Credit: Not creditedPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States · 1910s
An unidentified attacker killed and injured multiple people—mostly Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans—in and around New Orleans between May 1918 and October 1919, typically breaking in through a chiseled back-door panel and attacking victims with an axe or razor. The case remains unsolved.
Credit: Photographer not creditedPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenParish Prison, New Orleans, Louisiana · 1891
On March 14, 1891, a mob in New Orleans broke into Parish Prison and killed eleven Italian American men held in connection with the October 1890 killing of police chief David Hennessy, a day after several of the defendants were acquitted at trial. It remains the largest single mass lynching in American history.
Danziger Bridge, New Orleans, Louisiana · 2005
On September 4, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Police Department officers shot six unarmed African-American civilians on the Danziger Bridge, killing James Brissette, 17, and Ronald Madison, a mentally disabled 40-year-old. Officers falsified reports to justify the shootings; five officers were convicted in 2011, had those convictions vacated in 2013 over prosecutorial misconduct, and ultimately pleaded guilty in 2016.
UNSOLVEDListenMechanics Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana · 1866
On July 30, 1866, a mob of white rioters, many former Confederate soldiers, attacked a peaceful demonstration of mostly Black freedmen near the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans, killing dozens and wounding well over a hundred, in a massacre that helped reshape national Reconstruction policy.
The files run from 1866 to 2019. The 2000s hold the most, with 2 files. The oldest is New Orleans Massacre of 1866, from 1866.
By type, the largest groups are murder and homicide cases (4), hate crime cases (2) and serial murder cases (1).
2 files of the 6 have coverage attached: 2 videos, podcasts and documentaries from 2 creators. Brooke Makenna and Dateline NBC have covered the most of them.
Every file is written from cited sources and pinned where it happened, and every person named carries the legal status the record gives them. If you hold information about an unsolved case, contact the investigating agency named in its file rather than posting it publicly. Families and anyone involved can request a correction from any file.
This page updates from the published files, so counts and statuses change the day a record does. Open any file for its timeline, its sources and the coverage worth your time, or play it as a narrated case file.
Axeman Map New Orleans March 1919 — Credit: Not creditedPublic domainSource
Gathering at Parish Prison New Orleans 14 March 1891 — Credit: Photographer not creditedPublic domainSource
6. By status: 3 unsolved, 1 ongoing and 2 solved. The count covers published files only and changes as new files clear review.
New Orleans Massacre of 1866, from 1866. Open the file
Axeman of New Orleans, with 1 video, podcast or documentary linked from its file. Open the file
Brooke Makenna (1 case) and Dateline NBC (1 case).
It rebuilds hourly from the published files; the newest file change here is dated Jul 14, 2026. A status changes only when the record behind it does.
