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American Shadows: Unsolved · Spooky Season Podcasts 🎃

0:02
Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
0:05
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. We're fascinated
0:19
Speaker 1: by true crime. Psychologists say it's normal. We're drawn to
0:23
Speaker 1: good versus evil. True crime gives us a glimpse into
0:27
Speaker 1: the minds of people who commit taboos against society. We
0:31
Speaker 1: want to know who did it and why. We look
0:35
Speaker 1: for the red flags, hoping we might ward off future danger.
0:39
Speaker 1: But mostly we're hardwired for the story. It's the equivalent
0:44
Speaker 1: of gathering around a campfire, and if you hear one
0:47
Speaker 1: well told story, you'll want another. Of all crime stories,
0:52
Speaker 1: we are most obsessed with murder, from serial killers to
0:57
Speaker 1: unsolved homicides. We want those tails. We want to be
1:01
Speaker 1: scared from the safety of our own homes or cars
1:04
Speaker 1: or earbuds. We tell ourselves it can't happen to us,
1:08
Speaker 1: or that we saw it coming all along. But the
1:11
Speaker 1: cases where life seemed safe and normal, those terrify us
1:16
Speaker 1: the most. Take New Orleans at the end of World
1:19
Speaker 1: War One, for example, in late nineteen eighteen, Americans felt
1:24
Speaker 1: at peace again, optimism for the future. Sword in celebration,
1:29
Speaker 1: a new type of upbeat music swept the nation jazz.
1:33
Speaker 1: At the heart of the jazz age was New Orleans,
1:36
Speaker 1: where a combination of swing and blues with a big
1:39
Speaker 1: band sound kept people dancing at nightclubs throughout the French Quarter.
1:43
Speaker 1: The city was growing and people found New Orleans a
1:46
Speaker 1: welcome place to earn a living. In less than a decade,
1:49
Speaker 1: there had been the edition of an amusement park, libraries,
1:52
Speaker 1: as zoo, and several large businesses. The now world famous
1:56
Speaker 1: Our Nose restaurant opened. Life was Good. On May twenty
2:01
Speaker 1: third of nineteen eighteen, Jake and Andrew Maggio went to
2:04
Speaker 1: their brother's home on the corner of Upperline and Magnolia,
2:07
Speaker 1: like they did every morning. They had let themselves in
2:10
Speaker 1: and called to their brother, Joseph and his wife Katherine.
2:14
Speaker 1: When the couple didn't answer, they searched the home and
2:17
Speaker 1: stumbled across a gruesome discovery. Joseph and Katherine lay in
2:21
Speaker 1: their bed. Some one had slashed their throats with a
2:24
Speaker 1: straight razor, then struck their heads with an axe. Catherine's
2:28
Speaker 1: throat had been cut so deep that her head had
2:31
Speaker 1: practically been severed. Joseph clung to life, but died before
2:35
Speaker 1: his brothers could summon help. Police searched the home, finding
2:39
Speaker 1: a pile of bloody clothes. The killer had cleaned up
2:42
Speaker 1: and changed into Joseph's clothing while the couple bled out
2:46
Speaker 1: jewelry and money sat in plain sight. There had been
2:49
Speaker 1: no sign of struggle or vandalism. The killer had had
2:52
Speaker 1: a single focus. By August, four more people had been
2:57
Speaker 1: killed and others left for dead. All had been attacked
3:00
Speaker 1: by a man with an axe, and all the victims
3:04
Speaker 1: were Italian immigrants. Dubbed the axe Man, the killer terrorized
3:09
Speaker 1: the city. Men in the Italian community began trading shifts,
3:12
Speaker 1: taking up watch from their porches to protect their families.
3:16
Speaker 1: In nineteen nineteen, he crossed the river and struck again,
3:20
Speaker 1: this time in the town of Gretna. He badly injured
3:23
Speaker 1: a husband and wife before taking the axe to their
3:26
Speaker 1: two year old daughter. Police and Gretna initially believed neighbors
3:29
Speaker 1: were to blame. They ran a competing grocery business. Detectives
3:34
Speaker 1: visited the couple in the hospital, often asking if the
3:37
Speaker 1: two men who lived next door were the ones who
3:39
Speaker 1: attacked them. After the wife, Rosie, left the hospital, police
3:44
Speaker 1: arrested her as a material witness. They refused to let
3:47
Speaker 1: her go until she signed an affidavit naming her neighbors
3:50
Speaker 1: as the killers. After a brief trial, the men were convicted,
3:55
Speaker 1: one faced a life sentence and the other was set
3:57
Speaker 1: to hang. Rosie walked to the local newspaper office and
4:01
Speaker 1: signed another appadavit stating she had been coerced into her confession.
4:05
Speaker 1: The police threatened her with perjury, but she didn't back down.
