In the predawn hours of May 23, 1918, a night of celebration gave way to a scene of unimaginable horror in the apartment above a corner grocery store in New Orleans, Louisiana. Joseph Maggio, a 41-year-old Italian-American grocer, and his wife, Catherine, 36, became the first known victims of a killer who would terrorize the city and become known as the Axeman of New Orleans.
Their brutal deaths marked the beginning of a year-and-a-half-long reign of fear that gripped the community, particularly its thriving Italian-American population.
The couple lived in a residence connected to their grocery and barroom at the corner of Upperline and Magnolia Streets. Earlier in the evening, the family had been celebrating the news that Joseph's brother, Andrew, had been accepted into the navy. Andrew returned home from a night of drinking and went to bed. Around 4:45 a.m., he was awakened by strange groans coming from the room his brother and sister-in-law shared. Fearing something was wrong, he and his other brother, Jake, went to investigate. They discovered a horrific scene.
Inside the bedroom, the couple had been savagely attacked as they slept. The intruder had first cut their throats with a straight razor before bludgeoning them with an axe. Catherine’s throat was cut so deeply that her head was nearly severed from her shoulders, and she likely died instantly. Joseph, whose skull was fractured, was still alive when his brothers found him, but he died minutes later. The walls and ceiling of the room were spattered with blood from the ferocity of the attack.
The investigation revealed the killer’s chilling methods. A panel on a rear door had been chiseled out, allowing the intruder to gain access to the home. The bloody axe used in the attack belonged to the Maggios themselves and was left in their bathtub. The straight razor was later found on a neighboring lawn; it belonged to Andrew Maggio, a barber who said he had taken it home to sharpen it. The killer had apparently changed into a clean set of clothes before fleeing, leaving his own bloodstained garments behind. Robbery was quickly ruled out as a motive, as money and valuables were left untouched in the home.
In the initial confusion, suspicion fell on Andrew Maggio. The discovery of his razor at the scene made him the prime suspect, and he and Jake were arrested. However, Andrew maintained his innocence, and police were unable to break his story. He was eventually released, and investigators began to understand they were dealing with a different kind of predator. Adding to the mystery, a cryptic message was found scrawled in chalk on a nearby sidewalk: "Mrs. Maggio will sit up tonight just like Mrs. Toney."
The Maggio murders were the first in a series of similar attacks that continued until October 1919. The Axeman’s pattern became terrifyingly familiar: he almost always targeted Italian grocers, broke into their homes at night by removing a door panel, and used an axe or hatchet belonging to the victims. In total, the Axeman is confirmed to have killed six people and wounded at least six others, creating a state of widespread panic. He famously sent a taunting letter to the press, proclaiming himself a "demon from the hottest hell" and promising to spare anyone in a home where a jazz band was playing.
Despite a massive police investigation and the city’s pervasive fear, the Axeman of New Orleans was never identified, and the murders were never solved. The brutal killing of Joseph and Catherine Maggio was the city’s introduction to his savagery, a case that remains a chilling, unanswered chapter in the history of American crime.
