The New Orlean Axe Man, Or The Jazz Killer

 

The Axe Man breaking into a house, axe in hand

The New Orleans Axe Man was a serial killer or repeat murderer active in New Orleans and Gretna, Louisiana, from May 1918 to October 1919, although some sources suspect he started as early as 1911 and continued his murder spree into the 1920s.

“These murders and woundings,” said Sheriff Frank T. Mooney, “are undoubtedly the work of some brutal, murderous degenerate.” And while he admitted small sums of money were taken at some of the crime scenes, the sheriff believed it was to throw detectives off. He assured citizens that a “petty housebreaker” did not commit the crimes.

On May 23, 1918, Joseph Maggio (39) and his wife were “hacked to death” in their store at Upperline and Magnolia. The prosperous Italian couple lived in the back of their grocery store.

Detectives said the killer entered the home before dawn. He knocked out a panel in the rear door and crawled inside. Ironically, the murder was committed in a tiny room decorated with pictures of the crucifixion and other religious artifacts.

The killer whacked each victim on the head with an ax, then slit their throats with a razor. Catharine Maggio lay on the floor, a bloody mess. Joseph was sprawled across the bed, half on and half off. And the murder weapons, a razor and ax, rested on the floor in a puddle of blood.

Joseph’s brothers, Jacob and Andrew, discovered the bodies and notified the police of the attack. A few hours later, detectives arrested them because Andrew was seen coming home early in the morning. However, the investigation went nowhere, and Jacob and Andrew were released a few days later.

A month later, on June 28, 1918, the axman attacked Louis Bessemer and Anna Harriet Lowe (Bessemer’s common-law wife) in the living quarters behind their grocery store on Dargenois and LaHarpe.

Pauline Bruno sat up in bed, startled by the Axe Man. Her sister screams from the doorway.

Bessemer recovered, but Lowe didn’t make it. Instead, she lingered for several weeks, and in her delirium, she told detectives that Bessemer brained her with a weight scale after she learned he was a German spy and had several blueprints hidden in a secret cabinet. 

When she died, Louis Bessemer was tried for murder. However, the state couldn’t make a case against him, probably because no one could explain how he could brain himself with an ax, then make it back to bed. Bessemer was acquitted.

Four days later, on August 5, the axman beat Mrs. Edward Schneider nearly to death in her bedroom. Her husband worked late that night and didn’t get home until after midnight.

When he walked into the bedroom, Edward found his pregnant wife unconscious on the bed, covered in blood. She was taken to Charity Hospital, where she recovered, minus a few teeth, thanks to the axman’s handy work. She gave birth the following week.

All she could remember was that her attacker was a tall, phantom-like creature.

The Axe Man escapes in the dark, weapon in hand.

And then, on August 10, the axman killed Joseph Romano, an Italian barber. Pauline Bruno, the murdered man’s niece, described the axman as a tall, heavy-built man, probably white. 

She awoke to her uncle’s screams and saw the axman standing over her bed. The attacker ran when she and her thirteen-year-old sister, Mary Bruno, screamed. 

A moment later, Pauline heard Romano yell, “I’ve been hit. I don’t know who did it.” Romano was taken to Charity Hospital. Two days later, he was dead. The bloody ax that killed him was found in the backyard.

Pauline told detectives the attacker was a big, heavyset man, surprisingly light on his feet, “almost as if he had wings.”

Evidence showed several more attacks were in the works in the weeks following the attack on Joseph Romano. On April 11, Al Durand found an ax and chisel outback and several curious chisel marks on the rear door to his home. Later that month, someone tried to chisel their way through a door panel in Paul Lobella’s residence in his grocery store. That same day, someone attempted to break into Joseph Le Bouef’s grocery and home.

The City plays Jazz music in the streets, hoping to keep the Axe Man away

The axman claimed three more victims on March 10, 1919. He crept into the home of Charles Cortimiglia at Second and Jefferson Streets in Gretna while the family was sleeping and made quick work of them with his ax. 

Two-year-old Mary died instantly. Charles was in “a dying condition,” and his wife was unconscious. She was struck five times and had a depressed skull fracture over her left ear. The best doctors could say was, “She may recover.”

Mrs. Cortimiglia told the police the attackers were Orlando Jordano (66) and his son, Frank (17), the same men who ran to her rescue when they heard the couple’s screams.

Frank matched the killer’s description. He stood six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds.

Her husband told detectives she was mistaken—the attacker was a “dark man, swarthy in appearance, wearing dark clothes, and I never saw him before.”

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Despite what her husband said, Mrs. Cortimiglia stuck to her guns. The two men were arrested and tried for the killings. Frank Jordano was sentenced to hang, while his father received life in prison.

Unfortunately, the murders continued.

 

On March 13, 1919, the axman wrote a letter to the citizens of New Orleans addressed from hell. The New Orleans Times-Picayune printed it the following day.

The New Orleans Times-Pickayune print The Letter From Hell

Esteemed Mortals:

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

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

If you wish, you might tell the police to be careful not to rile me. Of course, I am a reasonable spirit. I have no offense at the way they have conducted their investigations in the past.

In fact, they have been so utterly stupid as to amuse not only me but His Satanic Majesty. But tell them to be aware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for it were better that they never were born than to insure the wrath of the Ax Man. 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, 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, for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death.

I’ll be exact at 12:15 earthly time next Tuesday night. I am going to pass over New Orleans. And in my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to your 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 those people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the ax.

 

The Worst Spirit

 

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

The Ax Man.

 

There’s some debate about whether the axman, a prankster, or a rogue journalist wrote the letter, but it had its effect. The city was scared—the streets, clubs, and homes of New Orleans were flooded with jazz music that Tuesday night.

