22: Why 20,000 People Wanted Italian Immigrants Dead: Sicilian Lynchings
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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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This is an ad by BetterHelp. What?

What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.

Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to the Library of Dark History. It'd be so cool if I had an audience and they all started like, what?

You know, I'm like, ah. Yeah. This is a safe space for all those curious cats out there who think, hey, is history really as boring as it seemed in school? Oh, nay, nay. Let me tell you. This is where we can learn about dark, mysterious, dramatic stories our teachers never told us about. So if you're watching this over on YouTube, I'm blonde. So you have to call me Jessica because that's my name. My name is Jessica.

Anyways, so let me tell you about how I came across this story today. So I was eating classic, well-known Italian food at the Olive Garden, obviously. And I was like, you know what? I don't really know anything about Italian lifestyle, right? I just know Olive Garden is delicious. We love it. And I started living...

of Italian history and I came across like some shady ass shit that I had no idea about. So technically I was searching for another story about like maybe mass murder or something, I know awful. And I came across today's story and it's a lynching that I had never heard of first of all. It's a story of a vigilante justice gone wrong and America loves vigilante stories.

I guess that's really all I have to say about this is that I just like had no idea this happened. And I feel like that's all of the episodes of Dark History. Stories that I personally was shocked about. And if I was shocked about it, then I feel like a lot of you out there will probably be shocked about it too. And also the Olive Garden is not real Italian food, but you know, I love their breadsticks. So good. Oh my God. Like...

What the hell? You know? So good. Anyway, so today we're going to talk about a really awful story. There's really nothing else I could say. Great.

So, today's story starts out in New Orleans in the 1800s. Now, before we get into the actual who's and what's and where's, let me set the scene with a little murder. There was a light rain falling on October 15th in 1890 in New Orleans, and police chief David Hennessy was leaving the police station with his co-worker around 11 p.m.

He walked down the street towards his house where he lived with his mother and his friend walked in the other direction. Now this was actually a little out of the ordinary because David usually didn't walk home alone. He always had bodyguards with him. Why did he have bodyguards you ask? That's a really great question. The reason is that New Orleans had a pretty big mafia presence at the time and chief David was paranoid that they were out to get him.

But on this night, he let his guard down and he was walking alone.

Now he got close to his house and he reached in his pockets for his keys to open up the door. And as soon as his back was turned from the street, the night's eerie quiet was shattered with a loud bang of sawed off shotguns as a small group of assassins appeared in the mist and filled the chief with lead. But the chief was quick and experienced. And as soon as the first shots were fired, he turned around and pulled out his own gun and fired off a few shots back at them.

But as quickly as they appeared, they slipped back into the night fog, leaving the chief on his mother's doorstep, bleeding and clinging to life. His coworker, who he had left the station with just minutes ago, heard the shots from a few blocks away and ran towards the chief's house to see what happened.

When he arrived, Chief David was on the ground and waved him over. And the other officer said, like, who did this to you? You know? And the chief, in his dying breaths, motioned for the other officer to come a bit closer. Come closer. Lean in. And when he got closer, the chief just said one word.

Now, I'm not going to say what that word was because the chief's dying word was actually a racial slur for Italians. And, you know, we don't need to know that. Well, yes, we do. But, like, we don't need to say the word is what I'm saying. But that's what he said. Anyways, for a minute there, they thought he would pull through. But, you know, it was 1890. And any type of major wound is a death sentence. So, with that being said, he died the next morning.

Well, who would target such a prominent figure? Why was Chief David killed? What does this have to do with mass lynchings? How come one of his last words was a racial slur? Hmm.

Well, it all starts with Chief David Hennessey. Who is Chief David and who wanted him dead? Well, let me open up my book to Chief David's chapter, which is in my dark history book somewhere. Oh my God, look right here on this page right here. David Hennessey. Let me tell you about him. Well, hold on.

Now, unfortunately...

David Sr., the father, he was shot and killed while on duty by another cop. Now it's a little hazy like what exactly went down, but we know that Louisiana was a pro-slavery state and his dad was very anti-slavery. So the rumor is that an argument broke out with a cop who was a Confederate soldier and then things got like super heated and David's dad got shot.

So when David was 11, he started working for the police department as a messenger boy to provide for his family. Yeah, at 11. That's wild. David was surprisingly kind of good at doing police work. When he was a teenager, he was still working as a messenger, and he ended up catching two full-grown adult thieves in the act. He beat the crap out of them and then dragged their asses into the police station. Like, oh, okay.

Great, you know? When David was just 20 years old, he got the role as detective. Now, many saw David as a hero right from the start. Like, wow, this guy's going places just like his father.

However, David was not like his father. He was much more influenced by the pro-slavery and white supremacist beliefs of his co-workers. In 1874, there were 5,000 members of a secret white supremacist league who wanted to make slavery legal again, so they rose up to revolt against the state's anti-slavery government, and it resulted in the

this like big bloody battle where more than 60 people were killed and for a short time drove the entire police force out of the city until the military could restore order. When order was restored, they asked none other than David Hennessy to be a detective at the new police force in New Orleans, which was headed by former Confederates and white supremacists. The important thing to know about this is number one, New Orleans used to be seriously unhinged.

Well, that's not funny. Like, it was kind of a mess, though. It was kind of like, get it together, girl. Like, we're judging. Number two, David Hennessy, the hero cop. He worked closely with white supremacists and helped to turn the entire police force into a whites-only Confederate circle jerk.

It was just like, whoa, you know? Fun fact, this little law enforcement outfit actually didn't do much law and mostly enforced protection for local criminals. We'll see that come up a bit later. So keep that stored away in your noggin for a minute and we'll circle back. Circle jerk. Circle back. Shapes. The other episode we were talking about animals. Today's about shapes.

Yay. Okay, so that's what David is up to, but let's turn our view to where Italians entered the mix in the 1800s. Now, New Orleans used to be mostly Irish and German immigrants, along with the large enslaved African population. But once the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, there was a huge labor gap that formed in the 1880s, and a ton of Italian immigrants came to New Orleans for work.

Now back in Italy, specifically the island of Sicily, the law was corrupt and many Italians ended up having to like stick together and be their own form of justice. Kind of like private security and this is what we know as the mafia. So when Italians came to America and then later New Orleans, the mafia came with them. They were expected to look out for one another, especially because white people saw the Italian immigrants as lower class and treated them as such.

which isn't great when the police force was made up of all white supremacists. Most of the time, the mafia strategy is to stay away from the police, try to just like do your things separately and just mind your own business. But sometimes the police, they had to get involved. And that's where Chief David comes back into the story. Around 1881, David would become a national hero after he tracked down and captured a mafia boss who had cut off the ears of a rich British man.

Oh my god, what's that painter's name? Very Van Gogh. Okay. So there's a rumor circling around that David may or may not have beheaded this mobster guy. Like cut the head off, you know? Whoa. Some historians say that the mafia boss spent the rest of his life in prison. But, you know, it's like the late 1800s.

Someone knew if he had a head or not, but maybe it just wasn't like written down. I don't know. Anyway, the press just gushed about this courageous cop taking justice into his own hands. And David became a national hero basically overnight. People were like, oh my God, yay. Like David to our rescue, yay. But first let's pause for an ad break.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

So

So we're back now from our break. When word got to New Orleans Police Department about this mafia boss David was tracking, they really didn't want him to pursue this guy. You see, they like didn't have an arrest warrant to actually arrest him. But David, he had this itch to take matters into his own hands. So David comes up with this plan to tell the police department that he was going on vacation.

But really, he and his cousin were going down to hunt this mafia boss guy. Why not just go on vacation instead, you know? Ugh.

What a weirdo. This made the police department angry, particularly David's boss. His name was Thomas. He even tried to get David in trouble for not following orders. But since the media basically worshipped him for it, the police department ultimately decided not to punish David for going rogue. But now Thomas felt he could not trust David and like their working relationship. I mean, this dude just doesn't seem to listen.

David's boss even got drunk one time and said, quote, they may get the best of me with the police board, but I'll get the best of them in the end, even if I have to get a shotgun to do it, end quote. Hmm, sounds like a motive. Was he David's killer?

We're gonna find out, I don't know. Long after he made those comments, David and his cousin just so happened to be right outside of a barbershop that Thomas happened to be in, getting his hair cut, you know? David's cousin, who was also a cop, saw a man walking out the barbershop with a gun. And so David and his cousin immediately pulled out their guns and started shooting into the barbershop. Well...

They would claim that they didn't know Thomas was in there and just saw someone with a gun. So they did what any cops would do and shot them, obviously. Thomas was shot multiple times, including a bullet at point-blank range right in his skull. Yeah. So Thomas, unfortunately...

R.I.P'd. David and his cousin were arrested for the murder of their boss, and they were both later put on trial. The thing is, the public thought very highly of David. Not so much his cousin. They're like, fuck that guy. We like David.

And so, like did the rest of the police department. Even the judge was quoted as saying that David was a New Orleans hero. So with that being said, David was off scot-free. Yeah, David could do no wrong in anyone's eyes. Shortly after his murder trial, David was obviously given a promotion because that's what you do after you murder someone. And

And then that led him to becoming police chief in 1888. Congratulations, David, you did it. Now, as the chief, the mayor told David to start collecting taxes. Now, this was supposed to be a way to get money from the different illegal businesses around New Orleans. So David would go around to all the illegal casinos and brothels, collecting what they called, quote, protection money, end quote.

which basically was just a bribe so the police wouldn't arrest them because like these businesses were running illegally. If the businesses paid the police to look the other way, well, the police would look the other way. I mean, hello money. Yeah, I'll look away, you know.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it's something you see in every mobster movie, paying police off. So while David's out collecting this money, he starts getting a little involved with one of the big mafia families in Louisiana. Now they were giving him money, he was giving them protection, but along the way they also became just super close, right? Just be a ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.

the thefts. So the mafia was breaking the law, gambling. The cops were breaking the law, taking bribes. And everyone was just making a lot of money just existing, right? Great.

They were so close as friends that when a different mob family allegedly gunned down some of David's mob friends, they called up Chief David to be a witness at their trial. But get this, David wasn't even at the scene of the crime. He's just doing his friends a favor. You know, I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine.

But going up in front of a jury wasn't such a good look for David in the eyes of the rival mob family. I mean, obviously, this police chief has their back, not ours. Like, that's not fair. I mean, they're pissed. Just one week before the murder trial, that is when David was found murdered outside of his mother's home.

Now, rumor has it that when David would make his rounds collecting protection money, he saw a lot of things he shouldn't have seen. Some say that he actually saw the murder of his mob friends, but this would later be denied at the trial. Others said that he saw other more suspicious things happen and that he was paid to keep quiet.

But at least one newspaper at the time said that David was going to turn on the Sicilian mob family he was buddy-buddy with. And when they found out, they decided to make sure that he wouldn't say another word about it ever again.

So you see, it could have been like the family he was friendly with because he was going to betray them or it could have been the rival family because he was going to send them to jail for shooting or killing someone. It could have even been his boss Thomas's family looking for revenge. The point is, there were a lot of reasons to kill David Hennessy and he kind of got what was coming to him for being so corrupt.

But that's not how the public saw it. At this time, the public heard about Chief David's dying word, that racial slur he muttered as he was like fighting for his life. And they wanted one thing, the blood of Sicilians as revenge for the death of their beloved Chief David. But first, let's pause for an ad break.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. Rakuten is the smartest way to save money when you shop because members get cash back at over 3,500 stores across every category.

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Your cash back really adds up. Okay, if you aren't already starting to see how this is going to lead to an angry mob of people going after Sicilian Americans, then you're not paying attention. Please.

Okay, so pay attention now. Are you listening? Great. When David was taken to the hospital for his gun wounds, word got out what happened and soon a large group of like mourners started to gather outside of the hospital, okay? Church members, upper class rich people, even police were outside the hospital just openly crying and swearing to avenge his death. I mean, how could anyone murder our hero, David?

Just a lot of that. His funeral ended up being one of the largest in the city of New Orleans since the death of the Confederate president during the Civil War.

So starting at 6 a.m., there were mourners arriving at the cemetery, and by 10, there were people lined up around the block. It was huge. It, like, turned into a massive rave. Everyone had glow sticks. I mean, it was just, like, a big party. People were like, ah! I'm just kidding. But people were waiting for hours just to walk by the casket, and the funeral lasted well into the night.

The fire stations rang their bells in honor of the chief. Flags were flying at half mast. You get it. You get it. Okay, great. So immediately an investigation was opened by the city to figure out who done it, right? Remember, David had a coworker rush to the scene after he got shot, but it was too late to see who actually like killed David.

The only clue they had was when David was dying and the racial slur he said. It was a very racist and vague description, but okay, David, you know, like, okay. So this was all the evidence people needed to get all fired up to teach those Sicilians a lesson. The mayor even said, quote, no community can exist with murderous societies in its midst, end quote. Because everyone loves a catchy rhyme.

Which is funny when you think about it because the only reason David got his job in the first place was because a group of 5,000 white supremacists overthrew the local government 30 years ago. Oh yeah, that is funny, huh? When you think about it, yeah. Irony. Ironic. Alanis Morissette. That is where we're at.

Anywho, the investigation into who killed David didn't really go anywhere, so the mayor stepped in and created a special committee to get to the bottom of this. This committee started out by raiding all Italian communities in New Orleans, just kinda looking, looking for info, anything really. They're just rummaging around, seeing what they can find, busting down doors for no rhyme or reason other than the fact that this place was owned by Italians, or like Italians lived there.

That was all the evidence they needed. Now this would lead to hundreds of Italian immigrants being arrested and detained in jail. Again, for no damn reason other than just being Italian.

Like awesome. Thanks. Even though David's problems were obviously caused by his mafia involvement, people at the time considered all Italians as part of the mafia, which honestly is still a stereotype that continues to this day. But as more Italians immigrated to America, there were scary stories in the newspapers about the mafia present being a danger to the average rich citizen, you know, and like you don't want to scare rich people.

They get shit done and it's never good. At the time, there was major anti-Italian feelings. The New York Times once even described Italians as not fully evolved members of criminal class and too unskilled for society. You know what's crazy? If you've been paying attention to the Dark History episodes, how many times the media has escalated like a certain narrative that usually doesn't end so well?

I know freedom of the press is super important, but shouldn't it be like, I don't know, we should hold them responsible with what they do in the press? Let me know down below. Thank you. Vote for me for president.

I don't want to be present. Things escalated really fast from this point. The newspapers in New Orleans started to be filled with articles cheering on the arrest and encouraging violence against Italians. People were saying that they were sure that it was Italians who killed the chief and all this violence was totally justified.

After a few weeks, the police narrowed down the suspects to 19 Italian men, including the leaders of the mafia family that hated Police Chief David.

As the men were taken into the police station, a large crowd of people were surrounding the building screaming just racial slurs and shouting in a bad Italian accent. No, seriously. They were yelling at them in bad accents saying, who killa da chief? As the prisoners were being loaded in. The Italian community was outraged by this because the police never even took the time to consider that maybe it wasn't an Italian person who killed him.

Hey, that's an idea. And there's no proof other than the chief saying that racial slur. But many doubted him because, you know, how'd he know? It was dark outside. It was foggy. And his back was technically turned. It was clear that this wasn't an attack on the mafia, but an attack on all of the Italians. And they just needed some excuse to do that, you know? We've seen this time and time again. They take one little thing and then they run with it. They being us whiteys.

I could say that because I am white. In February 1891, nine of the 19 Italian men went to trial. The trial lasted about a month and was covered by newspapers all over Louisiana. The trial went by very quickly because they didn't have any real evidence to present. So they were basically just like interviewing different people like, "Hey, what'd you do that day?"

Okay, next. It just like was pointless. Six of the defendants were acquitted and the jury couldn't agree on a decision for the other three defendants, which meant none of the nine men on trial were going to jail or getting punished for the killing of Chief David Hennessey.

Okay, so as you can maybe imagine, people, just the city was pissed off. Okay, they wanted justice. They wanted blood and they hated these Italians. So these guys getting off easy made everyone mad as hell.

Everyone in the newspapers were saying that the mafia was bribing or intimidating the jurors to force them to let the defendants off easy. Once again, media fueling the flames here. So nobody is believing that this was honestly a fair trial.

So nobody wanted to accept this verdict. They thought justice still needed to be served. So this city did what their hero police chief David would have done. They decided to take justice into their own hands.

But first, let's pause for an ad break. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

This is an ad by BetterHelp.com.

What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere. And the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.

The night the nine Italians were acquitted, some very important men in the community, I'm talking like doctors, lawyers, even like a future mayor, they met at an undisclosed location to write a statement calling for the citizens of New Orleans to take justice into their own hands. You see, what they did was they gathered signatures from about 150 men who were some of the richest and most successful in the entire state to sign the statement.

Then it was published in the newspaper. Anybody reading the story would think, well, if these super wealthy rich people signed this statement, then it, you know, it probably should be taken seriously. This story told the people of New Orleans to prepare for action. And that's exactly what they did.

Now, wouldn't this be called a dog whistle? So at this time, there happened to be a representative of the Italian government who was stationed in New Orleans. Now, he was already concerned about the men being held in jail and like trying to find a solution, right? But when he read the statement in the paper, he knew he had to act fast because things were going to get violent. And

And boy, was he right, okay? Because the next morning, he saw men gathering with rifles in Lafayette Square, which at this time had grown to about 6,000 onlookers with an additional 2,000 men all waiting outside the jail. He ran to the mayor's office to put a stop to whatever the hell was brewing. But when he got there, the mayor wasn't even there.

It was just like the local sheriff who told him like, relax, we've got things under control. The mayor's already over there. But the mayor wasn't there and he wasn't trying to help stop anything. You see, he was actually downtown at like some private business meeting with the governor of Louisiana and the United States general of military. And they were all together, you know, doing some kind of like business meeting and just pretending that nothing was going on.

