#Louisiana serial killer 1933 how to
#Louisiana serial killer 1933 archive
#Louisiana serial killer 1933 full

'For young people in New Orleans in 1918, 1919, they really gravitated to jazz and the blues.' 'To some extent, jazz was heading in the opposite direction of segregation, which was trying to separate people,' he says. 'It was a young people's music, and many of the neighborhoods that produced jazz musicians were what demographers would call a crazy quilt,' says Raeburn. And the new music of the time and the place - jazz - reflected the multicultural experience. The large plantations had been broken up after the North's victory and thousands of African-Americans poured into the city, living with whites, Creoles, Jewish people and more.

#Louisiana serial killer 1933 archive

Post-Civil War, the city's demographics completely changed, says Bruce Raeburn, curator emeritus of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University. In some ways, it seems like the Axeman's letter could have only worked in New Orleans. The stories were often speculative and fantastical, tapping into fears of the supernatural and the occult. The Times-Picayune, played up these murders to the salacious hilt, says Gibson. Most of them were Italian grocers, attacked with their own axes. He says as many as a dozen people were attacked in New Orleans with axes, from 1918-1919. (Also product recalls and outer space studies.

Nobody was attacked that night.ĭirk Gibson, a professor of communication and journalism at the University of New Mexico, specializes in serial murders. And the scene at the jazz clubs the following Tuesday night, March 18, 1919, was, as the kids today say, lit. But here's what we know: There was a serial killer in 1918-1919 in New Orleans, dubbed 'The Axeman' by the Times-Picayune. Who was the Axeman? Is this true or an urban legend? What the heck, right? Would you even dare to NOT go to a jazz club that night?Īnd then nearly 100 years later, the letter in question pops up on one of the biggest subreddits, r/todayilearned: 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. 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. 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. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people.

#Louisiana serial killer 1933 full

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. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you people. Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going to pass over New Orleans. At will I could slay thousands of your best citizens (and the worst), for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death. If I wished, I could pay a visit to your city every night. Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to.

#Louisiana serial killer 1933 how to

They are wise and know how to keep away from all harm. 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. 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. In fact, they have been so utterly stupid as to not only amuse me, but His Satanic Majesty, Francis Josef, etc. I take no offense at the way they have conducted their investigations in the past. If you wish you may tell the police to be careful not to rile me.

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. When I see fit, I shall come and claim other victims. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. They have never caught me and they never will. You pick up your copy of your local paper, the Times-Picayune, and read an extremely interesting letter: