Illustrated map on rash of axe murders in New Orleans, 1919.
In the 1800s the West Bank of New Orleans was a collection of fisherman and farmers, as well as outlaws looking to escape justice. For a good part of the 20th Century it was all but controlled by the Italian Mafia. It has also been home to political strongmen who controlled money and power through systems of patronage and property. The last great West Bank strongman was Sheriff Harry Lee. Before him, there was Judge Leander Perez, and before both of them there was Louis H. Marrero.
Marrero was born in Mississippi, but his family roots were in Louisiana, where they settled in 1778 after leaving the Canary Islands. His father, Bastian, was a successful businessman turned cotton planter. Marrero studied at Centenary College of Louisiana in Jackson. In 1862 he joined Company C of the 25th Louisiana Infantry, which was raised in Concordia Parish. He was only fifteen. He missed Shiloh because the regiment was still waiting on a shipment of muskets, but he did fight at Farmington, Perryville, Murfreesboro––where he was wounded––and Chickamauga. He was eventually captured at Chattanooga, and not released until March 1865, when he arrived in Richmond and then walked back to Louisiana.
His father shunned politics, but Marrero decided on a public life. In Jefferson Parish he was appointed a member of the police jury and was soon afterward made president of the board. He supported John McEnery for governor instead of Francis T. Nicholls, who was reform minded and removed Marrero after his victory. Eventually he reconciled with Nicholls and was again made president of the jury. He was also a member of the board of commissioners of the Lafourche Basin Levee district, postmaster of Amesville, and state senator. In 1896 he became sheriff of Jefferson Parish, and held the office for over twenty years. At the same time he was president of the Jefferson Commercial & Savings Bank of Gretna and president of the Marrero Land & Improvement Association. By 1910, he was easily the most powerful man on the West Bank.
Marrero was active in veterans’ affairs. It was part and parcel for anyone who aspired for public office. Although no former Confederate ever became President and only a few served in the cabinet, they controlled much of the South’s political leadership until the early 20th century. Marrero was the last of a dying breed of Southern politicians who drew strength from their war record. He rarely missed a veterans’ march or meeting.
After the Civil War, New Orleans became the main port of Italian immigration until the race riot of 1891. Even after, Italians still streamed into the city, and racial grudges persisted. As recently as the 1990s, Italian-Americans were kept out of some of New Orleans’ most exclusive social clubs. Many Italians moved to the West Bank to avoid persecution, becoming farmers and grocers. The emerging Mafia followed suit. Marrero fought back.
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Marrero’s ultimate test came in the midst of New Orleans’ panic over the Axeman, a killer who would break into a person’s home, find an axe or hatchet, and murder them. New Orleans Superintendent of Police Frank Mooney said that the Axeman was a “murderous degenerate … who gloats over blood.” Some believed he was merely part of a Mafia revenge killing spree. Since most of his victims were Italian grocers, some suspected the murders could have been racially motivated. Other, more fanciful theories placed him as a Jazz musician. Even the identities of his victims have been––at times––up for debate. Some believe that one casualty, Louis Besumer, murdered his wife and made it look like an Axeman attack.
For Marrero’s part, he was convinced that the entire thing was an Italian vendetta. He suspected the culprits were Iorlando and Frank Jordano. Iorlando was elderly, and Frank was seventeen. The two families were once business partners, but were now rivals. A New Orleans detective named John Dantonio, a nationally known expert on the Mafia, rejected Marrero’s theory. He felt like Mooney, that the Axeman was a “fiend” and “a Jekyll and Hyde personality, like Jack the Ripper” who when “the impulse to kill comes upon him and he must obey it.”
On March 9, 1919, at Second and Jefferson Streets in Gretna, store-owners Charles and Rosie Cortimiglia were attacked. The perpetrator killed their two-year-old daughter Mary and wounded each of them.
When it came for the couple to identify the killer, Charles did not identify either Iorlando or Jordano, but––under intense pressure from Marrero––a delirious Rosie accused both men. At one point, he even arrested her to elicit a positive identification.
Marrero’s district attorney was L. Robert Rivarde, a member of Marrero’s political machine. The court battle was fierce, but in the end both Iorlando and Frank Jordano were found guilty. Jordano was sentenced to die, and Iorlando to life in prison. Soon after, Rosie confessed to New Orleans newspapers that she had been pressured by Marrero. Both men were cleared.
The Axeman fiasco ruined Marrero. He was swept out of office in 1920 and his machine collapsed. His son, Louis Jr., had died in 1916, and he had no one could carry on his political legacy.
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Rosie, who feared for her life, did not return to Jefferson Parish until Marrero was out of office. Charles never forgave her for her false testimony, and they divorced.
Marrero died of heart failure on Saturday, February 26, 1921 at his home on Barataria Boulevard. He was buried in Metairie Cemetery in the family tomb, and surprisingly not in the Army of Tennessee Tumulus, which housed many of his comrades from his Confederate days. After his death, the West Bank became the center of the Louisiana Mafia, culminating in the long reign of Carlos Marcello.
As for the Axeman, his identity is still unknown to this day. Axeman attacks in New Orleans ended in the summer of 1919, the year of the Cortimiglia attack, but recent evidence suggests that the murderer moved to western Louisiana and killed many more. After 1921, the Axeman disappeared from history.
The Axeman helped bring down Marrero’s empire. But Marrero retains some honors, including a street, park, and town named after him in Jefferson Parish. The Marrero Road was built along his old once vast holdings on the West Bank. Most notably, Marrero’s path to power has been replicated many times in Louisiana since his fall.
