The Terrifying Axeman of New Orleans

**The Terrifying Axeman of New Orleans** is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on July 28, 2017. It was the first episode of the second season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime, and the thirtieth episode overall. You can find it here.

## Description

We explore one of the bloodiest chapters in New Orleans history.

## Background

Beginning in 1918, for about eighteen months until 1919, the city and surrounding area of New Orleans experienced twelve attacks and six murders committed by "The Axeman," who struck mostly at night.

The Axeman struck only while people were sleeping, and never used his own tools—only what he found in the household—and usually an axe, which was generally left at the scene of the crime.

On May 23, 1918, at 4901 Magnolia Street, Catherine and Joseph Maggio fell victim to the first attack of the Axeman, being struck violently with an axe, and then having their throats slit with a straight razor. Catherine had been almost decapitated. The bodies were discovered by Joseph's brothers, who lived in the same house, although nothing was heard or seen. No valuables were taken, and the only disturbances were that the bottom panel of the kitchen door was knocked out, and the axe used to commit the murders was left.

On June 28, 1918, near the corner of Dorgenois and Leharpe streets, Louis Besumer and Anna Lowe were attacked as well. Barely alive, they were discovered by the baker John Zanka as he was making his morning deliveries. While Anna would survive for another seven weeks, Louis fully survived. Anna told police that a large white man with a hatchet had attacked them. Similar to the first murder, the bottom panel of their bedroom door was missing, and a bloody axe remained at the scene.

On August 5, 1918, in an undisclosed home location, Mrs. Ed Schneider was found by her husband in the afternoon at their home. However, she was still alive, and was rushed to Charity Hospital, where she reportedly survived the attack. Upon investigation, their axe was missing from their shed—and one week after the attack, Mrs. Schneider successfully gave birth.

On August 10, 1918, apparently near Tonti and Gravier Street, eighty-year-old Joseph Romano was found by his nieces, Pauline and Mary, after they heard him struggling. Reportedly having seen the attacker, the girls described him as "dark, tall, heavy-set, wearing a dark suit, and a black slouch hat." Joseph Romano, who had had his head "bashed in," would die two days later.

Also around August 1918, the *New Orleans States* Newspaper recounted that "Armed men are keeping watch over their sleeping families, while the police are seeing to solve the mysteries of the ax attacks. Extra police are being put to work daily." This tactic seemed to work somewhat, as it was nearly seven months later before the next attack.

On March 10, 1919, Charles and Rose Cortimiglia. Rose had awoken to her husband Charles fighting the Axeman, and Rose, Charles, and their two-year-old daughter Mary were all attacked. While Rose and Charles would survive, Mary would not. The axe used, in keeping with the theme, belonged to the Cortimiglias.

On March 13, 1919, *The Times Picayune* received a letter from someone claiming to be the Axeman, addressing it from "Hell" and saying "Esteemed mortal, they have never caught me, and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether, which surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a fell demon from hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman. ... They have been so utterly stupid so as to amuse not only me, but his satanic majesty... But tell them to beware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for it were better that they never were born than for them to incur the wrath of the Axeman. ... Undoubtedly you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. At will, I could slay thousands of your best citizens, for I am in close relationship with the angel of death."

However, the most important part of the letter stated a specific threat to the citizens of New Orleans: "Now, to be exact, at 12:15 o'clock, Earthly time, on next Tuesday night, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to the 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 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 the people. One thing is certain, and that is some of those persons who do not jazz it on Tuesday night, if there be any, will get the axe."

The night mentioned in the letter, March 19, 1919, according to the Axeman's claims, no one was murdered that night. It was said that the city was "truly alive," as jazz was blasted from every home, and those who could not afford a record player instead crowded into jazz clubs." The letter would also go on to inspire a jazz song titled "The Mysterious Axeman's Jazz (Don't Scare Me Papa)."

However, on August 10, 1919, Steve Boca was badly injured in his home after he awoke to a man next to his bed with an axe. Boca managed to survive the attack, reportedly staggering to a friend's home, who then called the police. Boca did not regain his memory, likely due to the blows to the head.

Later that month, or in early September, on 2128 Second Street, nineteen-year-old Sarah Laumann was apparently attacked by someone who entered through an open window. Like Steve Boca, when she regained consciousness, she could not recall details of the attack.

On October 27, 1919, at the corner of South Scott and Ulloa Street, the Axeman attacked Esther and Mike Pepitone. Esther reportedly awoke around 1:00 a.m. to her husband screaming, and ran to the bedroom to find two unidentifiable figures in her bedroom fleeing the scene. Her husband's head had been struck eighteen times, and he died two hours later. The murder had apparently been committed with a bolt with a heavy nut, used to secure a circus tent. There had been a circus on the nearby avenue that weekend.

Esther later moved to Los Angeles and married a man named Angelo Albano. However, on the second anniversary of her former husband, Mike's, death by the Axeman, her current husband, Angelo, disappeared, and was never found again. Esther recalled that before their marriage, Angelo had ended business relations with a man who went by many names, including Joseph Mumfre.

On December 5, 1921, Mumfre visited Esther's home at 5554 East 36th Street in Los Angeles. He demanded five hundred dollars and Esther's jewelry, threatening that he would "kill her the same way he had killed her husband." However, Esther ended up shooting and killing him with a revolver, putting an end to his claims. When claiming to police that Joseph was the Axeman, and after an investigation, she was acquitted for Mumfre's death.

