The Axeman Loves to Swing

Have you ever heard of the Axeman of New Orleans? He was (or they were) responsible for a string of slayings and non-fatal attacks that took place in and around the Big Easy between May 1918 and October 1919. Can you imagine the panic that must have erupted in this pre-forensics era where killings and assaults were harder to solve and therefore, harder to contain?

The Axeman's first victims were husband and wife Joseph and Catherine Maggio, killed on May 22, 1918. The Maggios ran a combination barroom/grocery store and were found with slashed throats and pounded heads, the weapons: a razor and an axe. The Axeman brazenly left his bloody clothes at the scene, and robbery was ruled out as a motive. 

Next up: Louis Besumer and his mistress, Harriet Lowe. After being attacked in the wee hours of June 27, 1918, the pair was found alive at the back of Besumer's grocery store by an unsuspecting delivery man. The axe used in the attack belonged to Besumer. Adding insult to injury - literally - Lowe accused Besumer of the assaults. Things got awkward again when the extramarital aspect of their relationship became public, and dicier still when Mrs. Besumer returned from Cincinnati where she had been at the time of the attacks. Besumer was imprisoned as a result of Lowe’s accusation but was acquitted nine months later.  

The Toughest Nut to Crack award for 1918 goes to Anna Schneider who was attacked by the Axeman on August 5 of that year. Despite a smashed face and lacerated scalp, Mrs. Schneider gave birth just days after the attack to a healthy baby girl. A Wikipedia entry on the Axeman says that instead of an axe, the weapon used on Schneider might have been a lamp. One could argue that a lamp isn't as lethal as an axe, but still. And labor is hard enough as it is. Giving birth with a mass of head injuries has got to be at least a little bit rougher. 

On August 10, 1918, five days after the Schneider attack, the Axeman took down Joseph Romano, who lived with his two nieces. The nieces reported seeing a large, dark-skinned man wearing a suit and slouch hat escape the scene. Romano was able to walk to the ambulance, but died two days later. When you think of it, a not-yet-dead murder victim walking out to meet the ambulance which has arrived to transport him to the hospital makes for a creepy mental image.

Fast forward to the evening of March 10, 1919. Charles Cortimiglia, his wife, Rosie and their two year-old daughter, Mary were attacked. While Charles and Rosie survived, Mary did not. 

Steve Boca was the Axeman's next victim. Their fateful meeting came on August 10, 1919. Boca recalled seeing a shadowy predator hovering above his bed. When he regained conciousness, he rushed outside to investigate the break-in. It was then Boca realized his head was sliced open. He survived but was not able to provide police with details of the assault.

Almost done!

Sarah Laumann was discovered by neighbors with blunt force head trauma and multiple missing teeth. This was on the night of September 3, 1919. A bloodstained axe was discovered on the front lawn of the apartment building in which she lived. As with Steve Boca, Laumann survived but could not remember enough details to help police solve the crime committed against her.

Last but not least comes the Axeman's final victim, Mike Pepitone. Pepitone crossed paths with his killer on the evening of October 27, 1919. He was married and had six children. His skull was badly crushed, and there were not enough clues to unmask the killer. 

The Axeman of New Orleans was never apprehended. 

Not only did the Axeman get away with murder unless someone did him in somewhere along the line, he did it while taunting police and public alike. Here is a letter from the Axeman written ten months after the first killings and published by the media of the day:

Hell, March 13, 1919

Esteemed Mortal of New Orleans: The Axeman

They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman.

When I see fit, I shall come and claim other victims. I alone know whom they shall be. I shall leave no clue except my bloody axe, besmeared with blood and brains of he whom I have sent below to keep me company.

If you wish you may tell the police to be careful not to rile me. Of course, I am a reasonable spirit. I take no offense at the way they have conducted their investigations in the past. In fact, they have been so utterly stupid as to not only amuse me, but His Satanic Majesty, Francis Josef, etc. But tell them to beware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for it were better that they were never born than to incur the wrath of the Axeman. I don't think there is any need of such a warning, for I feel sure the police will always dodge me, as they have in the past. They are wise and know how to keep away from all harm.

Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. If I wished, I could pay a visit to your city every night. At will I could slay thousands of your best citizens (and the worst), for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death.

Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you people. Here it is:

I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it out on that specific Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.

Well, as I am cold and crave the warmth of my native Tartarus, and it is about time I leave your earthly home, I will cease my discourse. Hoping that thou wilt publish this, that it may go well with thee, I have been, am and will be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or realm of fancy.

- The Axeman

Hmm . . . methinks the Axeman was a bit of a dip. He talks about "earthly time" and calls himself "the worst spirit that ever existed" right after mentioning "His Satanic Majesty." Wouldn't Satan have to be the worst spirit that ever existed? And would the worst spirit that ever existed bonk a pregnant woman on the noggin with a lamp? Whatta ya say to that, Lampman? 

For the record, the clubs were hopping the night the Axeman specified for the citizens of New Orleans to "jazz it out," and there were no killings that night. Isn’t it bloodcurdling to imagine the Axeman wailing away on his trombone in one of those clubs, playing, as it were, to beat the band?

I know I talked pretty big, insulting the Axeman the way I did. Still, if I were in New Orleans that night when everyone was supposed to be jazzing it out, and I didn’t feel like making the scene, I might have dragged my clarinet down from the attic, you know, just in case. 

Not in My Wildest Dreams

Late middle age has crept up on me, and I can still honestly say it is the most terrifying nightmare I've ever had. In it, I am at a wake for my maternal grandparents. In reality, my grandmother died in the mid 1970s and my grandfather, years before her, in the mid-1930s. 

Image by Teece Aronin

At the wake, my grandparents are laid out in a wooden double coffin that looks oddly similar to a piano crate. My grandmother, looking like the 86-year-old she was when she died, is dressed in a snow-white wedding gown. My grandfather appears to be a young man, in keeping with his early death while still in his forties. Although he was not in the military that I know of, he is dressed in a muddy, wool, World War I uniform. It seems he died in battle and is being buried in the uniform he was wearing when killed. His hat lies under his hands which are folded across his stomach. His face and body appear to be those of a worn and battered store mannequin, hard to the touch with telltale chips all over. 

The room is filled with people coming to pay their respects, and suddenly the crowd parts to reveal my grandmother, padding around barefooted. Her wedding gown is gaping in the back like a hospital gown, and she is dragging an IV pole around with her. I look to the piano crate/coffin to see that my grandfather is no longer there either. I'm both shocked and terrified, thinking that if my grandmother could rise from the dead, hop out of a combination piano crate and coffin and scamper off to join the party, there was no telling what my grandfather was up to. 

Then a voice, a sort of Hercule Poirot presence, makes an announcement. He tells the crowd that my grandfather's corpse has been stolen and that both thief and corpse are still somewhere on the premises. 

Like someone who has fought her way to the surface of a deep and murky pond, I smash back into wakefulness. I am shaken but confident that my grandparents are securely ensconced, side by side in the cemetery - and not in one huge double-sized grave - just two nice regular-sized graves - as any long-dead married couple should be.

A Phone Booth, a Doorbell, and Death

Our story takes place in Los Angeles, California somewhere around 1930. Let's begin, shall we?

Joan Smith was young and pretty. She was glamorously dressed as she headed to the home of her friends, Tony and Pamela Stevens. The party was in full swing when she arrived, and a fortune teller, complete with crystal ball, had been hired as the evening's entertainment. Joan waited her turn then sat down at the card table opposite the handsome, turbaned gentleman.  

A fire danced in the immense stone fireplace, altering the fortune teller's swarthy complexion with ominous, flickering shadows. Soon he was telling Joan that he could see a man. The man was missing his left index finger and was talking to someone on the telephone. 

“He is someone you know,” the fortune teller intoned.

"I don’t know anyone with a missing finger,” insisted Joan.

“Think again,” urged the fortune teller. “I am sure that you know him. He is talking on the telephone when he is violently killed. It seems the murderer has designs on you as well. If you can identify the man with the missing finger, and can do so in time, you might spare him and yourself a terrible fate.”

Joan sat there, thinking hard, and couldn’t remember anyone she knew who was missing a finger. But the fortune teller had more news, just as personal and far more chilling: Joan's death would come soon after that of the man on the telephone, and her final moments would be heralded by the ringing of a bell.

