Tales of the New Orleans Axeman

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi all,

Unless one of us writes it, I'd be shocked if a centennial tome came out about the Axman murders, since a full book on the case has yet to be written, illustrating the general lack of interest in the case. Same with the servant girl murders, which I'm now reading his chapter about. I wonder if the police files exist for either of these series?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[sdreid]

Hi Tom:

Is there a chapter on the TX/LA, so-called, Mulatto Ax Murders?

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Stan. I'm not sure, as the chapters aren't always titled in a way that you'll know what they're about. What kind of murders were these?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[sdreid]

They were a series of murders in the 1911-1912 era where several families of mixed blood were wiped out by an ax wielding maniac in Texas and Louisiana. The one victim who survived said that the killer was black man. There's a death toll listed at 49 in The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Stan. Wow, that's crazy. I'm not familiar with it at all. Funny thing is, the Servant Girl Annihilator was black, and a series of robbery/murders in Alabama in 1919 were committed by a gang of 5 black men, so it's fascinating that so many of the early successful serial murderers were black, because that seems to have changed as the 20th Century progressed.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

The story that Mumfre was killed in L.A. by Mrs. Pepitone was checked out and no record of that account could be found so it was thought to be apocryphal. Someone later said that the man's name was actually Manfre and he was slain by a Mrs. Albano who was actually Mrs. Pepitone after a remarriage. There is some objection to this story as well to my understanding.

According to the book I just read, the proof of this occurring was discovered in about the strangest place imaginable - the briefcase of William Desmond Taylor at the time of his murder. However, she shot a man named Leon Mumfre (according to the article) and the real Mumfre lived on a long time.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[sdreid]

Hmm that's odd, thanks Tom. Does the author think that the Pepitone murder was an axeman attack? I have serious doubts that it was myself.

[DVV]

Stan, why do have doubts re Pepitone ?

There was a fabricated report that said 12 members of the Pepitone family had been murdered between 1916 and 1920, which is false, but one Mike Pepitone has actually been killed in Oct 1919 (?).

[sdreid]

Hi David:

He was murdered no doubt but some reports say that the slaying was by two people with a pipe rather than an ax. This makes me wonder if the assault wasn't orchestrated to look like an axeman attack when actually it was a revenge slaying.

[DVV]

Ok, thanks Stan.

Newton also suggests Sarah Laumann could have been killed by an imitator.

The murder spree is said to start on May 23, 1918 and to end with Pepitone on Oct 27 but since there is a gap of 8 months between Romano and Cortimiglia, and since there are doubts on more than one some 1919 victims, Romano could be the last canonical.

Victims are both men and women. The favorite prey of the axman seems to be couples or families.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Stan and Deevs,

The author does have doubts about Pepitone being an Axman victim. The window was smashed out (a first), there were two men, according to the wife (another first) and, as Stan mentioned, a pipe was used. The wife told the police she didn't recognize the man, but according to subsequent legend, she recognized him as Joseph Momfre. However, Joseph was not the man attacked in LA. It's doubtful he was the Axman, in my opinion, because he was in prison when the first murder that had all the hallmarks of an Axman attacked occurred, not to mention the half dozen or so attacks prior to that which are quite possibly by the same man. However, his name did come up in the investigation PRIOR to the Pepitone murder, so who's to say it wasn't a two man job, with Mumfre there for some but not all of the murders.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[sdreid]

To my knowledge, in none of the other murders where there was a survivor was there a second man.

The killer was described as a strongly built white man. I thought he gained entry by crawling through a panel that he chiseled out of a back door but seeing the crime scene photos he couldn't have been a large person because these openings were quite small. Maybe he knocked out the panel and then reached up to unbolt the door and then enter in a normal manner.

[Tom_Wescott]

In some of the cases he used a chisel and removed a panel of the door to reach in to unlock and open the door. In other cases, he climbed in a window. My guess is that in all cases he first tried the doors and windows, and only as a last resort chiseled his way in.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[sdreid]

That's probably a good presumption Tom.

[sdreid]

Funny thing is, the Servant Girl Annihilator was black, and a series of robbery/murders in Alabama in 1919 were committed by a gang of 5 black men, so it's fascinating that so many of the early successful serial murderers were black, because that seems to have changed as the 20th Century progressed.

By accounts, the Atlanta Ripper from one hundred years ago was also black.