OCR Text |
Show I8AGIC SCENES. A Mob's Awful Work in Flew Orleans. Citizens Perform the Act cf Justice Which the Law Failed to Do. Eleven of Chief Hennessey's Assassins Rftowed Down by Bullets. , On October IS, 1890, about 11 o'clock at night, D. C. Hennessy, chief of the police of the city of New Orleans, going go-ing from his office to his home, was waylaid and shot to pieces by a band of Italian assassins, armed with such blunderbusses as could only have been made and used for the purpose of assassinating. as-sassinating. The indignation and ex citement was such that mob law and lynching were about to be resorted to. The entire coommunity felt that, in the endeavor to reach the guilty parties, innocent Italians might be sacrificed. To allay the excitement and. assist the constituted authorities, the mayor of the citv appointed a committee of fifty representative citizens to take charge of the investigations and to aid in the trial and conviction of the assassins. This measure arrested violence. The committee entered upon the work and at a mass meeting subsequently subse-quently held in front of the city hall, the actions of the committee were ratified, rati-fied, and they were encouraged to continue con-tinue their labors to secure prosecution prosecu-tion and trial by the couits. After months of preparation and trial, which continued three weeks, and in which ilistingiiished counsel assisted the able district attorney, the jury already corrupted, in the face of established guilt, rendered a verdict of mistrial as to three of the assassins,Scaffedi, Mon-asterio Mon-asterio and,Pollitz,and acquitted three of the assassina. Macheca, Marchesi and Banetto. Three more were on trial and were acquitted because of insufficient in-sufficient evidence, these being Mat-rauga, Mat-rauga, Incordoua and the boy Marches. The acquittal of Macheca, chief conspirator, con-spirator, and of Marchesi and Bag-nelto, Bag-nelto, and tb mistrial as to Pollitz, Scoffedi and Monasterio, 'fell like a thunderbolt upon the community impjssed--jtrTraac the jaws had been violated,and thlt their verdict in vited assassination and the engrafting ofthe Italian Mafia upon American institutions. The feeling grew strong that for self preservation the people must assume as-sume the authority which they had delegated to the courts, and which the cou ts we e powerless to enforce. This feeling increased until it found vent in a mass meeting Saturday morning at 10 o'clock. 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 premeditated assassination, was order- ly and the people dispersed quietly as soon as their work of vindication was done. "Seav Orleans, March 14. New Orleans struck Mafia a death blow today. to-day. It rose in its might, almost at mid-day, and wreaked horrible vengeance ven-geance upon the Sicilian assassins who relentlessly slew David C Hennessy, and though there are eleven men dead t night who were happy yesterday oyer their victory in the greatest criminal crim-inal trial the city has ever witnessed, the work of blood was accomplished without unnecessary disorder, without rioting, without pillaging and without with-out the infliction of suffering upon any ', innocent man, save one, and he was not an unruly, midnight mob. It was simply a sullen, determined body of citizens who took into their own hands what justice had ignominiously tailed to do. The chief of police was slain on October Oc-tober 18. and that very night evideuce began to accumulate showing that his death had been deliberately planned by a recent tribunal and carried out boldly and successfully by tools of the conspirators. The trial lasted twenty-five twenty-five days, and though the evidence seemed conclusive, the jury, currently charged with haying been tampered with, failed to convict. Last night a body of cool-headed men, lawyers, doctors, doc-tors, merchants and political leaders, all persons of influence and social standing,quietly met and decided that some action must be taken and the people's justice, swift and sure, visited upon those whom the jury had neglected neg-lected to punish. This morning a call for a mass meeting at Clay square on Canal street anneared in the papers, which editorially deprecated .violence. The significant closing of the sentence of the call jwas, "Come prepared for action." Down in a large room on Bienville and Royal there was a arsenal ars-enal provided by a body of citizens. The call was answered by the populace. popu-lace. At 10 o'clock there was a crowd of several thousand anxious people congregated con-gregated around the statue. They hardly knew what was going to happen, but they seemed ready to go to any length and while there were, of course many of the .'ower element in the throng a large proportion were the leading people of the town. There were three addresses, short 'and pithy, and business like, and the assemblage, not unwillingly, was soon ke3Ted up to the highest pitch, demonstrative in its denunciation of the assassins. Each of tlie speakers said there had been a great mass meeting months before which had met quietly and dispersed peacefully so the law might take its course. The law had failed. The time to act had come. W. S. Parkerson, the leader, is a prominent lawyer here, president of the southern atheletic club, and the man who led the vigorous vigor-ous reform movement three years ago. Walter D. Denger. another of