4:09
Speaker 1: Her neighbors were released in December. On March fourteenth, nineteen nineteen,
4:14
Speaker 1: the Times Picayune received an open letter from the Axe
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Speaker 1: Man to the people of New Orleans. He promised to
4:20
Speaker 1: leave the city the following Tuesday at twelve fifteen am
4:24
Speaker 1: if the citizens would play jazz at that time. On
4:28
Speaker 1: March nineteenth, at a quarter past midnight, the sound of
4:32
Speaker 1: jazz filled homes and dance clubs, and just like that,
4:36
Speaker 1: the Axe Man of New Orleans vanished. The police believed
4:41
Speaker 1: the crimes were racially motivated. Prejudice towards those with Italian
4:45
Speaker 1: heritage was common. Police choked up the killings as a
4:48
Speaker 1: vendetta over perceived American jobs lost to Italian immigrants. Other
4:53
Speaker 1: detectives suggested that the attacks had been mafia related, though
4:56
Speaker 1: no evidence supported that theory. It was the first time
5:00
Speaker 1: the Italian community had been accused of inciting violence in
5:04
Speaker 1: New Orleans. All that stood between life and death for
5:07
Speaker 1: Italian American citizens and the Axe Men killings was time
5:11
Speaker 1: and apparently jazz. In the late eighteen eighties, though that
5:17
Speaker 1: line was held by an Irish cop with a talent
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Speaker 1: for solving crimes and for making enemies. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum,
5:27
Speaker 1: Welcome to American shadows. Depending on which side of the
5:40
Speaker 1: law they were on, the people of New Orleans either
5:43
Speaker 1: loved or hated David Hennessy Jr. What was agreed on, though,
5:47
Speaker 1: is that he made a name for himself in law
5:49
Speaker 1: enforcement right from the start, and by all accounts, he
5:53
Speaker 1: had got his tenacity from his father, David Sr. Who
5:56
Speaker 1: returned from the Civil War and joined the New Orleans
5:59
Speaker 1: Metropolitan Ease. It was the only place that would hire him,
6:02
Speaker 1: considering his mix of Union support and Irish heritage of
6:06
Speaker 1: complete with some stereotypical heavy drinking. But the police force
6:10
Speaker 1: there had supported the Union's efforts during the war, which
6:13
Speaker 1: meant the local citizens who had prospered from slavery weren't
6:17
Speaker 1: supportive of their police department. Like many on the force,
6:21
Speaker 1: David Hennessey Senior was a big man, and he spent
6:25
Speaker 1: plenty of time with his fellow officers at the local bars,
6:28
Speaker 1: drinking and occasionally getting into fights. One night in eighteen
6:32
Speaker 1: sixty six, one such fight got out of hand. A
6:36
Speaker 1: man identified only as a Grouper hurled racial insults, especially
6:40
Speaker 1: toward the Irish American officers. During the ensuing fight, Grouper
6:44
Speaker 1: was stabbed fatally, and in the aftermath every officer in
6:48
Speaker 1: the bar was arrested. The case went to trial, and
6:52
Speaker 1: a few of the officers were released when the prosecution
6:54
Speaker 1: couldn't provide solid evidence that they had been the ones
6:57
Speaker 1: who had stabbed Grouper. David Sr. Was among them. Some
7:02
Speaker 1: people didn't believe he was innocent, though. On Christmas Eve
7:05
Speaker 1: of eight sixty eight, Hennessy smelled smoke in his house.
7:09
Speaker 1: An arsonist had set the home on fire, hoping to
7:12
Speaker 1: catch the family asleep. They all got out just in time.
7:16
Speaker 1: Three months later, Hennessy sat with one Mister Gayron, a
7:20
Speaker 1: former cop turned underworld hitman, at a bar near the courthouse.
7:24
Speaker 1: Garron had been arrested for his crimes, but had walked
7:27
Speaker 1: free every time. As the two men drank, they began
7:31
Speaker 1: to argue. Geron suggested they paused the discussion long enough
7:35
Speaker 1: to order another round of drinks. Hennessy rose to get them,
7:38
Speaker 1: and that's when Gayme drew a gun and shot three
7:41
Speaker 1: rounds into his chest. Garon claimed it was self defense.
7:46
Speaker 1: He was arrested, of course, just two weeks later, though
7:49
Speaker 1: he walked free. The court decided that Hennessy's reputation was
7:54
Speaker 1: all the proof they needed to buy the self defense plea.
7:57
Speaker 1: One of Hennessy's fellow officers gave a eulogy at his funeral.
8:02
Speaker 1: He said David had been an honorable cop and pointed
8:05
Speaker 1: out all the good he had done for the city.
8:07
Speaker 1: But those kind words were small consolation for his widow
8:11
Speaker 1: and young son, David Jr. There were no pensions set
8:14
Speaker 1: aside for officers laying outside of the line of duty.
8:18
Speaker 1: Margaret and David Junior had nowhere to go except the poorhouse.
