March 14, 1891
New Orleans
It began with the murder of David Hennessy. A popular police chief, Hennessy was killed gunmen while walking home from work. As he lay dying, a witness asked him who did it. “Dagoes,” he reportedly said, using a common slur for Italians.
Kill the Greaseballs
When news spread that the trial had resulted in six not-guilty convictions and three mistrials, the city went wild. The locals assumed the Mafia had influenced jurors or fixed the trial and that justice had not been served.
The Daily States newspaper summed it up as such: “Alien hands of oath-bound assassins have set the blot of a martyr’s blood upon your vaunted civilization.” The message was clear: If the New Orleans justice system would punish Italians, the people of New Orleans would have to do so instead. In response, thousands of angry residents were massed near the jail. Impassioned speakers whipped the mob into a frenzy, painting Italian immigrants as criminals who needed to be driven out of the city. Finally, the mob broke into the city’s arsenal, grabbing guns and ammunition. As they ran toward the prison, they shouted, “We want the Dagoes!” A smaller group of armed men stormed the prison, grabbing not just the men who had been acquitted or given a mistrial, but several who had not been tried or accused in the crimes. Shots rang out—hundreds of them. Eleven men’s bodies were riddled with bullets and torn apart by the crowd.
The Guidos Must Pay
Outside the jail, the larger mob cheered as the mutilated bodies were displayed. Some corpses were hung; what remained of others were torn apart and plundered for souvenirs. The act of vigilante justice was decried by the Italian government, which demanded the lynch mob be punished. But many Americans, swept up on a tide of anti-immigrant sentiment, applauded the killings. A New York Times editorial called the victims “desperate ruffians and murderers. These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins…are to us a pest without mitigations.”
The Only Good Wop is a Dead Wop
The lynch mob—composed of some of New Orleans’ most prominent residents, including future mayors and governors—went unpunished. Though the grand jury said the crowd included some of “the first, best, and even the most law-abiding, of the citizens of this city,” it claimed none could be identified. The real identity of Hennessy’s murderer was never determined. However, the lynchings after his death had lasting negative repercussions for Italians. The supposed (and unproven) Mafia conspiracy behind the acquittals was used as an excuse to discriminate against Italians for decades.
Post-script
A proclamation by then President Benjamin Harrison in 1892, largely as an affirmation of the dignity of the Italian people, was made to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in the Caribbean. The intention was that it would be a one-off, but there was popular acclamation for an annual observance. That is why it became a national holiday in the United States. Over the years it has evolved into an expression of Italian American pride while acknowledging the legacy of one of history’s most intrepid explorers.
Post-post-script
Happy Columbus Day.