Italian American Digest JT DIGEST Summer 2018 June First (1) | Page 7
SUMMER 2018
I talian A merican D igest
PAGE 7
throw cup and by 1980 had con-
vinced the Krewes of Alla, Bacchus,
Rhea and Argus to use his cups as
throws. The decorated cups were
extremely popular and have become
a fixture of almost every parade. The
cups are fun souvenirs and immedi-
ately useful.
Today the Giacona Container
Corp. makes more than one million
cups for Mardi Gras annually.
- Megan Celona
STANDARD FRUIT
In 1899, Sicilian brothers Felix,
Luca and Joseph Vaccaro, along with
brother in law Salvador D’Antoni,
began importing bananas from La
Ceiba, Honduras to New Orleans.
By 1915, they were so successful
that they had bought most of New
Orleans’ ice factories to store their
banana ships in, and Joseph Vaccaro
was known as the “Ice King.”
In 1924, they established the Stan-
dard Fruit and Steamship Company.
The company, along with the
United Fruit Company, had a signifi-
cant impact on the governments of
Honduras and other Central Ameri-
can countries often called “banana
republics” due to the extreme influ-
ence the fruit companies had over the
nations.
Between 1964 and 1968, Castle
& Cooke Corporation acquired the
Standard Fruit and Steamship Com-
pany.
- Megan Celona
LYNCHING
On October 15, 1890, someone
shot New Orleans police chief David
Hennessy on his way home from
work. There were no witnesses.
Hennessy was brought to the hos-
pital where he allegedly uttered the
derogatory word “dagoes”; Hennessy
died of complications the next day.
Hennessy had been investigating
the Provenzano and Matranga fami-
lies who were business rivals.There-
fore, it was widely believed that
Hennessy’s killers were Italian.
Within 24 hours, the police had
arrested 45 Italians and rounded up
as many as 250. They eventually
charged 19 men with murder, ac-
cessories to murder, or lying in wait
charges. A trial for nine of the sus-
pects began in February 1891.
Across the nation, newspapers
covered the trial, introducing the
term “Mafia” to the general public.
During the trial, little evidence
was presented; much of it circum-
stantial. The jury decided that two
An advertisement for the Standard Fruit and Steamship Company promoting the S.S. Cefalu, the S.S. Atlantida and the S.S. Contessa
men were not guilty by directed
verdict and four of the defendants
not guilty; they asked
the judge to declare a
mistrial for the remain-
ing three.
Instead of being
released, the nine men
were sent back to prison
to await charges of “ly-
ing in wait” with intent
to commit murder;
a charge which would have to be
dropped with the not guilty verdict.
The mass meeting quickly turned
into a mob which stormed the parish
prison, breaking the door with a bat-
tering ram.
Prison warden Lemuel Davis let
the 19 Italians out of their cells and
told them to hide. The mob hanged
and shot two Italians outside the
prison and shot or clubbed nine other
Italians to death inside the prison.
The New York Times headline the
day after the lynching was, “Chief
Hennessy Avenged...Italian Murder-
ers Shot Down.”
This strained relations between the
United States and Italy. Italy wanted
the lynch mob prosecuted and repa-
rations be paid to the deceased men’s
families. When no one was prose-
cuted, Italy withdrew its ambassador
from Washington and then the U.S.
withdrew its legation from Rome.
There were rumors of war.
After an impasse of over one year,
President Benjamin Harrison used
his executive power to pay a $25,000
indemnity to the victims’ families.
- Megan Celona
THE AXEMAN
By March of 1919, the Italian
community of New Orleans was in a
panic. Since December, 1917, some-
one had brutally attacked three Ital-
ian grocers in the city – with three
fatalities. The assailant
broke into residential
groceries in the dead of
night, and assaulted the
grocer in his bed, usu-
ally with his own axe.
After the most recent
attack, such fear spread
through the city that
some residents – and
not only Italians – bought guns and
began staying up all night to protect
their families.
On December 17, 1917, the “Axe-
man,” as the press nicknamed him,
had attacked Epifanio Andollina
as he slept beside his wife behind
their store. Andollina survived. Five
months later, Catherine and Joseph
Maggio were not so lucky. In Au-
gust 1918, Joseph Romano also was
killed, bashed in the head with an
axe while he slept.
The Axeman had actually begun
his campaign in late summer of
1910.
An unknown assailant struck gro-
cer August Crutti in the head with a
butcher’s cleaver one night in Au-
gust. Crutti wasn’t badly injured. But
a middle-of-the-night attack the next
month left both Joseph and Conchet-
ta Rissetto badly cut up.
The “Cleaver” – as he was called
then – didn’t manage to kill anyone
until June 1911, when he murdered
grocer Joe Davi in his bed. Then he
disappeared.
When the killer reappeared almost
seven years later, Superintendent
of Police Frank Mooney tried ev-
erything he could think of to catch
him, with no results. But perhaps
the Axeman felt the pressure of the
police hunt, because in March 1919,
he crossed the river to Gretna. There,
after midnight on March 9, he struck
again – badly injuring grocer Charlie
Cortimiglia and his wife Rosie and
killing their two-year-old daughter.
Although Superintendent Mooney
was confident the assailant was the
“fiend” that had been active in his
own city, the Gretna authorities,
probably induced – at least in part
– by anti-Italian prejudice, became
convinced that the killers were the
victims’ next door neighbors, the
Jordanos.
Eventually, Rosie was per-
suaded—perhaps even coerced—to
Tricentennial cont. on page 8
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