8:23
Speaker 1: Two years later, in eighteen seventy, Hennessey's former boss hired
8:27
Speaker 1: twelve year old David Junior as a messenger for the
8:30
Speaker 1: Metropolitan Police. Despite his young age, he proved to be
8:34
Speaker 1: a reliable and diligent worker. Like father, like son. As
8:38
Speaker 1: a teen, he confronted two adult thieves in the act. Unarmed,
8:42
Speaker 1: he not only subdued them both, but hauled them to
8:44
Speaker 1: the police department single handedly. The superintendent immediately hired Hennessey
8:49
Speaker 1: as the youngest cop on the force. In two years,
8:53
Speaker 1: David Hennessey Junior became a detective. The superintendent was so
8:58
Speaker 1: taken by his work ethic and polite many inner, but
9:00
Speaker 1: when he retired in eighteen seventy eight, he fired everyone
9:03
Speaker 1: on his team except for the young detective. That left
9:08
Speaker 1: a lot of department openings and angry former cops. Hennessy's
9:12
Speaker 1: cousin Mike, joined the force, and the two frequently teamed
9:15
Speaker 1: up to solve the city's toughest cases. Then, in eighteen
9:19
Speaker 1: eighty one, an Italian diplomat presented Chief of Police Thomas
9:22
Speaker 1: Boylan with a photograph. In it he pointed to a
9:26
Speaker 1: middle aged man with dark hair, eyes, and mustache. The
9:30
Speaker 1: Italian government wanted to find him with the utmost discretion.
9:34
Speaker 1: The man, Giuseppe f Posito, had kidnapped an English clergyman
9:38
Speaker 1: who had been traveling in Italy. Esposito had committed the
9:41
Speaker 1: crime in broad daylight. He had forced Reverend Rose to
9:44
Speaker 1: write his own ransom note demanding a thousand pounds for
9:47
Speaker 1: his safe return, and Esposito had included an incentive with
9:52
Speaker 1: the letter, one of the reverend's ears. When the Rose
9:55
Speaker 1: family couldn't come up with the money, they received the
9:58
Speaker 1: other ear. The British government didn't take the crime lightly.
10:02
Speaker 1: They sent military troops to rescue Reverend Rose and capture
10:05
Speaker 1: as Posito. The mission was successful and the case was
10:09
Speaker 1: awaiting trial when Esposito escaped, had been trapped as far
10:13
Speaker 1: as New Orleans, but the Metropolitan Police and the Italian
10:17
Speaker 1: and British governments weren't the only ones interested in finding Esposito.
10:22
Speaker 1: A hotshot New York detective by the name of James
10:24
Speaker 1: Mooney was also looking for the escaped convict. Believing the
10:28
Speaker 1: Italian government already had as Posito in custody, he barged
10:32
Speaker 1: into the Italian consulate, demanding that they hand him over.
10:36
Speaker 1: Chief Boilingen handed the complicated case to the department's star
10:39
Speaker 1: Detective Hennessy, was determined es Posito wouldn't escape justice, but
10:44
Speaker 1: he had to find him quick. Mooney's arrest paperwork hadn't
10:48
Speaker 1: been properly filed, and if the New York detective captured
10:51
Speaker 1: him first, the Italian kidnapper would walk free on a technicality.
10:57
Speaker 1: It would make a better story if the man hunt
10:59
Speaker 1: had been drawn out dramatic, but Hennessy and his cousin
11:03
Speaker 1: made it look easy. They knapped Esposito in the middle
11:06
Speaker 1: of the night, and that's not to say their prisoner
11:08
Speaker 1: went willingly, though he fought the entire way to the
11:11
Speaker 1: awaiting police carriage. He was transported to a ship and
11:15
Speaker 1: taken back to Italy for his crimes overnight. David Hennessey Jr.
11:20
Speaker 1: Became a local hero, but that faded just as quickly
11:23
Speaker 1: when a dark scandal within the force suddenly came into focus.
11:37
Speaker 1: A rift developed between the Chief of Police and the
11:40
Speaker 1: new Chief of Detectives that year, Thomas Devereaux, had no
11:44
Speaker 1: experience had been appointed politically. The power struggle between the
11:48
Speaker 1: two men quickly made headlines, with each side accusing the
11:51
Speaker 1: other of corruption, favoritism, and deteriorating the force. Hennessey Junior
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Speaker 1: and his cousin, Mike, didn't like Devereaux, and the feeling
12:00
Speaker 1: was mutual. The new chief charged Mike with insubordination after
12:04
Speaker 1: a couple of arguments. The police board reviewed the incidents
12:08
Speaker 1: and censored Devereaux. The chief's career began to tank, and
12:12
Speaker 1: he was determined to take the Hennessey cousins down with him.
12:16
Speaker 1: He had Mike charged with drunken assault at a brothel
12:19
Speaker 1: on Basin Street. He claimed Mike had pointed his gun
12:22
Speaker 1: at a man and used language unbecoming of an officer.
