The Axeman's Jazz (City Blues Quartet)

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The letter printed in the book is a real letter received by the Picayune newspaper at the time. What do you think the intention of the real-life letter-writer was? Gibson, Cameron (2006). Serial Murder and Media Circuses. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 0275990648. While certainly obscure, the strange unsolved case of the Axeman of New Orleans is undoubtedly not forgotten.

Countless people faced questioning, and even some of the victims themselves were suspected of being the Axeman of New Orleans, as was the case with one man named Louis Besumer (who was separately suspected of being a German spy).Two of the alleged "early" victims of the Axeman, an Italian couple named Schiambra, were shot by an intruder in their Lower Ninth Ward home in the early morning hours of May 16, 1912. The male Schiambra survived while his wife died. In newspaper accounts, the prime suspect is referred to by the name of "Momfre" more than once. While radically different than the Axeman's usual modus operandi, if Joseph Momfre was indeed the Axeman, the Schiambras may well have been early victims of the future serial killer. [4] As if claiming to be a demon wasn’t weird enough, the Axeman of New Orleans left instructions for what is the most bizarre hostage-taking of a city in true crime history:

Winner of the CWA John Creasey Dagger for Best Debut Crime Novel of the Year — Winner of the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Best Crime Novel of the Year Translated into Swedish — The Independent Newspaper Crime Book of the Year — Shortlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award — Shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers’ Best First Novel Award — As recommended on the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show Ray Celestin's 2014 novel The Axeman's Jazz is a fictionalized version of the Axeman of New Orleans's case. [26]Sunset Swing may be an ode to the classics of hard-boiled noir, but it has more than enough rhythm of its own to take its place beside them.” The Axeman was never caught, leading many to believe that he later resumed murdering people but with a different M.O to throw off investigators. His first two victims, Catherine and Joseph Maggio, were found to have died under mysterious circumstances. While getting murdered with an axe seems straightforward, the case was complicated by the fact that the Axeman had used a razor, rather than the axe, to slash his victim’s throats.

He made a pile of money off that song," says Davis. "And I just think that he's the most likely suspect [for the letter]."And then nearly 100 years later, the letter in question pops up on one of the biggest subreddits, r/todayilearned: