the Times-Picayune asking the “Axe-Man” for a visit, while adding that there is no need to break in; just follow the directions through the unlocked doors. Jazz bands blare all over the city. The “Axe-Man” is a no-show.

Only a week before the “Axe-Man’s” self-serving publicity, another murder happens a short distance from New Orleans, across the river in Gretna, Louisiana. There an eighteen-month old baby, Mary Cortimiglia, is killed and her father Charles and mother Rosie are both severely wounded. Rosie, when released from the hospital, is incarcerated at the local jail, where she tells her jailers that her next-door neighbors, Frank and Iorlando Jordano did the horrible dead. The Jordano’s are accused and jailed for the crime.

A month after the crime, Rosie Cortimiglia is released from jail. At trial, which lasts a week, the jury comes back with a guilty verdict. Frank is sentenced to die, and Iorlando is sentenced to life for the brutal slaying. During this same time, Frank Bailey and Louis Besumer are also on trial.

In November 1919, Rosie Cortimiglia is arrested for consorting with E.J. Hickey. Rosie tells a reporter that her husband will have nothing to do with her, so she has to make ends meet somehow. Several months later Rosie has a dream, where St. Joseph appears to her and tells her to recant her sins. Rosie does this by giving and signing a two-page affidavit at the Times-Picayune. This only adds fire to an appeal pending before the Louisiana Supreme Court, which hands down a decision in April of 1920, which grants the Jordano’s a new trial. However, the justification for the new trial is not because of Rosie’s perjury, but because of flagrant abuses by the District Attorney in prosecuting the case.

The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office decides not to re-try the Jordanos and they are released from jail. Frank, after being released, stared into the rain and mist of Lafayette Square, could only say over and over with perfect content, “Ain’t it fine? It all looks fine.” The case almost fades from memory, except for one more Rosie incident. Shortly after his release, Frank Jordano is crossing the Mississippi river on a ferry to tell his married sister the good news of his release, when from out of the fog he is approached by a figure that he soon recognizes as Rosie. Rosie prostrates herself at Frank’s feet begging his forgiveness. The lady, who was once described by the newspapers as “pretty” has now lost her life as she knew it; lost her baby, lost her husband, and now because of the ravages of small pox, she has a heavily scarred face and has lost her looks. Frank forgives her.

Meanwhile in New Orleans, while the Cortimiglia/Jordano saga is unfolding in Gretna, the last of the “Axe-Man” killings takes place in New Orleans. October 1919, Mike Pepitone is brutally beaten with an iron rod and nut by intruders. You guessed it, Pepitone is an Italian grocer. The killing, which appears to be the result of a long-standing blood feud that dates back to 1903, seems to have finally been settled. In 1903, Tony “Toney” Luciano is killed by an acquaintance in a photo studio on Canal Street. Now we must recall the chalk mark message, “Mrs. Toney will sit up tonight,” which finally seems to have meaning. It turns out that Mike Pepitone and his father were accused of killing a man named Di Christina, who was in on the blood feud with Luciano.

Okay, try and follow the tangled weave of the blood feud. Tony goes into the pasta business with Di Christina. They hire a man named Gerrachi to manage the business. Genova (the Mafia boss) decides he wants a piece of the pasta business, of which Tony refuses. On May 7, 1902, Salvadore Luciano (Tony’s brother) tries shooting Di Christina and Genova. Genova puts out the word that Salvadore should go back to the old country or be killed.

On June 13, 1903, Tony, Salvadore, and Vutera (a worker at the pasta factory) are playing cards at Tony’s grocery/bar, when the establishment is invaded by Calamia, Gerrachi, Ferrari, Scaffino and Galdarone. The invaders make sure that Salvadore dies of his wounds on the scene. Gerrachi, wounded in the fight, flees the scene, and later dies in the hospital. Scaffino and Galdarone, described as two drifters, both thought to have been imported just for the invasion, are never found. Strangely, during the fight, Vutera turns traitor and helps kill Salvadore, which is not unnoticed by Tony, who himself kills Vutera.

Ferrari decides he will visit the funeral of Salvadore, when after kissing Salvadore’s lifeless lips, is called out into the backyard of the house by Tony. Once there, Tony shoots Ferrari repeatedly with a shotgun and then bludgeons the dead man until the cops, who were nominally stationed outside the house to prevent trouble, race into the backyard and stop any further killing.

Calamia is put on trial, where the best trial lawyers of the day (not bad for a banana checker) get an acquittal. While Tony is in jail and eventually acquitted, his wife moves the grocery store across the street from the prison so that Tony can watch his wife and children. One day, Tony’s wife falls from a wagon and breaks her leg, eventually recovering, then falling again, breaking it again, and eventually dying of the wound. Following his acquittal in 1903, Tony is killed by a man named Asparo.