12:26
Speaker 1: Then he charged David with abandoning his post. Serious accusations,
12:30
Speaker 1: but neither solidly based in fact. Mike presented a letter
12:34
Speaker 1: to the Police Board of Commissioners from the brothels Madame,
12:37
Speaker 1: saying had been well behaved. When the board called for
12:40
Speaker 1: the victim and witnesses to step forward, none did. All
12:44
Speaker 1: the board had on Mike was visiting a brothel, which
12:47
Speaker 1: wasn't precisely legal, but the case was dropped. The Board
12:51
Speaker 1: of Commissioners also dropped the charges against Tennessee, he hadn't
12:55
Speaker 1: abandoned his post, had been sick, and had sent a
12:57
Speaker 1: messenger to the station informing his boss. The mayor suspended Devereaux. Then,
13:03
Speaker 1: on October twelfth of eighteen eighty one, the Chief of
13:05
Speaker 1: Detectives was fired. The next day, Devereaux was at a
13:09
Speaker 1: shop on the corner of Gravier and Charles Avenue when
13:12
Speaker 1: he spotted Mike standing on the sidewalk outside Clerks dough
13:16
Speaker 1: for cover as a hail of bullets shattered the windows
13:19
Speaker 1: from the inside. Mike took a bullet to the face,
13:22
Speaker 1: breaking his teeth and jaw before lodging in his neck.
13:26
Speaker 1: As he lay bleeding on the sidewalk, Devereux stepped outside
13:30
Speaker 1: and aimed once more. He never saw David running toward him,
13:33
Speaker 1: gunn drawn. Moments later, the former chief was dead by nightfall.
13:39
Speaker 1: Devereux's friends were insisting Mike and David had staged an ambush.
13:44
Speaker 1: Mike survived the shooting and was resting comfortably at the hospital,
13:47
Speaker 1: while his cousin slept in a jail cell. The case
13:50
Speaker 1: went to court in April of eighteen eighty two. Witnesses
13:54
Speaker 1: for both sides presented their testimony, but in the end
13:58
Speaker 1: the Henesses were acquitted. Though they were free, their careers
14:02
Speaker 1: were over. Mike and his wife relocated to Texas. David
14:08
Speaker 1: found success working in private security. Corruption and turmoil within
14:12
Speaker 1: the city made sure there was plenty of work, and
14:14
Speaker 1: wealthy citizens paid handsomely. Chief Boylan quit the Metropolitan Force
14:19
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty two and joined the private security business
14:22
Speaker 1: as well. In eight eight former Mayor Shakespeare was reelected
14:27
Speaker 1: and asked David to come back to the police department,
14:29
Speaker 1: this time as the chief of Police. The department had
14:32
Speaker 1: seen a decade of corruption, and David thought he might
14:35
Speaker 1: do some good by cleaning it up. Officers who were
14:39
Speaker 1: trustworthy and had the best interest of the city at
14:41
Speaker 1: heart he supported in every way. He asked for safety
14:45
Speaker 1: gear in higher wages. His effort became the top of
14:48
Speaker 1: the town. People described Hennessey as a handsome man, though
14:52
Speaker 1: quick to anger, like his father, playing into their stereotype
14:56
Speaker 1: of the Irish, but unlike his dad, they admitted, he
14:59
Speaker 1: never touched a drop of alcohol. By eighteen ninety, Hennessy
15:04
Speaker 1: had cleaned up a lot of the corruption inside the
15:06
Speaker 1: Metropolitan Police. However, criminal activity, especially committed against Italian immigrants,
15:12
Speaker 1: plagued him. Violence within the Italian community flourished as well.
15:17
Speaker 1: That year, a string of vendetic killings made headlines. In
15:21
Speaker 1: his attempt to stop the violence, Hennessy found himself in
15:24
Speaker 1: the middle of two families believed to be involved in
15:27
Speaker 1: the city's criminal underworld, the Matranga and Provenzano families were
15:32
Speaker 1: business rivals on the waterfront. One night, the two families
15:35
Speaker 1: ended up in a shootout, with fatalities on both sides.
15:40
Speaker 1: While the case awaited trial, Hennessy investigated both families. He
15:44
Speaker 1: learned the Patrongas had ties to the Italian crime syndicates.
15:48
Speaker 1: The headlines weren't kind to either family, claiming that both
15:52
Speaker 1: sides were bugs and part of the mob. In turn,
15:55
Speaker 1: talk began around town that Hennessy was protecting criminals instead
15:59
Speaker 1: of fighting them. Once he testified on behalf of the
16:02
Speaker 1: Provenzano family, rumors flew that the police chief was siding
16:06
Speaker 1: with the mafia. On October fift of eighteen ninety, the
16:10
Speaker 1: cold rain had been relentless. It was late and attired,
16:14
Speaker 1: Hennessey headed home after a long police board meeting. He
16:18
Speaker 1: bit his friend Billy O'Connor good night on the corner
16:20
Speaker 1: of Rampart and Gerard. Then, with only the rain to
16:23
Speaker 1: keep him company, he made his way home. A block over.
16:27
Speaker 1: Just as he passed his neighbor's house, the gunfire erupted,
16:31
Speaker 1: bullets striking the buildings lodging in the plaster and wood.
16:34
Speaker 1: O'Connor heard the shots and ran back When the gunfire stopped,
16:38
Speaker 1: neighbors hurried outside. Someone had shot David Hennessey Jr. O'Connor
16:44
Speaker 1: knelt next to him, and seeing the bullet wounds and
16:47
Speaker 1: the amount of blood, he knew time was short. Who
16:50
Speaker 1: did this to you? He asked? Some say Hennessy told
16:54
Speaker 1: O'Connor that the Italians did it. Other reports dispute that,
16:58
Speaker 1: saying he was too injured too possibly name his assailants.
