For the remainder of Frank Jordano’s life, see NOTP, June 17, 1923, December 20, 1925, May 3, 1927, and February 21, 1961; Jefferson Parish, marriage license (no. 1609) for Frank Jordano and Linzy Hamilton, February 7, 1926; Jefferson Parish, marriage license (no. 1812) for Frank Jordano and Mary Shambra, April 6, 1936; Louisiana State Board of Health, death certificate for Frank Jordano; “Frank Guagliardo” in Ancestry.com, One World Tree Project.
For Robert Rivarde’s career, see NOTP, September 11, 1924, and July 2, 1965; States-Item, January 30–31, 1967; NOTP, January 31 and October 3, 1967.
For John Fleury’s career, see NOTP, September 30, 1984.
For William Byrnes’s career, see NOTP, February 26–28, 1942; “Judge William H. Byrnes, Jr.” in Louisiana Today, by James M. Thomson, 337, 396; and “Judge William H. Byrnes, Jr.,” in Book of the South, ed. by John Temple Graves, 276.
For Frank Mooney’s failings as police chief, see NOTP, December 30, 1917, and January 17, 1919; NODS, February 27, 1919; NOTP, February 28 and April 6, 1919; NOI, March 17 and 20, 1920; and NOTP, November 27, 1920, and August 23, 1923. The Axeman crimes weren’t the only murders he was criticized for not solving; see NOI, April 25, 1919.
For Mooney’s resignation and the remainder of his life, see NOTP, August 24 and 26 and November 28, 1920; NODS, November 28, 1920; NOI, August 23, 1923; NODS, August 23 and 26, 1923; and NOTP, August 28, 1923.
Details of the Spero murder are from ADTT, December 13, 14, and 17, 1920; NODS, December 13–14, 1920; and NOTP, December 15 and 18, 1920.
Description of the Orlando murder from NODS, January 12, 1921; NOI, January 12, 1921; NOTP, January 13, 1921; LCWAP, January 14 and 21, 1921; and DeRidder Enterprise, January 15, 1921.
Additional information for John Orlando and family from Louisiana State Board of Health, death certificate for John Orlando; 1920 US Census, Ancestry.com; WWI Draft Registration Cards, Ancestry.com; Texas, Naturalization Records, 1881–1992, Ancestry .com, accessed June 26, 2015, http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2509; Francine Cloud, interview with the author, February 6, 2015.
Details of the Scalisi murder are from LCWAP, April 12, 14, and 19, 1921; Criminal Records Archives, Calcasieu Parish, coroner’s certificate for Frank Scalisi, April 13, 1921.
On the reliability of eyewitness testimony, see Cutler and Penrod, Mistaken Identification; Douglass and Pavletic, “Eyewitness Confidence”; Engelhardt, “Problem with Eyewitness Testimony”; Poole et al., “Children as Witnesses”; Putwain and Sammons, Psychology and Crime; and Steblay, “Eyewitness Memory.” For racist stereotypes, see Jenkins, “Serial Murder.”
For robbery and murder spree in Birmingham, Alabama, see McQueen, Axman Came from Hell; and Kazek, Forgotten Tales.
For serial killers, see sources cited in chapter 6.
“probably the youngest realtor”: NOTP, December 20, 1925.
“There’ll be no more political jobs”: NOI, November 28, 1920.
The murder remained unsolved: Josephine Orlando told her granddaughter, Francine Cloud, that several men broke in, poured chloroform on the floor, and attacked the family. Revenge was ostensibly the motive. But none of the contemporary newspaper accounts mention such a possibility. The idea that assailants would chloroform their victims was a common convention of the time, and many people (including Italians) assumed that any attack on Italians was motivated by revenge. Josephine was only six years old at the time of the attack, and her memory probably reflects the speculation she subsequently heard from the adults around her. For created memories, see Loftus, “Make-Believe Memories” and “Malleability of Human Memory.” Moreover, Mrs. Cloud also heard growing up that her great-grandfather was killed by “the Axeman.” This term was used by both her grandmother and her great-grandmother (who spoke little English).
“short [and] chunky”: Criminal Records Archives, Calcasieu Parish, coroner’s certificate for Frank Scalisi, April 13, 1921.
“short and stout”: Ibid.
“a short, heavy-set man”: NODP, August 14, 1910.
“said she did not see”: LCAP, April 12, 1921.
“The man was short”: Criminal Records Archives, Calcasieu Parish, coroner’s certificate for Frank Scalisi, April 13, 1921.
“an ax murder identical”: NODS, December 13, 1920.
a morphine or cocaine habit: At the time both drugs could be had from any drugstore with a prescription.
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———. “Why Battered Women Do Not Leave, Part 2.” Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 2, no. 1 (2001): 3–35.
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Edward, Wallace. The Axeman: The Brutal History of the Axeman of New Orleans. Anaheim, CA: Absolute Crime Books, 2013.
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