In March 1910, Vincent Moreci, is shot and wounded by unknown persons. A month later, Di Christina is gunned down by Peter Pepitone, with Mike Pepitone also being thought to have been involved. A short time later, Di Martini is riding with Di Christina when Di Christina is gunned down by the Pepitone’s (Peter Pepitone pleads guilty and is sentenced to twenty years, but gets out in only five). Di Christina is thought to have been “imported” from New York to murder Moreci. Di Martini is thought to have shot Moreci. According to the New Orleans States, “It is feared that Mr. Moreci’s enemies will try to kill Pepitone for thwarting their previous plans of murder.” In June of 1910 Di Martini is killed in “Real Mafia Way,” meaning, when brought face to face with his “killer” he refused to identify him. Moreci is accused and acquitted of killing Di Martini. In 1915 Moreci is killed, supposedly by Joseph Mumfre who is identified by a witness. Mumfre had just been released from the jail for dynamiting; you guessed it, an Italian bar/grocery.

Forward to 1919 and Mike Pepitone’s killing. Police have no clues and the only witness, Mrs. Esther Pepitone, although sleeping next to her husband while he is being beaten to death, provides the police with no useful information. She describes herself as a “heavy sleeper”. According to later printed accounts, Mumfre leaves New Orleans and resettles in Los Angeles, California.

According to some books in 1920, Mumfre is walking down the streets of Los Angeles, when a veiled lady steps out of the shadows and empties a revolver into Mumfre, killing him.

The lady, who is supposedly Pepitone’s widow, waits for the police to arrive, is taken into custody, brought to trial, found guilty, and is sentenced to ten years. However, after only eighteen months, she is released on parole and promptly disappears. According to the 1920 census, Pepitone’s boys are in an orphanage and the girls are in the care of an aunt.

On one of my trips to the Los Angeles area, I went to the library to research the Mumfre killing, but found no mention of it. I then went to the Los Angeles County records office, and again found no mention of it. I then wrote a letter to the State of California, which stated that no Joseph Mumfre died in the state of California from 1915 to 2000. Part of the story makes sense, the part about the children in an orphanage, but I can’t find any record of the “Mumfre killing.” As of this date, I have no idea where Mumfre or Mrs. Pepitone wound up.

Of course I can’t stop there. Back to Los Angeles. A retired ATF Agent and author, Chuck Hustmyre called me one night asking about the Axe-Man. He stated that he had found the missing Joseph Mumfre and Esther (Mrs. Mike) Pepitone. Sure enough the Los Angeles Times has all their old articles available on PDF. When interviewed, the newly married Esther Pepitone, now named Mrs. Albano tells the police; “Mr. Albano married my sister in New Orleans years ago. I was married in New Orleans. My husband was killed and my sister died. Mr. Albano came to Los Angeles and about ten months ago I came to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of my niece. I married Mr. Albano about four months ago. I have five children by my first husband and Mr. Albano has two by his first wife.” Not bad considering when her first husband got killed, she had six kids and one more on the way.

Mrs. Albano explains her relationship with Mr. Mumphrey, now know as M. G. Leone, “Leone was known to me by the name of Frank Mumphrey. At one time, he was my husband’s partner. They purchased this house together and my husband bought him out later. They had other business dealings together but some months my husband bought everything out and paid Mumphrey or Leone in full.

“On October 28, (other accounts of the day say October 27) two months after our marriage, Mr. Albano told me that he was going to the public market to buy some green-stuffs for dinner. He never returned. I reported the matter to the police and employed detectives, but could get no trace of my husband. After the killing, a neighbor told police and reporters that she has asked Manfre about the disappearance of Albano, “Yes, Albano has a big house and plenty of money. He is being held for some of that money. His wife will be asked for it after things quiet down.

“At just noon today Mumphrey or Leone appeared at my house and asked to see me. I knew that he had at one time been a partner to my husband and told him to come on upstairs. Once in the house he placed his hand on his hip pocket and demanded $500 and my jewelry. He stated that if I did not give him the home he would kill me the same way he had killed my husband. I grabbed my revolver and began to shoot. He tried to run, so after one revolver was empty I seized another and killed him on the steps of my house.” Further newspaper accounts call Mumfre “Leone J. Manfre”.

The next day the police return to the murder scene, this time an anonymous tipster said that Albano was buried in his own yard. Police discovered a pile of lime in a subcellar boarded over with a dummy floor and another pile of lime in a secret passageway in the Albano house. Deep holes made by the officers in the back yard, failed to reveal any bones.

I recently uncovered a newspaper article that states that a Joseph Mumfrey was arrested in 1931 in New Orleans for violation of the Volstead Act. Not bad for somebody who was killed in Los Angeles in 1920!