17:02
Speaker 1: Either way, As the chief of police, looking to eliminate
17:04
Speaker 1: crime both inside and outside of his department, he had
17:08
Speaker 1: plenty of enemies. Hennessy died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
17:21
Speaker 1: Had accomplished a lot in his short career. He was
17:23
Speaker 1: just thirty two years old. O'Connor's report that the Italians
17:27
Speaker 1: had killed him spread through the department like wildfire. Police
17:32
Speaker 1: rounded up every Italian American they could find. Before long,
17:35
Speaker 1: the cells were crowded. They searched homes for weapons without warrants.
17:40
Speaker 1: After questioning, some of the arrested immigrants were released. The
17:44
Speaker 1: next morning, two paper boys arrived at the police station
17:47
Speaker 1: to turn in a sawed off shotgun that found in
17:50
Speaker 1: the gutter near Basin and Julia Street. The police noticed,
17:53
Speaker 1: and had been redesigned in a way that allowed the
17:56
Speaker 1: weapon to fold up. Most likely, the killer had hidden
17:59
Speaker 1: it under oat. The police followed the boys back to
18:02
Speaker 1: the location where they had found the gun. A quick
18:05
Speaker 1: search turned up another shotgun. By noon, the whole town
18:09
Speaker 1: had heard about the murder. People showed up at the
18:12
Speaker 1: police station with information, regardless of whether they had witnessed
18:15
Speaker 1: the murder or not. Some tipsters claimed the Matrongas had
18:20
Speaker 1: killed Hennessy out of revenge. Others thought the mafia had
18:23
Speaker 1: killed him in retaliation for putting away Esposito years ago.
18:27
Speaker 1: Whatever the motive behind the murder, most of the town
18:30
Speaker 1: agreed the Italians were to blame and demanded aggressive action
18:33
Speaker 1: against them. Hennessy's portrait sat on easels at the courthouse.
18:39
Speaker 1: Black crape hung from the walls and courtrooms, and at
18:41
Speaker 1: central station. The morbidly curious flocked to look at the
18:45
Speaker 1: bloodstained street and bullet riddled buildings. Hennessy had lived with
18:50
Speaker 1: his ailing mother, too, better care for her than the
18:52
Speaker 1: constant stream of people outside, upset her. Undertakers brought his
18:57
Speaker 1: body to his mother's home and giving her the chance
19:00
Speaker 1: to view her son's body privately without the prying eyes
19:03
Speaker 1: of the public. She had lost her husband and now
19:06
Speaker 1: her son. Flowers and telegrams of sympathy poured in from
19:10
Speaker 1: across the country. Mrs Hensey opened her home to the
19:13
Speaker 1: public for viewing on October and starting at six am,
19:18
Speaker 1: people came by to pay their respects. At ten am,
19:21
Speaker 1: police pallbearers carried the casket out to the waiting horse
19:24
Speaker 1: drawn hearse. The police escorted the hearse to City Hall,
19:28
Speaker 1: where Henessey's body lay in state while the city mourned.
19:33
Speaker 1: A man named Thomas Duffy arrived at the Orleans Parish
19:36
Speaker 1: Prison bullpen. He asked to speak with a man named Scaffty.
19:40
Speaker 1: When guards brought the prisoner out, Duffy drew a pistol
19:43
Speaker 1: and shot him. Duffy insisted that Scaffity, one of the
19:47
Speaker 1: men recently rounded up, had been Hennessy's assassin. He ranted
19:52
Speaker 1: that if he had to say, every Italian would be
19:54
Speaker 1: run out of town. Duffy was taken to jail, though
19:57
Speaker 1: hit only serve a six month sentence, and that wasn't
20:00
Speaker 1: the only violence, though fights broke out. By the time
20:05
Speaker 1: the police had thanked Missus Hennessey for her son's service
20:07
Speaker 1: and taken her home. A hundred more Italian Americans were arrested.
20:12
Speaker 1: No one looked further than the Italian community. On October eighteenth,
20:18
Speaker 1: Mayor Shakespeare stood at City Hall before a large crowd
20:21
Speaker 1: and railed against the Italians. He shouted that something had
20:25
Speaker 1: to be done about the problems that brought to New Orleans.
20:28
Speaker 1: The crowd cheered and echoed the mayor's sentiments. Nineteen more
20:33
Speaker 1: men were dragged into the station on suspicion that they
20:35
Speaker 1: were affiliated with the Metroangas and the mafia, though no
20:39
Speaker 1: evidence supported the claims. In newspapers continued to carry the
20:43
Speaker 1: headlines that Hennessy's death had been a vendetta, painting the
20:47
Speaker 1: entire Italian community as violent. It was a powder quet
20:51
Speaker 1: for an anti Italian riot, making matters worse. Some of
20:55
Speaker 1: the defendants received mysterious funding for their legal fees, and
20:59
Speaker 1: instigations soon revealed that Lionel Adams, a non Italian lawyer,
21:03
Speaker 1: had fronted the money, but residents speculated that the money
21:07
Speaker 1: had come from the Italian community, who in turn had
21:09
Speaker 1: gotten it from the mafia. The Italian prisoners remained in
21:13
Speaker 1: jail until February six of eight. Slowly, some of the
21:18
Speaker 1: men were released four lack of evidence, leaving nine defendants.
