by Gary Krist
1 In the main courtroom at St. Patrick’s Hall … Details for the courtroom scene while the jury deliberated come from the NODI of March 13 and 14, 1891.
2 the jury had supposedly reached its decision very quickly … The rumors of an early verdict were from the NODP of March 13, 1891.
3 the police had ultimately arrested more than a hundred Italians … as per the NODI of February 16, 1891. [NB: The newspapers and most of the population of New Orleans at this time seemed certain of the existence of a full-fledged “Mafia” in the city at this time, modeled on its predecessor in Sicily. Many later historians have accepted this belief as fact, without much proof to back it up. Others, like Richard Gambino and Humbert Nelli, disagree vehemently. While I think it is disingenuous to deny that there was any organized crime whatsoever in the city’s Italian community, particularly in later years (see Michael L. Kurtz’s unconvincing “Organized Crime in Louisiana History: Myth and Reality”), I tend to agree with Nelli that Italian crime in New Orleans in 1890 was at best loosely organized and decentralized.]
4 proved to be maddeningly complicated … Details of jury selection, witness examination, the bribery allegations, and Polizzi’s antics were ubiquitously reported. For Peeler’s alleged drunkenness, see Smith, Crescent City Lynchings, 176.
5 evidence from more than 140 witnesses … Smith is especially thorough in his presentation of the overabundance of testimony on both sides.
6 prizefighter John L. Sullivan showed up to watch … Gambino, Vendetta, 76, writes about Sullivan’s visit.
7 no other outcome … The newspapers of the day (see, for instance, the NODI of March 3, 1891) seemed to believe that the prosecution made a strong case, but to me this seems more like wishful thinking than objective analysis. It’s worth noting that a federal investigator examining the trial transcripts months afterward found the evidence “exceedingly unsatisfactory” and “not, to my mind, conclusive one way or the other” (see Gambino, Vendetta, 192).
8 At one thirty P.M., a knock … The moments before the verdict as described in the NODI of March 13 (which also reports the excitement on the street as comparable to that on the day after the shooting).
9 “to turn and look at one another …” and the heckling of the jurors are both from the NODI of March 14.
10 “Red-handed murder …” is from the NODI of March 14, 1891.
11 “Alien hands of oath-bound assassins …” is from the NODS of the same date.
12 When William S. Parkerson stepped into his second-floor law office … Much of the description of Parkerson’s activities on the night of the verdict are from an interview he gave to the Illustrated American for the issue of April 4, 1891.
13 Balding, bespectacled, and somewhat portly … Parkerson’s appearance and history from the Illustrated American interview; from his entry in Fortier’s Louisiana, Vol. 3; and his obituary in the NOTP of February 15, 1915.
14 “Southern ‘special gentlemen’s police’ ” is from Giose Rimanelli, as quoted in Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water, 339.
15 at the corner of Royal and Bienville Streets … The location of Hayne’s home as per the NODP of March 15, 1891.
16 Many had heard stories of raucous demonstrations … For the meeting at Hayne’s, see also Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water, 337–41. [NB: Some Italian community leaders insisted that the celebrations had to do with King Umberto’s birthday and had nothing to do with the acquittals.]
17 MASS MEETING!… Text of the newspaper announcement as per numerous sources (see, for instance, Smith, Crescent City Lynchings, 213).
18 rode a horse-drawn wagon … For the trip to Albert Baldwin’s hardware store for arms, see Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water, 341.
19 at eight thirty A.M. he left his office … Villere’s search for the mayor comes mainly from the Illustrated American account and from Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water, 342ff.
20 heading through the streets in the same direction … Corte described his search for the mayor in a letter to Ambassador Francesco Fava dated March 15, 1891, reproduced in various sources (e.g., Gambino, Vendetta, 158–60).
21 Corte and Villere hurried over … The Corte letter indicates that the governor was “not far away at a lawyer’s office,” though other sources, like Gambino, Vendetta, 79, say he was at a friend’s house on the outskirts of town.
22 a white-haired former Confederate general … The governor’s appearance and history as per Gambino, Vendetta, 80.
23 crowds were already gathering … The mass meeting at the Clay statue was widely reported in the press.
