The Axeman of New Orleans Quotes

“AS THE AUTHORITIES IN Gretna convicted the wrong men for the killing of Mary Cortimiglia, so subsequent Axeman authorities have wrongly convicted Joseph Mumfre of being the Axeman. Or at least suggested that he’s the most plausible suspect for one or more of the murders.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story

“Many aspects of the Crutti, Rissetto, Davi, and Sciambra (and later the Andollina and Maggio) attacks were similar: targeting a successful grocery and bar in an unfashionable, isolated part of the city (the Sciambra grocery was less than a mile from the Crutti place) and breaking in during the dead of night. Robbery was never the motive. The assailant usually targeted the man first, if he attacked the woman at all. Harriet Crutti, Mary Davi, and Anna Andollina escaped relatively unscathed. Only Joseph and Conchetta Rissetto were attacked with equal ferocity. And perhaps Catherine Maggio wouldn’t have died if she hadn’t attempted to defend her husband.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story

“Finally, he could stand it no longer: “How could you think I could kill my own brother?” he demanded, his voice choking on tears. “He sent us the money to come to America. He supported us after our father died in Sicily. Joe was like a father to me since I was eleven years old. I know a man isn’t supposed to cry but . . .” and slumped over, his face in his hands, sobbing.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story

“All the attacks had been on Italian grocers. What was the significance of this? Why not German or French or American grocers? When Joseph and Conchetta Rissetto were attacked, the New Orleans Item suggested they were the victims of “vengeance”—i.e., the Italian vendetta. “Both families,” the paper deliberately noted (referring to the Cruttis and Rissettos), “are of Italian descent.” After Joe Davi’s death, the Daily Picayune opined that the “fact that all the victims were Italians of the small tradesmen class should point the direction in which the clews [sic] are to be sought.” Everyone in New Orleans knew what this meant.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story

“In the late 1870s, Alphonse Bertillon, a clerk with the Sûreté in Paris, developed a system for classifying criminals based on measurements of various body parts. Each person had a unique collection of measurements that could be collected and used for identification. In the 1880s bertillonage, as it came to be called, spread over Europe and the United States.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story

“Killers who target strangers and have no obvious motive are always difficult to catch. In the 1970s Ted Bundy killed over twenty young women before he was finally apprehended, despite over a dozen detectives in three states looking for him. The BTK killer of Wichita was caught after thirty years only because of DNA evidence and his own arrogance. The Zodiac killer of northern California evaded a forty-year manhunt, never to be captured or even identified with certainty.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story

“An exemplary son of Sicilian immigrants, he worked hard and made big plans. At seventeen he was already an insurance agent and engaged to Josie, a sweet local girl; he anticipated a flourishing American life, a happy family, a prosperous business. But three nights after Mardi Gras, Josie had a dream. She dreamed that evil was about to descend on the neighborhood. She was prescient. Frank’s life was about to become a nightmare.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story