21:23
Speaker 1: As the trial dragged on, so called witnesses could hardly
21:26
Speaker 1: get their stories straight. The defense pointed out the chaos,
21:30
Speaker 1: but surely the jurors couldn't be beyond reasonable doubt. After
21:34
Speaker 1: two weeks, the jurors remained deadlocked and the judge declared
21:38
Speaker 1: a mistrial. As the defendants were escorted out of the courtroom,
21:42
Speaker 1: shouts and jeers rippled through the crowd gathered outside. A
21:46
Speaker 1: few shouted that the mayor had been right. Something had
21:49
Speaker 1: to be done, and if the law couldn't or wouldn't
21:52
Speaker 1: do it, then they would. They called themselves the Committee
21:57
Speaker 1: of fifty from the lowest wage or two prominent business men.
22:01
Speaker 1: The group handed out leaflets calling on every non Italian
22:04
Speaker 1: resident to show up for a meeting the next day.
22:07
Speaker 1: A great miscarriage of justice had been done, and as
22:10
Speaker 1: concerned citizens, it was their duty to set things right.
22:14
Speaker 1: The next morning, speakers from the group fired up the crowd.
22:18
Speaker 1: It was all up to the citizens, They said. They
22:21
Speaker 1: needed to make the city safe again and carry out
22:23
Speaker 1: proper justice. They said the police force and judicial system
22:27
Speaker 1: were corrupt that the mafia had gotten to them. Ten
22:31
Speaker 1: thousand people marched towards the parish prison. Shopkeepers and business
22:36
Speaker 1: owners cheered as they passed, fueling the crowd sense of righteousness.
22:40
Speaker 1: The Italian consuls repeated pleas for assistance against the crowd,
22:44
Speaker 1: were ignored. The prison sheriff made a few last minute
22:47
Speaker 1: efforts to secure the prison, but nothing could stop the
22:50
Speaker 1: thousands of rioters. The angry crowd broke past the gates
22:54
Speaker 1: and forced their way inside. They overtook any guard in
22:57
Speaker 1: their path to the holding cells. Nine Italian men were
23:01
Speaker 1: shot on sight, one of them forty two times. Then
23:06
Speaker 1: they dragged the bodies outside, along with two other Italian
23:09
Speaker 1: men still alive. They hung them from lamp posts, along
23:13
Speaker 1: with the corpses from the nine other men. It was
23:15
Speaker 1: one of the worst lynchings in America. Oddly enough, the
23:20
Speaker 1: crowd had left two men who were considered ringleaders of
23:23
Speaker 1: the French Quarter mafia alive and unharmed inside the prison,
23:28
Speaker 1: making some contemplate the real motives behind the lynching. The
23:32
Speaker 1: mayor never took responsibility for his suggestions that something had
23:35
Speaker 1: to be done with the Italians. Ethnic hatreds spilled into
23:39
Speaker 1: other states, where more violence against Italians was reported. The
23:44
Speaker 1: following morning, newspapers praised the crowd for the lynchings. The
23:47
Speaker 1: people convinced themselves their actions had been justified. It hadn't
23:52
Speaker 1: been of vendetta, they told themselves, and that was for
23:55
Speaker 1: the mafia. What they had done was justice. Hennessy's killers
23:59
Speaker 1: would walk free, but they might have been wrong about that.
24:10
Speaker 1: It wasn't over quite yet. Although the public had applauded
24:13
Speaker 1: the crowd's decision to lynch the men, a grand jury
24:16
Speaker 1: convened to investigate on March sevent to get to the
24:21
Speaker 1: root of the story, they also had to reopen Hennessy's
24:24
Speaker 1: murder case as well. Weeks went by as the city
24:28
Speaker 1: waited for the verdict. On May five, the jury announced
24:31
Speaker 1: that the crowd had stormed the prison, had formed spontaneously
24:35
Speaker 1: and had not initially set out to harm anyone. Though
24:39
Speaker 1: they had been swept up in the moment and eleven
24:41
Speaker 1: men were killed, it was more than understandable, it was praiseworthy. Further,
24:46
Speaker 1: they claimed that the mafia had bribed members of the
24:48
Speaker 1: jury and the Hennessy trial who had voted against conviction.
24:52
Speaker 1: No action would be taken against them because the court
24:55
Speaker 1: claimed the unnamed jurors feared retaliation. The Committee of fifty
25:00
Speaker 1: released their own report, stating that they had acted on
25:02
Speaker 1: the Mayor's speech that something be done. They also said
25:06
Speaker 1: had permitted them to investigate all Italians. In their report,
25:10
Speaker 1: they named several Italian families, stating they often gave substantial
25:14
Speaker 1: money to the criminal underground in New Orleans. They also
25:18
Speaker 1: claimed the Italian consul Corte admitted to knowing a purely
25:22
Speaker 1: Italian criminal class operated in the city. Facts and evidence
25:27
Speaker 1: were vague. They strongly suggested that the city refused to
25:31
Speaker 1: accept Italian immigrants or anyone who even looked Sicilian, and
25:36
Speaker 1: their suggestion fueled the bias that anyone with an olive
25:40
Speaker 1: complexion and dark hair and eyes must be a criminal.