Eight days passed. Joan calmed her rattled nerves by telling herself that the fortune teller was merely staging melodramas for the benefit of the guests. But on the ninth day, she had a chance encounter with a young man at Sherman's Drugstore. His name was Frank Carson. He was a dear friend Joan had grown up with but hadn't seen in years. Frank lost his left index finger when he was a boy and the gun he was cleaning went off. The fortune teller's prediction howled back at Joan as though carried on a murderous wind. 

"Frank, if I tell you something, do you promise not to think me crazy?"

"Why, of course, Joan. What is it?"

"I went to a party a short while back and there was a fortune teller there. He told me of a man with a missing index finger who would be killed while talking on the telephone."

Instead of looking alarmed, Frank laughed.

"Joan, surely you don't believe such a thing!"

"Well, maybe just a little. And now, seeing you, I feel I must warn you. The fortune teller also said that I would die shortly after the man with the missing finger."

"Oh, Joan now, really!"

"I suppose it is silly," Joan agreed. 

"Do you want to hear a secret?" Frank smiled.

"Of course!" said Joan, happy for the first time in a long while. 

"I've been cooling my heels at a flophouse down the street for the past three days because my wife kicked me out. I've been crying in my beer and wondering what to do ever since. There's only one telephone there, and it's tied up all the time, not to mention its decided lack of privacy. I walked down here to call her from a phone booth. I'm going to try to win her back. Can you wish me luck?"

Joan's lovely features clouded again. "Frank, do you have to use the telephone?"

"Why - do you want to make a call?" joked Frank, but Joan was not amused. 

"Well, I doubt throwing pebbles at her bedroom window will do the trick," he said, more serious now. "I was a fool. I behaved badly. She had every reason to do what she did. I'm just hoping she'll talk to me when I call."

"Then let me stay," Joan urged. "The idea of you dying while using a telephone, it frightens me. I'll just sit over there. I won't eavesdrop."

"Oh, very well, if you must," agreed Frank. "But if I come out of there in tears, don't expect me to stop and chat. I'll just run back to my room and lick my wounds."

"I understand. Good luck, Frank."

Joan kissed Frank on the cheek and sat down at the soda counter. The place was deserted except for a man behind the counter. 

"What'll it be, lady?"

"Just coffee, please - black."

The man headed toward a cupboard then remembered. "Wouldn't you know, cupboard here's fresh outta coffee. Got some in the back though. Sit tight."

The man left and Joan sat, studying Frank's profile in the massive wooden phone booth. Things seemed to be going well. Frank was talking and didn't seem the least bit upset. That was when she saw it, tall and slouched over. It was wearing a black cape with the collar turned up and a black hat with the brim pulled down. She couldn't even begin to see its face.

The thing crept up behind Frank and with a decaying hand, yanked the  phone booth open. The rest happened so quickly, Frank never had a chance to scream. Now he sat in the phone booth, with the phone's earpiece dangling from his hand, his heart and his throat ripped away and his wife's voice coming through the earpiece, inviting him to come home.

Joan ran. The thing snagged her coat, tearing off a scrap of tweed fabric as she shot out the door. She hurried up the block to her car, then threw open the door, flung herself behind the wheel, and sped off. Once home, she unlocked her front door with shaky hands, locked it behind her, and snatched up the phone.

"Hello, operator, get me the police!" 

As calmly as possible, Joan told the desk officer what happened and gave him her address. He promised to send a car to Sherman's Drugstore immediately, adding that a second car was being dispatched to Joan's house. Joan paced for what felt like hours, though it was really just minutes. 

The doorbell rang.

"Oh, thank God!"

Joan threw open the door just as the rest of the fortune teller’s prediction snapped into focus, the part about her last moments and the ringing of a bell. This time, for just an instant, she did see the killer's face - if you could call it a face. It was the last thing Joan Smith ever saw.

The police failed to determine who or what killed Frank Carson and Joan Smith, but they were convinced it was the same entity because when they inspected Joan's mangled body, her left index finger was missing, along with her heart and most of her throat. 

The fiend must have been inspired by that striking physical characteristic of Frank's and decided to add to its grisly - and gristly - bag of tricks.