the speakers is one of the leaders of the New Orleans' bar. John C. Wickliff, also a prominent attorney, and James D. Houston, one of the foremost men of tlie state. After denouncing Detective Detec-tive O'Malley, who is alleged to haye i tampered with the jury, the speakers announced that they would lead to the Parish prison, Mr. Wicklilfe, concluding conclud-ing with these words: "Shall execrable execra-ble Mafia be allowed to flourish in this city; shall Mafia be allowed to cut down our citizens on publi cstreets .by the foul means of assassination; shall Matia be allowed to bribe jurors and let murderers gc scot free?" By this time, the crowd had swelled to 8,000 or more, and before anyone could realize what had happened, the great throng, gaining recruits at every step, was tramping down the streets to the neighborhood of the piison, stopping stop-ping only once and that was at the arsenal, where double-barrreled shot guns, Winchester rifles and pistols were handed out toiesponsible and respectable re-spectable citizens in the party. The starting of the crowd had an electric eifect on the city. Soon the;streets were alive with people running from all directions and joining the main oody which moved down the ramparts to the jail near Congo square. Doors and windows were thrown open and men and women and children crowded on the galleries to encourage those who were taking part, and to witness the scenes. When the main crowd from Canal reached the prison there had already collected there a dense thiong, all eager to take a hand in whatever might happeii. -VUi.eu : t?io- vanguard of armed citizens """phed the prison, which is many LrpJgfl f jot to take the prcJnt ;s, armed his deputies and then started on a hunt for Mayor Shakespeare. The Italian consul and Attorney General Ptoaers joined in the pursuit, but his honor does not reach the office until noon and he was not to be found at any of his regular haunts. The governor had not heard of the uprising aud had no time to act, and the police force was too small to offer much xesistance to the armv of avengers. Superintendent Gaster had ordered an extra detail of officers to be sent to the jail and the small crowd kept the sidewalks around the old building clear until the great multitude, swelling swell-ing all the time like a mighty roaring stream, surged around the door aud crowded the little baud of blue coats away. Captain Lem Davis was on guard, at main entrance with a scant force of deputies. They were swept away like chaff before the wind and in an instant the little ante-room leading lead-ing into the prison was jammed with eager, excited men. Meanwhile tlie prisoners were stricken strick-en with terror,, fur thay could hear distinctly dis-tinctly the shouts of the people without, with-out, madly demanding their blood. Persons who were charged with crimes other than complicity in the murder of the chief also shared in the 1 general demolization, soino of whom, ) among the representatives of Mafia, wanted to die fighting tor their lives and pleaded for weapons with which to defend themsei res, and wheu they could not find these they sought hiding places. The deputies, thinking to deceive de-ceive the crowd by a ruse, transferred nineteen men to the female department depart-ment and there the miserable Sicilians trembled in terror until the moment when the doors would yield to the angry throng on the outside. Capt. Davis refused the request to I open the prison and the crowd began the work of battering in the doors. Aroauud on Orleans streefe.tb.ere was a heavy wooden door which had been closely barred in anticipation ofthe coming of the avenging ia"ss. This the crowd selected as their best chance of getting in. The neighboring houses readily supplied axes and battering rams and willing hands went to work to force an opening, This di-.i not prove u difficult task to the trembling but determined throng, Soon there was a crash, the door gave w ny ana n an instant the armed citizens were pouriug through the small opening, while a miehty shout went up from ten thousand throats in fclad acclaim. ac-claim. There was resistance for ti e intruders, however, but it too was soon overcome with a huge billet of wood which the men carried. Then the turnkey was overpowered and the keys taken trom him. By that time the excitement was intense; none the less so wheii the patrol wagon drove up with a detachment of policemen, who were driven away under a fire of mud and stones. When the leaders inside the pris.ui got possession of the keys, the inside gate was promptly unlocked and the deputies in the lobby rapidly got out of harm's way. The avengers pressed into the yard of the white prisoners. The door of the first cell was open and a group of trembling prisoners stood inside. in-side. They were not the men who were wanted and the crowd very quickly, though with remarkabhi coolness, cool-ness, burst into the yard. Peering through the bars of the condemned cell was a terror stricken face which some mistook for Scaffedi. A volley was fired at the man and he dropped, but none of the shots struck him and it was subsequently found that lie was not one of the assassins. The inmates of the jail were ready to direct the way to where the Italians were. "Go to the female department," some one yelled, and thither the men with their Winchesters ran, but the door was locked. In a moment a key