Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1891 — MASSACRED THE MAFIA. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MASSACRED THE MAFIA.

ELEVEN MEN KILLED BY A NEW ORLEANS MOB. Terrible Scenes of Blood Enaeted by the Enraged Populace—A Verdict of Acquittal of the Accused Mafia Too Much for the Creseent.Clty—Many of Its Leading Citizens Lead In the Revengeful Mission of Death. Eighty thousand infuriated citizens rose up in their fierce wrath at New Orleans and wreaked summary vengeance on the men whom they considered guilty of the murder of Police Chief Hennessey. The excitement throughout the city over the miscarriage of justice in the case of the alleged Sicilian assassins leaped beyond all restraint. The parish prison was surrounded, the doors burst open and the Sicilian assassins taken

out and lynched. Some were shot; the others were hanged. Joseph Macheca. Manuel'Politz. Antonio Mabchesi, who is not dead, but mortally wounded. Antonio Bagnetto. Eocco Gebuci. James Cabuse Lobetto Comitez. PIETBO MONASTEBO. Loins .Tbahina. Fbank Romebo. Charles Irlennl and Soreto Conitz, who were charged with complicity in the murder of Hennessey, but who have not been tried, were also killed in their cells. The boy Marches!, Matranga Incerdona, who had been acquitted, were spared. The verdict of the jury, acquitting six of the accused prisoners and reporting a disagreement as to three others, was received with general disaproval and rage and for a time it was apprehended that an attempt would be made to wreak vengeance upon the prisoners at once, but this was averted for the time. Tho evening newspaper extras were filled with intimations that the jury had been corrupted. It was asserted that not less than $75,000, and probably as much as SIOO,OOO, was contributed by Italians all over tho country for a defense fund. Thousands of dollars, it was said, came from Chicago and New York, and farm laborers were' taxed $3 a head. These statements only served to infuriate the enraged populace still more, and as a consequence a call appeared in the papers, signed by one hundred prominent citizens, for a mass meeting to assemble at the Clay statue “td take steps to remedy the failure of justice in the Hennessey case.” “Come nrepared for action,” was tho concluding injunction in the call.

The mob congregated at the Clay statue in broad daylight. Mr. Parkerson spoke first. He said that he faced the people of New Orleans to denounce the most infamous act which was consequent upon tho most revolting crime in the criminal annals of any community. That act was the finding of the jury in the murder trial and that crime was, as everybody knew, the foul assassination of the chief of police. “I desire neither fame nor name nor glory,” said Mr. Parkerson. “I am a plain American citizen, and as such and as a gpod citizen I am here. ” The' crowd was yelling itself hoarse.

Fury ungovernable was evident throughout that Immense assemblage, w;hich by that time numbered fully eighty thousand people. “Shall you protect yourself?” “Yes.” “Self-preservation is the first law otf nature!” “This is tho time for action, not talk!” “Come on, Wycliffc!” “Come on, I'arkerson!” “We are ready!”—were some of the cries which escaped from the throng. Sheriff Villere was not at the prison when the multitude reached there. He was hunting the Mayor in order to have the police ordered out. Attorney General Rogers also hunted up the Mavor, as did the Italian Consul, but they were unable to find him, and the work was done before the Mayor or the Governor could interfere. The parish prison was reached. The wooden door on Marais street was broken in with a large billet of wood used as a catapult and heavy rocks were also poured against it. No material resistance was offered by the police or the Sheriff to the work of the citizens, who were armed with shot-

guns and pistols, and who represented not only the humbler classes but the most prominent bankers, citizens, merchants, and professional men in New Orleans. A wagon filled with police dashed up to the scone, but they were driven away amid a shower of mud and did not seem anxious to charge the crowd. The Sheriff’s deputies found that resistance was useless. When apprised of the approach of the mob the prison officials transferred the Italians from the male to female de-

partment of the prison, and when th&‘ armed men who got on the inSide of the jail found them the prisoners rkn down into the yard below. They begged and pleaded for mercy,*but for so mb of them there was no mercy at the handslof these outraged citizens. When the prisoners reached the yard they tried to seek places of safety, but there was none to be found and the shotguns belched forth and the slayers of Hennessey fell dead in their tracks. Macheca, the arch conspirator, crouched down in a corner with his hands* before his face and’ screamed. A dozen bullets entered his body and he pitched head foremost on the* Atone pavement, dead. In the great 7 confusion it was difficult to ascertain who had been killed. . While the work of vengeance was going on inside, a crowd of men came out. of the jail with the crazy assassin Politz. Some one had a rope, and as the miserable- Italian was rushed ta the corner the line was thrown over an arm of a postand Politz was drawn up in the air, but before he strangled to death a dozen, shots out-and the body was riddledwith bullets. Then on the other side of the prisonBagnetto, one of the assassins, wasbrought out already in the throes of death from a bullet wound in the .head. A rope was thrown over the limb ot atree, and he, too, was hoisted in the air. His face, covered as it was with blood, presented a horrible sight as the brains oozed forth. Police Officer Herron, who was in the prison, was shot in the neck, and he is the only one outside the prisoners whosuffered. After the work was done Mr.' Parkerson addressed the dense mob of citizensand advised, them to disperse. They frantically applauded, and when he finished carried him bodily on their shoulders. The multitude participating in .the avenging work then marched toCanal street shouting and waving handkerchiefs in the air. Mass meetings of infuriated Italians

aro being held throughout tho country* and it is feared that the end is not yet

DAVID C. HENNESSEY, THE MURDERED CHIEF OF POLICE.

A. MATRANGA, ALLEGED CHIEF OF THE CONSPIRATORS.

PETER MASTERS. THE COBBLER OF GIROB STREET, IN WHOSE BUILDING THE ASSASSINS LAY IN AMBUSH.

SCENE OUTSIDE THE PR[?]SON.