24 “People of New Orleans, once before I stood before you …” The complete text of Parkerson’s speech was reprinted ubiquitously (e.g., in Gambino, Vendetta, 157).
25 made their way down Royal … The newspapers disagree slightly on the exact route the mob took to the Orleans Parish Prison.
26 “The crowd accordingly fell in line …” is from the NODI of March 14, 1891.
27 “like a mighty roaring stream” … This and other details in this paragraph are from an account in the Deseret Weekly, March 21, 1891.
28 “It was the most terrible thing …” is from the Parkerson interview in the Illustrated American, 321.
29 Two municipal detectives left the park … The two municipal detectives and the scene with Lemuel Davis is principally from Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water, 344ff. Other accounts are similar, though there is some disagreement over whether Davis actually gave a set of keys to the prisoners.
30 “I’ve done all I can” … is from Smith, Crescent City Lynchings, 220.
31 Eventually, Parkerson himself stepped up … Here again, the newspaper accounts and secondhand literature disagree somewhat on the exact details of the scenes in the prison, though not substantially.
32 among them Phillip Lobrano … Lobrano’s presence in the prison as noted in an article about the Marchesi family’s later lawsuit against the city, in the NODP of December 19, 1893.
33 “The intention had not been to shoot …” is from the Illustrated American interview.
34 “There’s Scaffidi!” … This quote and the rest of this scene primarily from Smith, Crescent City Lynchings, 223.
35 Macheca was the first to be found … Hunt and Sheldon are best on the killing of Macheca (Deep Water, 352–54).
36 “Bagnetto, Scaffidi, Polizzi …” For the hanging of Polizzi and Bagnetto, and for Parkerson’s speech afterward, see the Illustrated American article, page 322, and Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water, 35f.
37 “You have today wiped the stain …” is from the NODI of March 15, 1891.
38 a gruesome tableau … Details of the scene back at the Parish Prison mainly as per Gambino, p. 87.
39 “Of course, it is not a courageous thing …” is from the interview in the Illustrated American, 322.
40 virtually unanimous in its approval … For the reactions of the business community and the newspapers, see especially Hunt and Sheldon, Deep Water, 358f.
41 “Government powers are delegated …” is from the NODP of March 15, 1891.
42 “When the ordinary means of justice fail …” is from the NODI of March 14, 1891.
43 promised further extralegal means … The threat to burn down Little Palermo as per the interview in Illustrated American, 322.
44 Many were forced to leave town … For the plight of Seligman and the other jurors, see especially the NYT of March 15, 1891, and the Deseret Weekly, March 21, 1891.
45 As for the lynchers themselves … The report of the grand jury about jury bribing and the lynching is reprinted in its entirety in Gambino, Vendetta, 163–81.
46 “the entire people of the parish …” Quotes are from the grand jury report as reprinted in Gambino, Vendetta, 180–81.
47 became something of a national celebrity … Information about Parkerson in later years from various newspaper reports and his obituary in the NODP.
48 “a rather good thing” Gambino is best on the aftermath of the lynchings and
its effect on US-Italian relations; see Vendetta, 97 (for Theodore Roosevelt’s comments) and 113–28.
49 “the able manner in which …” Letters to Mayor Shakspeare (including the one quoted) are from the Joseph Shakspeare Collection at the Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection (MSS 96, Folder 7).
50 “They are quiet, quieter …” See Smith, Crescent City Lynchings, 277.
51 the city’s Italian underworld—“Mafia” or not … The question of whether the defendants in the Hennessy case were guilty or innocent is at this point all but impossible to say. The possibility that non-Italians might have been involved was never even entertained. But as Gambino has pointed out, whether or not Mayor Shakspeare and the city’s commercial elite truly believed that the defendants were guilty and that they were tools of the Mafia, it was very much in their interest to reinforce that belief among the general populace.
Chapter 5: A Sporting Man
The best single source on Tom Anderson is the court case that resulted in the wake of his disputed will, Succession of Anderson (Louisiana Supreme Court Docket No. 32,083).
1 dapper and always well groomed … Tom Anderson’s appearance from various sources. See also photo in Rose, Storyville, 42.