Local composer Joseph Davila cashed in on the phenomenon, writing a new song honoring the axman: “The Mysterious Ax Man’s Jazz” or “Don’t Scare Me, Papa.”

New Orleanians were spared that night, but three months later, on August 3, the axman struck again. His victim was Sarah Laumann (19). Laumann’s head was severely bashed, but she eventually recovered.

The axman attacked Steve Boca, an Italian grocer, on August 10, 1919. On September 2, he visited druggist William Carson. Carson fired several shots at his back door after hearing strange noises coming from that direction. The following day, the police found chisel marks on one of the door panels, leading them to believe the axman had paid a visit.

Esther Pepitone scared the Axe Man off after he had bashed in her husband's head

On October 21, the axman attacked Mike Pepitone and his wife, Esther, in the living quarters of their grocery store. Esther awoke to strange sounds coming from her husband’s sleeping quarters. A shadowy man slipped out as she opened the door. But unfortunately, her husband was dead. The axman had bashed his head in, spraying blood and brain matter over the walls, ceiling, and bed cloths. Fortunately, Esther Pepitone and her six children were spared when her screams scared the axman off.

That was the last axman attack in New Orleans.

 

And then, on December 7, 1920, Rosie Cortimiglia confessed that she had made it all up. The Jordanos didn’t attack them.

“I lied,” she said. “God forgive me. I lied. I hate the Jordanos because they were vicious competitors, but they did not kill Mary.”

Two weeks later, Esther Pepitone emptied a revolver into Joseph Mumfre (Leone J. Manger). In her defense, she told the police he was the New Orleans Axe Man. 

When the New Orleans police checked, they discovered Mumfre was in the city when the axman was operating. He’d blackmailed many people, primarily Italians, and was released from prison in 1911, just before three Italian grocers fell victim to the axman. Shortly after that, he returned to prison.

Mumfre was released from prison in the early spring of 1918. Joseph Maggio was killed in May 1918. Then Mumfre returned to jail. Things remained quiet until his release. Then the killings started up again with the attack on the Cortimiglias.

Police find an ax and a trail of footprints outside a grocery store 
as the New orleans Axe Man disappears for good

And Mumfre fit the axman’s description. He was tall and heavyset. But unfortunately, that was all speculation. The police had no hard evidence linking Mumfre to the axman attacks.

After Mike Pepitone’s death at the hands of the axman, Esther Pepitone married Angelo Albano. He ran a grocery store at San Pedro and East Thirty-sixth Street in Los Angeles.

On the morning of October 27, 1921, Angelo kissed his wife goodbye before going to the market. The teller at the Bank of Italy saw him later that afternoon. And then, so far as Esther was “concerned, her husband dropped completely from sight.”

A neighbor, Mrs. Griffith, said Mumfre and Albano were business partners, but they had some disagreements over money. Griffith told detectives she asked Mumfre about Albano a week after his disappearance.

“Albano has a big house and plenty [of] money,” said Mumfre. “He is being held for some of the money. His wife will be asked for it after things quiet down.”

And then, on December 5, 1921, Joseph Mumfre walked into Angelo Albano’s house and closed the door. He faced Esther across the table and told her to give him $500 and all her jewelry. “If you refuse me,” he said, “I’ll kill you, just as I killed your husband.”

Esther walked into the front room as if she were following his orders. She darted into the bedroom, grabbed a revolver, and came out shooting. The first shot went wild and cracked a window, but the second found its mark.

Mumfre reached into his pocket, trying to grab a gun but couldn’t get his hand out. Esther grabbed another gun and emptied it into him.

Mumfre rolled down the steps and lay there at the bottom. Dead.

Later, at the police station, Esther told detectives: “I was afraid of him and could not escape. Besides, he said he had killed my husband and would kill me, so I shot. Then I got another revolver and shot some more.”

Esther was tried for murder and received a ten-year sentence. However, she was released after three years.

In the end, there was no definitive resolution to the axman murders. Joseph Mumfre may have been the New Orleans Axe Man, but no one can say for sure. No physical evidence tied him to the crimes. If anything, the axman may have ended his run or moved on to riper pickings in other towns.

 

Most sources agree the axman murders ended in 1919, but that might not be entirely correct.

On January 12, 1921, a six-year-old girl went to John Orlando’s grocery store in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to purchase a can of milk and found the store closed. So, she walked around to the back and peeked into the living quarters, where several bodies were lying on the floor.

Neighbors rushed in and found the hacked-up bodies of John Orlando (45), his wife Mary, and their two children—Paul (8) and Josephine (6) in their beds, bleeding from wounds inflicted by an ax. The walls, ceilings, and bedclothes were spattered with blood.

Two months later, Lake Charles suffered another axman attack in the negro settlement. Just before daylight on March 8, the attacker busted into “one-legged” Joe Murray’s house on the northern edge of town. Joe Murray was struck on the head and died from his wounds.

Murray’s son, Booker T. Washington Murray, and wife, Rosa Murray, were badly hacked but expected to live.

Sadie Williams (18) made a run for it and escaped. She identified the attacker as Joe Berry, a giant negro who boarded at the house. She said Berry went out back to get a bucket.

Moments later, he returned with an ax and walked into Murray’s bedroom.

Were the murders related to the New Orleans Axe Man? It’s hard to say. But the first one fits his M.O.—an Italian grocer and his family, murdered in the living quarters of their store. The Murray family in Lake Charles likely had nothing to do with the New Orleans Axe Man, but it was a perfect fit with the earlier ax murders in Louisiana and Texas.

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