25:44
Speaker 1: By the late eighteen eighties, other Americans became fascinated with
25:48
Speaker 1: what they perceived to be secret Italian societies where crime flourished.
25:53
Speaker 1: Even Harper's Weekly promoted ethnic hatred while reporting the Hennessey murder,
25:57
Speaker 1: stating the attack had been made by quote a murderous
26:00
Speaker 1: society long formidable in Sicily and transplanted to this country
26:04
Speaker 1: by Sicilian immigrants. Hennessy had been a first generation American,
26:09
Speaker 1: had witnessed how the Irish had been blamed for crimes
26:12
Speaker 1: simply because of stereotypes. Although the Committee of Fifty believed
26:16
Speaker 1: the men that had lynched that day were mafia assassins
26:19
Speaker 1: and therefore deserved to die, no evidence has ever been
26:22
Speaker 1: found that associated them with the mafia. With the evidence
26:28
Speaker 1: or black thereof, it's hard to say whether Hennessy's assassination
26:31
Speaker 1: was an inside job or not. Had racial Divide been
26:35
Speaker 1: a smoke screen, or did the mafia have him killed
26:38
Speaker 1: for capturing us Posito. It might have been any number
26:41
Speaker 1: of men had put away crooked cops, disgruntled officers, or
26:45
Speaker 1: even one of Devereaux's connected friends. And Sadly, although Hennessy
26:50
Speaker 1: had a reputation for buttoning up the toughest of crimes,
26:54
Speaker 1: his own murder has yet to be solved. There's more
27:00
Speaker 1: to this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break
27:03
Speaker 1: to hear all about it. Locked room Mysteries. They're the
27:14
Speaker 1: perfect impossible crime. They've been a favorite of detective story
27:19
Speaker 1: fans for decades, so it's hard to believe that in
27:22
Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds the genre had all but faded
27:25
Speaker 1: into obscurity, that is, until Joseph Elwell. On the morning
27:31
Speaker 1: of June eleventh of nineteen twenty, the milkman dropped off
27:34
Speaker 1: the daily delivery at a large New York brownstone. The
27:38
Speaker 1: gates outside were closed and locked, as he expected. At
27:42
Speaker 1: eight thirty a m. Marie Larson, l Well's maid, arrived
27:45
Speaker 1: for work. Pink women's lingerie lay strewn on the floor.
27:50
Speaker 1: After picking it up, she looked for her employer. She
27:53
Speaker 1: found the living room door locked from the inside, which
27:56
Speaker 1: was unusual, and she fished the key from her pocket.
28:00
Speaker 1: Upon entry, a cursory glance told her el Well was
28:03
Speaker 1: at his desk, back toward her in his tall wingback chair.
28:08
Speaker 1: When he didn't respond to several greetings, she drew closer
28:11
Speaker 1: and discovered a toothless, balding man gasping for breath with
28:15
Speaker 1: a bullet wound in his head. In her shock, it
28:19
Speaker 1: took a moment before she realized the man was el Well,
28:21
Speaker 1: without his dentures and wig. Naturally, she called the police,
28:26
Speaker 1: but not before hiding the lingerie in the clothes hamper.
28:29
Speaker 1: Elwell was still alive when police showed up, but died
28:32
Speaker 1: shortly after arriving at the hospital. The police debated how
28:36
Speaker 1: he could have been shot at close range inside a
28:39
Speaker 1: locked room. El Well's brownstone was a virtual fortress, according
28:44
Speaker 1: to those who knew him. No one gained entry unless
28:47
Speaker 1: they were expected. A pile of half opened mail sat
28:50
Speaker 1: on his desk. No one except Elwell had been seen
28:53
Speaker 1: entering the home during the last hours of his life.
28:56
Speaker 1: Given the lack of dentures and hair piece, detective's surmise
29:00
Speaker 1: had known his killer, So who shot him Well? There
29:04
Speaker 1: were plenty of suspects, nearly a thousand according to police reports.
29:10
Speaker 1: In the nineteen teens, Elwell was living the American dream.