2 a hand in many different ventures … Anderson’s activities as a business entrepreneur and sporting man as reported in local news reports—for instance, the NODPs of May 7, 1894 (boxing manager) and October 3, 1895 (horseracing entrepreneur) and the Mascot of November 24, 1894 (restaurant owner).
3 “Only Independent Oil Company …” Anderson touts Record Oil in ads collected in the “Thomas C. Anderson Record Oil Company” files at Historic New Orleans Collection.
4 contemplating that inevitable next step … Anderson’s growing interest in politics as reflected in the NODP news reports of, for instance, October 21, 1892 (marching with then-Mayor Fitzpatrick in Columbus Day parade) and August 4, 1897 (chosen VP of the Choctaw Club, the base of Ring operations in New Orleans).
5 a disaster from the beginning … For Anderson’s contentious second marriage, see Orleans Parish Civil District Court Case 43,575: Thomas C. Anderson v. His Wife (Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library).
6 the product of a bloody-fisted childhood … For Anderson’s personality and early history, see especially Rose, Storyville, 42–43.
7 a bookkeeper and shipping clerk … For details of his apprenticeship at Insurance Oil, see Succession of Anderson.
8 “Well, boys …” is from the testimony of William Ulmo in that trial, as are the quotes in the following paragraph.
9 his childhood sweetheart … For Anderson’s early marriage to Emma Schwartz, see his succession case and the reports of same in the NODPs of June 2, 8, and 28, 1932.
10 Emma succumbed to typhoid fever … For Emma Schwartz’s death, see the NODP of November 23, 1881.
11 a boondoggle of impressive proportions … The most useful source for the Louisiana Lottery is Kendall, History, 483–501; $40,000 for Charity Hospital as per Kendall, 485.
12 No. 110–112 North Rampart Street … Tom Anderson’s restaurant opening and the establishment’s use as a rendezvous point as cited in Rose, Storyville, 43; Asbury, French Quarter, 434–35; and Long, Babylon, 155.
13 “neutral ground” … See Rose, Storyville, 43.
14 “My motto …” is from Rose, Storyville, 45.
15 “The Ball of the Two Well Known Gentlemen” … A good source for the French balls generally is Rose, Storyville, 21–22.
16 created expressly to bring order … For the elite appropriation of Mardi Gras, see Leathem, “Carnival,” 3, 18.
17 “the queen and her court …” is from Leathem, “Carnival,” 189.
18 “excesses of cruel treatment and outrages …” For details of Anderson’s marriage to Catherine Turnbull (a marriage that seems to have eluded most of the literature on Anderson), see Orleans Parish Civil District Court Cases 43,575 and 48,601. Quotes here are from the appeal in these court records. For the two-dollar keg of pickles, see the “Inventory of Assets” in the same court record.
19 Rumors of a romantic relationship … Many writers, like Rose and Asbury, seem convinced that there was a romantic relationship between Anderson and Josie Arlington; I side with others, like Long, who have examined the various court records and see no evidence for it.
20 a businessperson on the rise … Details of Josie Arlington’s years after breaking with Lobrano come mainly from Succession of Deubler.
21 a new paramour, John Thomas Brady … Brady’s real surname was Hearn, but like many in New Orleans’ sporting world, he used a pseudonym.
22 a former orphaned child … The Succession of Deubler case records are best for Josie’s orphan years (see also Long, Babylon, 150).
23 “gracious, amiable foreign girls …” and quotes from advertisements are from Asbury, French Quarter, 450.
24 “a hoochy-koochy dancer …” from Asbury, French Quarter, 450.
25 Josie Arlington sold an interest in the Chateau … For the partnership between Anderson and Josie Arlington, see Rose, Storyville, 43, and Long, Babylon, 155–56.
26 allowing the genial Tom Brady … Brady’s ability to quit his job and buy a partnership in a poolroom as per his testimony in Succession of Deubler.
27 to regulate and isolate the trade … For Storyville’s genesis, see Rose, Storyville, 36–39; an interview with Sidney Story in the NODI of December 22, 1902; Long, Babylon, 102–06, 110–15.
28 reputation as a center of sin and perdition … Early New Orleans history overview comes principally from Campanella, Bienville, and Kendall, History.
29 “to establish, thirty leagues up the river …” John Law is quoted in Campanella, Bienville, 109.
