New Orleans Lumberjack

Not all of the lumberjack victims died. But the savagery of his attacks kept many people at bay. The first victims were people of Italian descent. Newspapers wrote that perhaps the killings were organized by the mafia. However, this version has disappeared after further crimes. Among the victims of the Lumberjack were a pregnant woman and a young child, hacked up right in the arms of her mother. The lumberjack seemed inspired by the crimes of Jack the Ripper . He wrote poisonous letters to city newspapers, in which he hinted at future killings and claimed that he was not a man, but a demon from hell .

Most famous is his letter of March 13, 1919 , which was published in newspapers. The lumberjack wrote that the next murder would take place on March 19, 15 minutes after midnight. He promised not to touch only those people who at that time would listen to jazz . On March 19, all entertainment venues were crowded, and professionals and amateurs played jazz right on the street. No killings took place that night. However, not all citizens were frightened by the woodcutter then. Some wrote response letters to newspapers inviting the killer to visit their homes and see who would kill whom. One of the residents politely asked the woodcutter not to break out the front door and even promised to leave the windows open.

Criminal columnist Colin Wilson suggested that the woodcutter might have been someone Joseph Momfre. In December 1920, he was allegedly shot dead by the widow of Mike Pepitone, the last known lumberjack victim. This version of Wilson has become very popular. However, another observer, Michael Newton, having studied all the possible police reports and court records, as well as the archives of newspapers, could not find any information about a man named Joseph Momfre. He also did not find any information that the widow of Pepitone was arrested for the murder of a man. Only one fact was found out. May 16, 1912 an unknown criminal entered the house and shot an Italian married couple. The husband managed to survive, his wife passed away. In newspapers, the main suspect was a man named Momfr. If Momfre really was a woodcutter, then the Italians were the first victims of the future serial killer.

• Joseph Maggio, an Italian grocer, was attacked by a woodcutter at night when he slept with his wife Catherine on May 22, 1918 . Katherine received numerous ax blows on the head. In addition, the killer cut her throat. The woman died on the spot. And Joseph was mortally wounded and died when his brothers, bleeding, found him.
• Louis Bezumer, another grocer, was attacked in the early hours of June 6, 1918 . He was seriously injured, but was able to survive. And his mistress, Harriet Lowe, who was with him that night, died in the hospital.
• Mrs. Schneider was attacked on the evening of August 5, 1918 . She received several blows with an ax in the face. She was taken to the hospital, and there she gave birth to a girl two days later.
• Joseph Romano, an elderly man living with his nieces, Pauline and Mary Bruno. On the night of August 10, 1918, Pauline woke up and saw a stranger standing above her. She screamed, and the man ran away. Pauline entered her uncle's room and found that he was mortally wounded. He whispered to her niece to call a doctor, and passed away.
• Charles Cortiguilla, an immigrant laborer who lived with his wife and child in a suburb of New Orleans. On the night of March 10, 1919, neighbors heard screams coming from their home. When they entered the room, they saw Charles Cortilia and his wounded wife, Rosie, kneeling in a pool of blood. She held in her hands the two-year-old daughter Mary, who was killed by the Lumberjack. Both spouses escaped with fractures of the skull bones. Soon they divorced.
• Steve Boca, a grocer, was wounded by a woodcutter on August 10, 1919 . He managed to survive.
• Sarah Lohmann, 19 years old, was attacked by the Lumberjack on the night of September 3, 1919 . At the time of the attack, she was in the house alone, so no one saw the criminal. The girl survived, but could not recall the details of the attack.
• Mike Pepitone was attacked on the night of October 27, 1919 . His wife woke up from the noise and went to her husband’s bedroom door. At the same second, a man with an ax jumped out. Pepitone died at the hospital the next morning.

In music

• In 1919, local musician Joseph John Davilla composed the song " The Mysterious Lumberjack Jazz (Don't Scare Me, Dad) ." On the cover of the record was a frightened family playing musical instruments.
• The Australian rock band Beasts of Bourbon released in 1984 an album called The Axeman's Jazz .
• The song " Deathjazz " ( 2007 ) by the American rock band One Ton Project talks about the Lumberjack.
• Jazz Woodman (2009) by SunMan24 talks about Woodman dreams.

In the literature

• In 1945, the book, Louisiana’s Folk Tales Collection, contained the head of Jazz Woodman, renewing interest in the criminal. On the cover of the book was exactly the same picture as on the 1919 music album.
• The writer Julie Smith wrote the novel Jazz Lumberjack in 1991 .
• The Lumberjack Crimes are also mentioned in Poppy Bright 's Mussolini and Jazz Lumberjack short story, 1997 .
• In the book of Chuck Palahniuk " Ghosts " ( 2005 ) there is a mention of the Lumberjack.
• In the book of the writer George Zotov “ Tiergarten ” ( 2018 ), the character of the Lumberjack is mentioned.

In the cinema

• The character of the Lumberjack appears in season 3 of the American Horror Story , where he plays an important role.
• In the television series "The Firstborn" in season 3 of series 5, the killer Lumberjack is mentioned, in honor of which New Orleans organizes a " Feast of Gifts

• The Riverdale series mentions a Lumberjack from New Orleans .

• In the television series " American Horror Story " in season 3, series 6 is dedicated to the Lumberjack. The girls of the Academy in 1919 enclosed the spirit of the Lumberjack in the walls of the school.
• In tetralogy, the Ax (franchise) of American director Adam Green, a maniac killer named Victor Crowley, wields an ax in the swamps of Louisiana.

• Newton, Michael (Newton, Michael) August 2004 (August 2004). Encyclopedia of unsolved murders. (The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes (Facts on File Crime Library)). Facts on File. pp. 340. ISBN 0-8160-4980-7 .
• Everitt, David. People Monsters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Worst Murderers (Human Monsters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Worst Murderers). Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books, 1993.

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• Axeman on CrimeLibrary.com