29:14
Speaker 1: He had started life as an insurance salesman and found
29:17
Speaker 1: the charm worked wonders at making deals. It worked so
29:20
Speaker 1: well that he used his charisma to gain access to
29:23
Speaker 1: an elite men's club reserved for the sons of the
29:26
Speaker 1: rich upper class. The club revolved around Bridge. The game
29:31
Speaker 1: had taken the country by storm, and the better players
29:33
Speaker 1: earned quite a bit of money. For forty three year
29:36
Speaker 1: old Elwell, though, the club provided the perfect opportunity to
29:40
Speaker 1: make wealthy connections with business tycoons and politicians. Elwell was
29:45
Speaker 1: an exceptionally good player, and his ruthlessness at the table
29:48
Speaker 1: earned him the nickname the bridge King of Manhattan. His
29:52
Speaker 1: prowess attracted the best of partners. Harold Sterling Vanderbilt, grandson
29:56
Speaker 1: of the railroad executive, He introduced Elwell to another socialite
30:00
Speaker 1: and bridge player, Helen Derby. Being the social climber he was,
30:05
Speaker 1: it didn't take Elwell long to find that Helen's connections
30:08
Speaker 1: would be beneficial. Her cousin, Richard Derby, was married to
30:12
Speaker 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt's daughter Ethel Not to mention the young
30:16
Speaker 1: socialite came from money as well. Their courtship was quick,
30:20
Speaker 1: and before long the two married with his wealthy young
30:24
Speaker 1: wife and wins at the bridge table. Elwell left the
30:27
Speaker 1: insurance business and spent his time either socializing, playing bridge,
30:30
Speaker 1: or teaching affluent students how to play the game. Now
30:34
Speaker 1: part of the upper class, he purchased a second home
30:36
Speaker 1: in Palm Beach, Florida, along with twenty racehorses, five cars,
30:40
Speaker 1: and a yacht. Helen was simply a means to acquire wealth.
30:45
Speaker 1: Then he immediately embarked on multiple affairs. He had so
30:49
Speaker 1: many that Derby left in nineteen sixteen, taking their five
30:52
Speaker 1: year old son with her. Free of his wife and child,
30:55
Speaker 1: but still living off her money, Elwell took his womanizing
30:59
Speaker 1: to a new level. He engaged in numerous encounters with
31:02
Speaker 1: bridge students, cocktail waitresses, and the wives of very prominent
31:06
Speaker 1: business and political associates, as well as those of his
31:09
Speaker 1: fellow players. Married women seemed to be his favorite. Between
31:14
Speaker 1: gambling enemies, a host of angry husbands, and his demands
31:18
Speaker 1: in the divorce settlement, Elwell had become the most despised
31:21
Speaker 1: man in New York. He didn't care, though. He was
31:25
Speaker 1: determined to have a good time, even at the expense
31:29
Speaker 1: of those who helped him along the way. On June
31:32
Speaker 1: tenth of nineteen twenty, Elwell wined and dined Viola Krauss,
31:36
Speaker 1: who had just recently divorced her wealthy husband. The couple
31:40
Speaker 1: enjoyed a lavish dinner and a night of dancing at
31:42
Speaker 1: the Ritz Carlton. Afterward, they attended a Zigfeld midnight frolic
31:46
Speaker 1: show in Times Square that ended around one thirty a m.
31:50
Speaker 1: Viola took a taxi home, while Elwell said he preferred
31:53
Speaker 1: to walk. Times Square was a good two and a
31:56
Speaker 1: half miles from Elwell's brownstone on East Sandieth though he
32:01
Speaker 1: didn't head home. He made a stop, probably a planned
32:05
Speaker 1: one that he hadn't told Viola about, at a cafe
32:08
Speaker 1: on Broadway. Witnesses said he spent some time with two
32:12
Speaker 1: men and another woman. They said he left with the
32:14
Speaker 1: trio in a flashy roadster. Phone records show Viola called
32:19
Speaker 1: Elwell at two thirty a m. She later told police
32:23
Speaker 1: that he never answered. His neighbors said a noisy roadster
32:26
Speaker 1: pulled up outside the brownstone at three forty five, but
32:29
Speaker 1: only Elwell exited the vehicle. A search turned up the lingerie,
32:34
Speaker 1: and they questioned the maid. Then they questioned Viola, who
32:38
Speaker 1: admitted the lingerie was hers and that she had been
32:41
Speaker 1: intimate with Elwell on multiple occasions in the past, but
32:44
Speaker 1: denied being with him the knight of his murder. Her
32:47
Speaker 1: ex husband had an air tight alibi. L Well's estranged
32:51
Speaker 1: wife wasn't in town and was also removed as a suspect.
32:55
Speaker 1: Elwell kept photographs and lingerie from his conquests, all of
32:59
Speaker 1: whom were much younger than him. He also kept a
33:03
Speaker 1: list that included names, phone numbers, and explicit notes. Now
33:07
Speaker 1: detectives had a dizzying number of suspects and theories. Some
33:12
Speaker 1: speculated that had had a woman at his home before
33:14
Speaker 1: leaving her for his date, and the angry woman shot
33:17
Speaker 1: him upon his return, but it could have been any
33:20
Speaker 1: of the boyfriend's, husband's or jilted women. The case remained unsolved,
33:26
Speaker 1: and Elwell became more famous for his death than his life,
33:29
Speaker 1: reviving the appeal of locked room mysteries. If anything, were
33:33
Speaker 1: as obsessed with unsolved murders as we are with solved cases,
33:38
Speaker 1: because in the end, it's terrifying to know a killer
33:42
Speaker 1: still walks among us. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum.
33:56
Speaker 1: This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed,
34:00
Speaker 1: and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive
34:04
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn
34:08
Speaker 1: more about the show, visit Grim and Mild dot com.
34:11
Speaker 1: From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
34:15
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.