30 “Disorderly soldiers …” is from Phelps’s Louisiana, as quoted in Asbury, French Quarter, 9–10.
31 a chronic shortage of women … as per Landau, “Spectacular Wickedness,” 13, and Hansen, Louisiana, 95.
32 among them eighty-eight inmates … The women from La Salpêtrière comes from Asbury, French Quarter, 11–12.
33 “without religion, without justice …” is from Asbury, French Quarter, 20; see also Rose, Storyville, 56, for the city’s early history with “sinful women.”
34 the Spaniards sent over few additional colonists … according to Hansen, Louisiana, 80.
35 Napoleon sold New Orleans … See Asbury, French Quarter, 67.
36 rowdy flatboatmen … Hansen, Louisiana, 42, is best.
37 “wholehearted wallowing in the fleshpots” … is from Asbury, French Quarter, 80.
38 confidence men and professional riverboat gamblers … See Asbury, French Quarter, 198.
39 prosperous Anglo-American planters and merchants … New Orleans was the richest metropolis below the Mason-Dixon line according to McKinney, Cultural History, 18–21.
40 downtown “Creoles” … For the history of the term, see Campanella, Bienville, 161–67, and Anthony, “The Negro Creole Community.”
41 “That vice should be allowed to flaunt …” The quotation from Alderman Story is from the interview in the NODI of December 22, 1902.
42 widely applauded by the city’s business reformers … For the motivating need to attract Northern capital, see Landau, “Spectacular Wickedness,” 5.
43 “obscure neighborhoods …” is from the NODP of January 1, 1898 (as quoted in Landau, “Spectacular Wickedness,” 84).
44 a mixed-race working-class neighborhood … For more on the makeup of Storyville, see Long, Babylon, 128.
45 notices of eviction … See Landau, “Spectacular Wickedness,” 78.
46 on the first day of 1898 … Storyville’s opening as per Rose, Storyville, 38.
47 a choice property in Storyville-to-be … Anderson’s purchase of the Fair Play Saloon per Rose, Storyville, 43.
Chapter 6: New Sounds
The origins and genealogy of jazz have been the subject of considerable contention amo
ng music critics and historians (see Bruce Boyd Raeburn’s New Orleans Style for an account of the controversies over the years). For the development of jazz in New Orleans and Buddy Bolden’s role in it, I have relied mostly on Charles Hersch, Subversive Sounds; Donald M. Marquis, In Search of Buddy Bolden; Samuel Barclay Charters, A Trumpet Around the Corner; Vincent J. Panetta, “ ‘For Godsake Stop!’ ”; and Court Carney, “New Orleans and the Creation of Early Jazz,” all of which do a good job of clearing away the vast mythology that has grown up around the topic.
1 poor Uptown neighborhood … For the neighborhoods and venues where the new sound emerged, see Hersch, Subversive Sounds, 13 and 31–32, and Marquis, Bolden, 49.
2 “the good-time, earthy people” … The description of early jazz fans as such is from Isidore Barbarin, as quoted in Barker, Life in Jazz, 28.
3 “That boy could make women jump …” is from Bill Matthews, as quoted in Marquis, Bolden, 100.
4 “I’d never heard anything like that …” is from George Baquet, as quoted in Shapiro and Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya, 38.
5 The grandson of slaves … For Bolden’s early childhood, see especially Carney, “Creation of Early Jazz,” 303; and Marquis, Bolden, 13–15, 18, and 23. [NB: The house at 385 First Street still stands, though today the address is #2309.]
6 not a very healthy place to live … For the character of the neighborhood in Bolden’s day, see Marquis, Bolden, 22, and Hersch, Subversive Sounds, 36.
7 Music was everywhere around him … Hersch, Subversive Sounds, 15–16, is especially good on young Bolden’s rich musical environment.
8 “The city was full of the sounds of music …” is from Danny Barker, as quoted in Shapiro and Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya, 3.
9 cornet lessons from a neighbor … For Bolden’s early lessons with Manuel Hall, see the oral history of Louis Jones, January 19, 1959, in the Hogan Jazz Archive; also Marquis, Bolden, 38.
10 plenty of opportunities to play … Marquis, Bolden, 32, talks about the young musicians filling in for older band members.
