The Axeman of New Orleans

Early in the morning of May 24, 1918 the Maggio family discovered that Joe Maggio and his wife had been attacked during the night. Joe's brother Jake who had the bedroom next door found Joe still holding on to the last breaths of life. He had been severely beaten. His wife was on the floor covered in blood, her head had been almost severed from her body.  Near the bed where Joe soon expired, was a cut-throat razor and a bloodied axe.

It was a ghastly sight and Jake Maggio quickly raced for the family, police and a doctor. Jake noticed that the killer must have entered through a chiselled out panel of the back door. Jake and another Maggio brother were quickly arrested as suspects in the murders. However later in the day police were told of graffiti two blocks from the murder. 

It said: Mrs Maggio is going to sit up tonight, just like Mrs Toney

Police new the person who wrote the message was referring to axe murders several years earlier, where Mrs Tony Schiambra was one of the victims.

On June 28, 1918 another attack occured. This time a baker found the back door of one of his customers chiselled away. When he looked inside he found the man Mr Besumer wondering around inside. He was quite unforlorn. Further inside the house was the man's wife, she too was alive though in a worse way than her husband. She told the baker of a large white man attacking her with an axe. It was her last words, she died soon after.

The police charged her Mr Besumer with murder, he may have been convicted had the killer not struck again within a few days..

In early August Mrs Schnieder was heavily pregnant when she was attacked by the axe-wielding killer. Her husband came home to find her covered in blood and only semi-conscious. She was rushed to hospital and survived the attack. The baby was born a few days later.

Within a week two young girls were awoken by terrible noises in their uncle's room. They went in to see if the uncle was ill and found him being attacked by a large man in a slouch hat. One of the girls screamed and the attacker fled.

By the end of August everyone was talking about the attacks in New Orleans, they feared a serial madman was on the loose and many reported the tiniest suspicious act. However for now the killer lay dormant.

Seven months later, in March 1919 the killer struck again. Grocer Charles Cortimiglia began screaming as he was attacked by the Axeman. A man across the street, Mr Jordano came across to investigate and found Cotrimiglia covered in blood on the floor of his apartment. In another room lay his bleeding wife who was still trying to protect their baby, who had died in the attack. Mrs Cortimiglia could only remember flashes of the attack and she blamed Mr Jordano her saviour as the killer. Jordano and his son were arrested against the protestations of Charles Cortimiglia.

Like the other houses, the Cortimiglia's had the back door panel chiselled away.

Echoing the highly publicised letters from Jack the Ripper the New Orleans killer did the same. He wrote a letter to the local newspaper, signing it "The Axeman" with the return address being "From Hell"

In the letter he said he would be returning to New Orleans to kill once more on the following Tuesday, March 19.. However he said he would pass over any house that was playing jazz music. The killer never came.

On August 10, 1919 the killer struck again. This time the victim was Steve Boca. Boca woke to find a man about to hit him with an axe, the killer struck and knocked Boca unconscious. When Boca regain consciousness he wandered out onto the street to find help.

On September 2, Pharmacist Mr Carlson fired a shot at his back door when he heard scratching, fearing the Axeman had come for him. Whoever was at the back door left quickly, leaving a chisel behind.

The next day the killer found another victim. Nineteen year old Sarah Lauman was attacked by the Axeman, she recovered but lost three teeth and her memory in the attack.

Mike Pepitone was the last victim of the killer. His wife heard Mike being attacked in another room and went to investigate and saw a man leave. On the bed was the woman's husband. He had been killed by a blow to the skull.

On December 7, 1920 Mrs Pepitone gunned down Joseph Mumfre on a street in Los Angeles. According to the woman, she recognised Mumfre as the man who killed her husband the year before.

For the murder Mrs Pepitone was sentenced to ten years in prison but was released three years later.

According to Colin Wilson, Mumfre could easily have been the killer. He had been in prison before the early 1911 murders. He was then in prison for 1912 to 1918, being released just shortly before the next murders. For the months that the attacks stopped Mumfre had returned to prison for a another short stint only to be released before th efinal murders begining in March 1919.

Bibliography

World Famous Unsolved Crimes: Colin and Damon Wilson, Magpie books 1992

True Crime Series Four: Serial Killers and Mass Murderers:  Valeri Jones and Peggy Collier, 1992

Written by Jacqui Bendeich

Copyright © 2002  by [The Crime Web].

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Original Written: January 27, 2002