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The New Orleans "Mafia" Trial: 1891
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The New Orleans "Mafia" Trial: 1891
David C. Hennessy, the police superintendent of New Orleans in 1891 was allegedly assisinated by mafia members on October 15, 1891.
The New Orleans "mafia" trial of 1891 provoked the worst mass lynching in US history and made the word "mafia" a common term, There are two accounts of what actually happened in this trial. The first account was of nineteen Italian immigrants that were indicted for the murder of police chief David C. Hemmessey. Lionel Adams was the defense attorney in the murder trial. Adams was able to get all 19 indictments thrown out. The State's case started to fall apart due to circumstantial evidence such as inconsistent stories from witnesses which ultimately led to 3 of the defendants getting mistrials, 6 were found not guilty, and the other 6 defendants' charges were dismissed. Following the verdicts of the trial, an estimated 6,000 people stormed the prison and brutally massacred 11 out of the 19 defendants. The second account of the trial suggests that the jury was bribed and even threatened. This is thought to be the reasoning behind the verdicts that shocked the city of New Orleans. When asked, the jurors denied being bribed. They said their decisions resulted from impatience in the jury room, the absence of key witnesses, and other holes in the states' case. To this day, Hennessey's murderers have never benn apprehended, and there is an ennormous possibility that 11 innocent immigrants were brutally murdered for something that they had no involvment in.
The illustrations below show five of the men who were tried in a court of law, found innocent, and then brutally murdered by an angry mob that stormed the prision where they were being held. The following illustrations are from Vandetta: by Richard Gambino.
http://www.uno.edu/~dneubaue/studentpapers/edwards/trial.html
9/2/04