The feared “boogeyman,” who created a mass
hysteria in New Orleans around the turn of the 20th century, first
appeared on May 23, 1918 when a local Italian American grocer named Joseph Maggio and his
wife were found butchered in their sleep with an axe which was found in
the room still covered with the couple’s blood. The Axeman killed at least 8 more people until it stopped and the
killer was never found.
In most cases, the back door of a home was smashed, followed by an
attack on one or more of the residents with either an axe or straight
razor. The crimes were not robberies, and the perpetrator never removed
items from his victims' homes.
The majority of the Axeman's victims were Italian-American, leading many
to believe that the crimes were racially motivated. Many media outlets
sensationalized this aspect of the crimes, even suggesting Μafia involvement despite lack of evidence. Some crime analysts have
suggested that the killings were related to sex, and that the murderer
was perhaps a sadist seeking female victims. Criminologists Collin and
Damon Wilson hypothesize that the Axeman killed male victims only when
they obstructed his attempts to murder women, supported by cases in
which the woman of the household was murdered but not the man.
On March 13, 1919, a letter purporting to be from the Axeman was
published in 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'
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.
Crime writer Colin Wilson
speculates the Axeman could have been Joseph Momfre, a man shot to
death in Los Angeles in December, 1920 by the widow of Mike Pepitone,
the Axeman's last known victim. However, true crime writer
Michael Newton searched New Orleans and Los Angeles public, police and
court records as well as newspaper archives, and failed to find any
evidence of a man with the name "Joseph Momfre" (or any reasonable
facsimile) having been assaulted or killed in Los Angeles. Newton also
was not able to find any information that Mrs Pepitone was arrested, tried or convicted for
such a crime, or indeed had been in California.
Newton notes that "Momfre" and variants was not an unusual surname in
New Orleans at the time of the crimes. It appears that there actually
may have been an individual named Joseph Momfre or Mumfre in New Orleans
who had a criminal history, and who may have been connected with
organized crime; however, local records for the period are not extensive
enough to allow confirmation of this, or to positively identify the
individual. Wilson's explanation is an urban legend, and there is no
more evidence now on the identity of the killer than there was at the
time of the crimes.
In 1919 local tune writer Joseph John Davilla wrote the song "The
Mysterious Axman'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 2013, the miniseries
American Horror Story: Coven features a heavily fictionalized version of the Axeman of New Orleans, played by Danny Huston.
Sources: 1) http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/axeman/index.html
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axeman_of_New_Orleans
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