was producfl. Then the leader called for some o ho knewjthe right men, and a volunteer responded and the door was thrown open. The gallery was deserted, but an. old woman said the men were up stairs. A party of seven or eight quickly ascended the stair case, and as they reached the landing the assassins fled down at the other end. A half dozen followed them. Scarcely a word was spoken. It was time for action. When the pursued and pursuers reached the stone court yard the former darted toward the Orleans side of the gallery and crouched down beside the cells. Their faces blanched, and being unarmed, un-armed, they were absolutely defenceless. defence-less. In fear and trembling they screamed for mercy, but the avengers were merciless. Bang, bang, bang, rang out the reports of the murderous weapons, and a deadly rain of bullets poured into the crouching figures. Geraci, the closest man, was struck in the back of the head and his body pitched forward. Eomero fell to his knees with his face in his hands, and in that position was shot to death. Monastero and James Caruso fell together to-gether under the fire of half a dozen guns, the leaden bullets entering their bodies and heads. The bloody excu-tioners excu-tioners did their work well, and beneath be-neath the continujizi&!tfl , JUUlgejom'U'y with the others accused, ac-cused, fell together. Their bodies were riddled with bullets and tl.ey were stone dead almost before the fusillade was over. When the group of assassins was discovered on the gallery, Macheca, Scoffedi and old man Marchesi separated sep-arated from the other six and ran up stairs. Thither half a dozen men followed fol-lowed them and, as the terror-stricken assassins ran into the cells, they were slain. Joe Macheca, who was charged with being the arch consp-rator, had his back turned when a shot struck him immediately behind the ear and I his death was instantaneous. Scafodi, one of the most villainous of the assassins, as-sassins, dropped like a dog when a bullet hit him in the eye. Old man Machesi was the only man who was not killed outright. He was struck on the toD of the head while he stood beside Macheca, and, though mortally ; r wounded, lingered all the evening. Pollize, the crazy man, was locked up in a cell up stairs. The doors were flunj open and one of the avengers, taking aim, shot him through the body. He was not killed outright, and, in order to satisfy the people on tl-e outside, out-side, who were crazy to know what was going on within, he was dragged down the stairs and through the doorway door-way by which the crowd entered. Half carried, half dragged, he was taken to a corner. A rope was provided and I tied around his neck and the people j pulled him up to the cross bars. Not satisfied that he was dead, a score of men took aim and poured a volley ot shot into his body and for several hours the body was left dangling in air. Bagnetto was caught in the first rush up stairs and the first volley of bullets pierced his brain. He was pulled out by a number of stalwart men througu the main entrance to the prison and from the limb of a tree, his body was suspended, although life was already gone. Just as soon as the bloody work was done, Mr. Parkerson addressed the crowd and asked them to disperse. Thi.5 they consented to do, with ja ringing shout, but first they made a rush for Parkerson and lifting him bodily, supported him on their shoulders shoul-ders while they marched up the streets. The avengers came back in a body to the Clay statue and :hen dispersed. Imm'MHj cnj.vds nulied from all directions di-rections i.o t'.ie neighborhood of the trsgedy, while the streets in front f tii ; iiews) i per uiiicijs were blocked v- ith ptojie. anxious to sec the latest ! L...:.ietii::. Tl.iie v. as intense sup- j p.c -tou A.v..i.ntuiitj iut Iroin one end i ;f the to ii.o o,1k r the actions of I iiiy c-.i!c.i ft'iiiu applauded, i O'M ibe,' th-j 'bt'j;t;ve, who xowLl i.ave shared the fate ofthe as-I as-I sassins had ho uie.i co tght, has dis-appeuied dis-appeuied avl is not expected to return, re-turn, a.id ii.eifiU-r.- of the jury are Us j JCONTIN UKD ON FOU11TU FAGE.J -, TRAGIC SCENES. continued fkoji first page. hiding. The atmosphere has been ' considerably purged and though there is a big crowd on Canal street tonight to-night the trouble seems all over. The Italian consul declined to say to-night what action, if any, he will take. The prison was surrounded until un-til dark by a motley multitude, but the police found no difficulty in maintaining main-taining good order. The bodies of some of the slain were removed this morning. Caruso was mas married but leaves no children. Remora has a wife and children, and Macheca a wife and family. Comitez leaves a wife. Marches! died this evening at 7 o'clock. The coroner's jury presented a simple finding. They did not say who shot the men. Matranga, Sunzeri, Natalie, the boy Marches, Pateruo, John Caruso, Pietzo and Incardonia are the eight men wno escape ! ::;iish-ment. ::;iish-ment. Caruso hid in the yard. Natalie concealed himself in the wash house and was discovered and his life spared. Sunzeri and Pietzo hid in the dog house and Incardonia in the vault, while the jail officials spirited Matranga Mat-ranga and Petorno out of harm's way. Sellgman, foreman of the jury, was arrested ar-rested this afternoon as he was attempting at-tempting to leave the city. |