Due to the nature of the murders and the fact that fingerprinting technology was not a standard procedure, there were only a few theories as to the Axeman's identity: that he was a figure from the Mob, a spy, or even a series of copycat killers; a true supernatural figure, due to his claims in his letter to the *Times Picayune;* or a man named Joseph Mumfre, suspected for his accusation by Esther Pepitone, along with some circumstantial evidence.

Ryan and Shane explore the various locations of the Axeman's murders; Shane remarks that "there are beads everywhere in [New Orleans]!" They discover that at the site of the second-to-last attack, the house has been demolished.

Although it is not known when the investigation into the Axeman was ended, there were more possible killings attributed to him, although they also conflate with Mob murders. Nonetheless, the spree eventually ended, and the victims were laid to rest—the known graves of victims are Catherine and Joseph Maggio in Saint Louis Cemetery Number 3, Joseph Romano in Greenwood Cemetery and Mary Cortimiglia in the Hook and Ladder Cemetery, all in New Orleans.

## Theories

* Not all of the murders were committed by the Axeman, and instead, some, like the cases of Mike Pepitone and Louis Besumer and Anna Lowe, were Mob or spy killings, or even copycat killings.
	+ Pepitone's father had previously killed a man in the past, which could have provided a motive for a possible revenge murder.
	+ Louis Besumer was actually charged with the murder of Anna. Police found that Besumer had written letters back and forth in Yiddish and Russian. They eventually came to the conclusion that Besumer was part of a German spy ring, or spymaster for the Kaiser.
	+ Before dying, Anna also apparently blamed Louis, and accused him for being a Nazi spy. The case was investigated as a domestic dispute, where police theorized that it ended with Louis attacking Anna. However, Louis was acquitted.
	+ It's also speculated that these could be copycat killings, and actually the work of two or more people.
* The Axeman is a supernatural figure, and could possibly possess the power to "shrink" or "expand" as needed, in order to break into a house of one of his victims.
	+ The Axeman's letter brags that he is "a spirit and a fell demon from hottest hell," and is "invisible."
* Joseph Mumfre is the Axeman. This was claimed by Esther Pepitone after she said he had threatened to "kill her the same way he'd killed her husband."
	+ Esther recalled that Mumfre was the Axeman, and had seen him run from her bedroom the night her husband was slain. The LAPD noted that there was evidence linking Mumfre to the death of Mike Pepitone, which eventually led to Esther's acquittal of Mumfre's death.
	+ Evidence included the fact that Mumfre led a blackmailing gang in New Orleans that preyed on Italians, and almost all of the Axeman's victims were Italian grocers.
	+ Mumfre was also in and out of prison for the past ten years and this time outside of prison coincided with attacks by the Axeman.
	+ However, there was not enough evidence to directly link Mumfre to the crimes, and only ended up being circumstantial evidence plus a testimony. Esther's testimony also directly conflicted with her previous statement: while in 1919 she reported seeing two people fleeing the scene, in 1921 she said Joseph Mumfre had been the man she'd seen murder her husband, implying that she had only seen one person.

## Quotes

* Shane: "Wait, he hit 'em with the axe, and then cut their throats?"
	+ Ryan: "I don't know."
	+ Shane: "It also could've been his—since it was his first one, he was figuring out—"
	+ Ryan (over Shane): "Oh, like, he was dabbling in different things?"
	+ Shane: "If he was gonna be—he was like, 'either I'll be the Axeman... or the—the Razor Boy.' Razor Boy would be a good sidekick for him. Axeman and Razor Boy?"
	+ Ryan: "Axeman, I think, strikes a little more fear into my heart than Razor Boy."
	+ Shane: "'Lock your doors, Razor Boy's out tonight.'"
* Shane: "Did they call it 'Axeman fever,' or Axe-mania?"
	+ Ryan: "Or did they call him Axie?"
	+ Shane: "Or were they like, 'Everybody in the town's got Axeman fever, as the terror continues to grip the community.'"
	+ Ryan: "'This just in, throw away your axes.'"
	+ Shane: "'This just in, more skulls crushed. Wha-oh! Throw out your axes.'"
* Ryan: I once fell into a pile of bricks when I was a kid."
	+ Shane: "What?"
	+ Ryan: "And I don't remember much of it after that."
	+ Shane: "*What?*"
	+ Ryan: "Yeah, I was climbing because we were playing hide-and-seek. I was trying to hide, and I thought I had the best hiding spot. Turns out I was wrong, the branch broke and I just fell."
	+ Shane: "This explains a lot. You fell into the—"
	+ Ryan (joking): "And after that, I could see ghosts."
	+ Shane: "I don't think it gave you the vision."
	+ Ryan: "It gave me my eyes!"
	+ Shane: "I think it put... a hole in your brain."
* Shane: "If [Mike Pepitone] survived for two hours after getting struck eighteen times, the Axeman probably wasn't used to that kind of resilience. He probably hit him once, and the guy was like, 'Oh boy! What a bump.' And he was like, 'Uh, alright, I guess I'll hit you again,' and he was like, 'Oh my goodness, that didn't feel much better,' and he's like, 'three, four, five!'"