The Axeman's Jazz (City Blues Quartet)

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Jazz music blared into the New Orleans air from both crowded clubs and homes where families huddled inside throughout the evening of March 19, 1919. The inconsistencies around how many victims the Axeman of New Orleans actually killed are partly because some only count immediate deaths while others count additional deaths that resemble the Axeman’s M.

The assailant was fleeing the scene as they arrived, yet the girls were able to distinguish that he was a dark-skinned, heavy-set man, who wore a dark suit and slouched hat. They didn't fit neatly into the "white or black" categories and were willing to do jobs that whites weren't. My Favorite Murder, a true crime podcast, covered the story of the Axeman on their 60th episode entitled "Jazz It". Andrew had arrived together with Jake, a third Maggio brother, only to find their sibling horribly mutilated after having his skull bashed in with an axe.According to scholar Richard Warner, [7] the chief suspect in the crimes was Frank "Doc" Mumphrey (1875–1921), who used the alias Leon Joseph Monfre/Manfre. Various people were suspected of being the Axeman of New Orleans, though witnesses could only describe the attacker as “dark-skinned,”“heavy set,” and wearing a “downturned” hat. And the scene at the jazz clubs the following Tuesday night, March 18, 1919, was, as the kids today say, lit.

The Times-Picayune sensationalized Lowe and her outspoken nature upon discovering that she was not the wife of Besumer, but his mistress. This type of individual, Dantonio stated, could very likely have been a normal, law-abiding citizen, who was often overcome by an overwhelming desire to kill. 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.

The 1945 book Gumbo Ya-Ya, A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales includes a chapter on the Axeman entitled "Axeman's Jazz", which helped spark renewed interest in the murders. The Black Hand was known for extorting businesses within local Italian communities and since Italian immigrants at the time preferred to “take care of their own affairs” (read: settle things outside the law), it was theorized that the victims did not pay the mafia their extortion debts. Detective lieutenant Michael Talbot heads the official investigation; his former partner, Luca d'Andrea, recently freed from prison for corruption, is tasked by the mafia to discover whodunnit; and 19-year-old Sherlock Holmes fan Ida Davis, a secretary for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, decides to branch out on her own. Louis Besumer and his mistress Harriet Lowe were attacked in the early morning hours of June 27, 1918, in the quarters at the back of his grocery which was located at the corner of Dorgenois and Laharpe Streets.