The Axeman of New Orleans was a serial killer active in New Orleans, Louisiana (and surrounding communities, including Gretna, Louisiana), from May 1918 to October 1919. Press reports during the height of public panic about the killings mentioned similar murders as early as 1911, but recent researchers have called these reports into question. Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. ... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... State nickname: Pelican State Other U.S. States Capital Baton Rouge Largest city New Orleans Governor Kathleen Blanco Official languages None; English and French de facto Area 134,382 km² (31st)  - Land 112,927 km²  - Water 21,455 km² (16%) Population (2000)  - Population 4,468,976 (22nd)  - Density 39. ... Gretna is a city located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A database query syntax error has occurred. ...

As the killer's name implies, the victims were attacked with an axe. In some of the crimes, the doors to the victim's homes were first bashed open with the same tool. "The Axeman" was not caught or identified at the time, although his crime spree stopped as mysteriously as it started. The murderer's identity remains unknown to this day, although various possible identifications of varying plausibility have been proposed. Firefighter with a fire-axe An axe (also spelt as ax) is a tool with a metal blade that is securely fastened at a 90 degree angle to a handle, usually of wood, while a blade fastened horizontally is called an adze. ...

Not all of the Axeman's victims died, but the savagery and utter randomness of his attacks terrorized much of the populace. Some early victims were Italian American, in particular the son of Pietro Pepitone who had killed Black Hand extortionist Paul Di Christina (Paulo Marchese) several years before, leading the newspapers to assume the killings were somehow Mafia related (similar to New York's Black Hand assassin "Shotgun Man"). However later crimes clearly did not fit this profile, and the apprehension of the general public grew. His victims included a pregnant woman and even a baby killed in the arms of its mother. The Axeman also seemed to draw direct inspiration from Jack the Ripper: he (or someone claiming to be the Axeman) wrote taunting letters to city newspapers hinting at his future crimes and claiming to be a supernatural demon "from Hell." An Italian-American is an American of Italian descent. ... Black Hand, or Crna Ruka (Црна Рука), officially Ujedinjenje ili Smrt (Ујединјеје или Смрт) (Unification or Death) was a secret association founded in Serbia by pan- Serbian nationalists in May 1911 with the intention of uniting all of the territories containing Serb populations (notably Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed by Austria... The Mafia, also referred to as La Cosa Nostra (Italian, variously translated as This Thing Of Ours or Our Thing), is the collective name of various secret organizations in Italy, Sicily, Corsica and the United States. ... Jack the Ripper is the pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London, England in the second half of 1888. ... In Christian contexts, demons such as Satan are often depicted in a grotesque fashion. ... Medieval illustration of the Mouth of Hell Hell (according to many religious beliefs about the afterlife) is a place of torment and pain. ...

Most notoriously, on March 13, 1919, a letter purporting to be from the Axeman was published in the newspapers saying that he would kill again at 15 minutes past midnight on the night of March 19, but would spare the occupants of any place where a jazz band was playing. That night all of New Orleans's dance halls were filled to capacity, and professional and amateur bands played jazz at parties at hundreds of houses around town. There were no murders that night. March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... Jazz is a musical art form characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. ...

Not everyone was intimidated by the Axeman. Some well armed citizens sent the newspaper invitations for the Axeman to visit their houses that night and see who got killed first. One invitation promised to leave a window open for the Axeman, politely asking that he not damage the front door. Some firearms A firearm is a kinetic energy weapon that fires either a single or multiple projectiles propelled at high velocity by the gases produced by action of the rapid confined burning of a propellant. ...

Crime writer Colin Wilson speculates the Axeman could have been Joseph Mumfre, a man shot to death in Los Angeles in 1920 by the widow of Mike Pepitone, the Axeman's last known victim. Pepitone's widow, who served only three years for the killing, claimed to recognize Mumfre as the man she saw fleeing her home the night she discovered her husband's body. Though there is no direct proof of Mumfre's guilt, Wilson notes that Mumfre was in jail during all of the Axeman's "dormant" periods (including the period from 1912-1918), and free at all times the Axeman struck. Colin Henry Wilson (born June 26, British writer. ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... 1912 is a leap year starting on Monday. ...

The Axeman in popular culture

In 1919 local tune writer Joseph John Davilla wrote the song "The Mysterious Axeman's Jazz (Don't Scare Me Papa)". Published by New Orleans based World's Music Publishing Company, the cover depicted a family playing music with frightened looks on their faces.

In 1945 the book Gumbo Ya-Ya, A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales came out. The popular book contained a chapter on the Axeman entitled "Axeman's Jazz", which helped spark renewed interest in the Axeman. The book also reproduced the cover of the 1919 sheet music.

Writer Julie Smith used a fictionalized version of the Axeman events in her 1991 novel The Axeman's Jazz. A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ...

The Axeman killings are also referred to in the short story Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz by Poppy Z. Brite, published in 1997. Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite on May 25, 1967) is an American author born in New Orleans. ...

External links

• Axeman on CrimeLibrary.com (http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/axeman/) Multi-page discussion