The Axeman of New Orleans | Jazz or Die, 1919

Dave brings this mystery to the bunker with Kim and Josh this week, and the gang explores a case where an entire city's survival may have depended on keeping the music playing. The Axeman was never identified, never caught, and left behind only questions.

Some researchers believe the letter wasn't written by the killer at all, but by a musician hoping to sell copies of a song called "Don't Scare Me Papa, " inspired by the events. The Axeman's attacks resumed briefly afterward, with possible additional murders as late as 1920, before the killer simply vanished from history. Theories about his identity range from a lone drunk who turned violent to mafia enforcers targeting grocers who may have been laundering money or refusing to cooperate. 

That Tuesday happened to be St. Joseph's Day. The city erupted in music. Jazz poured from every window, every open door, every club. Those without instruments or records rushed to any establishment playing music. The streets were alive with sound. And nobody was killed that night.

Then came the letter. On March 13, 1919, the Times-Picayune newspaper published a letter from someone claiming to be the Axeman himself. Written with theatrical flair, the author declared himself "a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell" and made a demand: at 12:15 AM on the following Tuesday, every home must have a jazz band playing in full swing. Anyone without jazz would "get the ax."

The first known attack claimed the lives of Joseph and Catherine Maggio in May 1918. Joseph's brothers discovered them after hearing strange groaning through the walls. Catherine was nearly decapitated. A straight razor had been used alongside the axe. The back door panel had been knocked out. And in the months that followed, the same pattern repeated across the city. Italian grocers, doors chiseled open, the household axe turned against its owners, nothing taken.

Between 1918 and 1919, a mysterious figure terrorized the Italian grocers of New Orleans. The attacker's method was consistent and chilling: chisel through a panel in the back door, enter the home behind the grocery store, pick up the family's own axe, and attack. Nothing was ever stolen. The victims, who somehow survived more often than not, could never remember what happened. And the city had no idea who was responsible.

Jinkies! The gang travels to early 1900s New Orleans for a mystery that demanded an entire city play jazz music or face the consequences.

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