1891 New Orleans Lynchings

On the evening of October 15, 1890, New Orleans police chief David Hennessy was shot by several gunmen as he walked home; he died the next day. Amid rising anti-Italian sentiment and a business-driven influx of Italian immigrant labor into Louisiana, local newspapers and Mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare quickly blamed Italians for the killing. Shakspeare reportedly ordered police to "arrest every Italian you come across," and within 24 hours 45 people had been arrested, with some accounts putting the total as high as 250 over subsequent days. A Committee of Fifty was formed to investigate alleged "secret societies" among Italian immigrants, and pretrial press coverage was intensely negative, running headlines describing a "Vast Mafia in New Orleans."

Nineteen men were ultimately charged in connection with Hennessy's murder or as accessories. A trial for nine of them began February 16, 1891, and concluded March 13, 1891, before Judge Joshua G. Baker. The evidence was described by federal district attorney William Grant as "exceedingly unsatisfactory," and eyewitness identifications relied on clothing rather than faces. The jury acquitted six defendants outright and could not reach a verdict on three others, resulting in a mistrial for them. Despite the acquittals, prosecutors kept all nineteen men in custody pending additional charges, a decision that left them in the prison when the mob arrived.

The morning after the verdicts, a self-styled Committee on Safety called a mass meeting at the Henry Clay statue near the prison. Attorney William S. Parkerson urged the crowd to "set aside the verdict of that infamous jury," and thousands marched on Parish Prison chanting for the men inside. A smaller, organized "execution squad" within the crowd broke into the prison. Warden Lemuel Davis released the men from their cells so they could try to hide, but eleven were killed — two hanged and shot outside (Emmanuele Polizzi and Antonio Bagnetto) and nine others shot or clubbed to death inside the prison. Eight men escaped by hiding.

A grand jury convened March 17, 1891, and in a May 5, 1891 report claimed it could not identify any participants in the lynching despite describing it as a gathering of thousands of "the first, best" citizens of the city. No one was indicted for the killings; only Thomas Duffy, who had separately shot a suspect inside the prison in October 1890, was penalized, for assault.

The lynching caused a diplomatic rupture between the United States and Italy, including recalled ambassadors and rumors of war. The Italian consul Pasquale Corte left New Orleans in protest. President Benjamin Harrison eventually agreed to pay $25,000 in reparations to victims' families, apportioned at $2,211.90 each. The event contributed to the entry of the word "Mafia" into common American usage and to a rise in restrictive immigration sentiment targeting Southern Italians.