The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1891-03-20
A MOB IN NEW ORLEANS.
ELEVEN MEN LYNCHED IN PRISON.

The people of New Orleans last
Saturday wreaked vengeance on the
supposed assassins of Chief of Police
Hennessy of that city, who were ac-
quilted on Friday by jury supposed
to have been corrupted, and broke the
power OF the secret society called the
| Mafia which has terrorized that com
munity for years past Thirty people
have been killed by them in the past
sixteen years. and no convictions have
| followed
A mass-meeting was held around
the statute OF Henry Clay at 10
o'clock and addressed by eminent
citizens.
The crowd numbering several thous-
and, then proceeded to the Parish
Prison, into which they forced an en-
trance, and there shot, beat, and
strangled to death eleven of the ltal-
ians charged with Hennessys murder.
Right or wrong, the events of that
day have the moral support of a large
proportion of the best citizens of New
OTledlS.
The following is given as formal
statement in behalf of the people, of
the actuating cause which led to the
tragedy as ascertained from interviews
with number Of prominent citizens,
some Of them active participants in
the stirring events.
On Oct. IS, 1890, about IL o'clock
at night, ID. c. Hennessy, Chief of
Police of the city of New Orleans,
going from his Office to his home, was
waylaid and shot to pieces by band
Of Italian assassins, armed with such
blunderbusses as could only have been
made and used for the purpose of as
sassination
The Indignation and excitement
were such that mob law and lynching
were about to be resorted to. The
entire community felt that in the en-
deavor to reach the guilty parties in
nocent Italians might be sacrificed.
To allay the excitement and to assist
the constitutional authorities, the May
or of the city appointed committee
of fifty representative citizens to take
charge of the investigations and to aid
in the trial and conviction of the as
sassins. This method arrested vio-
lence.
The Committee entered upon its
work, and, at a mass meeting subse-
queutly held in front of the City Hall,
the action of the Committee was rati.
fed, and they were encouraged to
continue their labors to secure the
prosecution and trial by the courts.
After months Of preparation and a
trial which continued three weeks,
and in which distinguished counsel as
sisted the able District Attorney, a
jury charged to have been bribed and
corrupted, in the face of testimony
establishing their guilt rendered YER
dict of mis-trial as to three and acquit-
ted three. Three more were on trial
and acquitted because of insufficient
evidence.
The acquittal of Macheca, the chief
consplrator, and of Marchesi and Bag
nette and the mis-trial as to Pollitz,
Scoffedi and Monasterio, fell like a
thunderbolt upon the community and
impressed law abiding citizens with
the conviction that the laws have been
) violated, that the verdict invited assas-
sination and the engrafting of the Ital-
ian Maha upon American Institutions
The feeling grew strong that for
| selfpreservation the people must as
= sumo the authority which they had de-
| legated to the courts and the courts
= were powerless to enforce; this feeling
{ increased until it found vent in the
mass meeting
This uprising Of the people to secure
the punishment Of the assassins who
struck down their chief officer of police
in the night time with assassination
, was orderly and the people dispersed
quietly as soon as their work of vindi
? cation was done
: The facts given above are taker
t from dispatches that appeared in last
Sundays papers. Whatever the pro
: vocation may have been, it is not like