They're like, yeah, everything's fine. No big deal. By this time, the crowd outside the jail had grown to about 8,000 people. Oh, yeah. People were giving speeches to get all fired up, shouting about how New Orleans shouldn't allow the mafia to assassinate the poor innocent cops or bribe jurors. Again, they're just, like, hyping each other up over, like,

Nothing. It is wild. Another person shouted to them, quote, talk is idle. Action must be the thing now, end quote. And this just got the crowd super jazzed up. They were practically salivating as they were cheering and screaming and chanting slurs against the Italian people.

Then the crowd began to move towards the prison. People had set up little booths around the street filled with guns of all kinds, like a street fair or something, very wild. And they started handing them out like they were free Costco samples. You know how excited you get when you see those samples? That's how they were getting about these guns. The police knew what was going on and they tried to stop the crowd from breaking into the prison, but the crowd was just too big, too angry, and honestly too important.

Look, I'm not trying to stereotype us whiteys, but if you tell them no, stop, someone gets triggered and like starts screaming back. Well, my brother's an attorney. My husband's a judge. My friend told me she got punched in the face by an Italian once. Like those kinds of people, they always have a friend, you know, who like...

have a story about how awful these people are. They managed to break into the prison from the front and the side. The crowd, which was now like 20,000 people deep, was described by some historians as if they were a violent river just smashing the doors open quickly, furiously, like a burst of water. I'm not sure what their end goal was here, but they were doing the most, okay? Okay.

Some prison guards saw the bloodthirsty mob of people forming and knew that the prisoners were goners if they left them there. So they opened up the cells and told the prisoners to find somewhere to hide. It's a prison. The point is that there is nowhere to hide.

So yeah, some of them managed to hide in the women's jail section and two others fought each other to crawl together in the dog's tiny kennel. One of them was a 14-year-old boy that had been accused of being a lookout for the people who killed David Hennessy and he hid under a box across the hall from his cell. From here, all hell broke loose. The crowd poured into the prison and grabbed several of the men inside and murdered them.

Some of the men managed to escape or hide out until the coast was clear, but others were beaten and shot in the head. I mean, it was just brutal. The 14-year-old boy's father was shot just a few feet away from where he was hiding, and his body fell right next to the box he was in. The press would later say that the boy tried tearing his eyes out in grief when he saw his father's body beside him.

I mean, this is just chaos. But unfortunately, this is just a start. But first, let's pause for an ad break.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

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One of the guys that got shot in the head was dragged out of the jail and the crowd hung his already dead body on a tree outside. The crowd cheered.

They cheered this on and this gave them the idea to start grabbing the prisoners who were still alive and do the same to them. They grabbed a guy named Emanuel Polizzi. They put a rope around his neck and tried to hang him, but the rope ended up breaking. They tried stringing him up again, but he climbed the rope up the tree. Well, sadly, it didn't last long because the crowd also climbed the tree and beat him until he was unconscious, then hung him again,

cheered as he died, and then shot him multiple times like fucking psychos. Like what the hell is wrong with people? The press later said that the crowd were ripping his clothes and shoes off of his body. Yeah, like they were grabbing some kind of gross souvenir to take home. How disappointing.

This whole thing lasted only 25 minutes. Yeah, only 25 minutes. And when the Italian representative arrived, it was just way too late. He described a scene of bodies hanging in every tree, rioters partying and singing, and just a pure, utter Satan shitshow. He retreated to his office to find dozens of Italian Americans waiting to be let in because they were just scared to go home.

Some of them were the escaped prisoners from earlier. When the smoke cleared and the murderous crowd completely dispersed, 11 of the prisoners had been killed, including a few Italian prisoners who freaking weren't even involved in a trial. They were just there. I mean, it was just horrible. This was a horrible outcome, right?

Well, leave it up to the media around the country. They were reporting that these deaths were actually justified. Many of these stories focused on how Chief David Hennessey's murder had finally been avenged. Eye for an eye. Our good pals at the New York Times said, quote,

Another one said, slayer slain. All over the country, this was being painted as just good old-fashioned vigilante justice. A hero cop had died and the Sicilians paid the price for it, whether they did it or not. But the international community, specifically the Italian government, they felt a little bit different.

Although Rome heavily disliked the Sicilian mafia, everybody lynched in New Orleans had been under U.S. custody and a few were still Italian citizens. So Italy demanded under international law that the United States pay some restitutions to the families of the deceased back in Sicily and to also secure justice against these, quote, vigilantes.

Instead, the public in Louisiana actually ended up blaming the Sicilians. Of course they did.

It got so tense that rumors of this war between Italy and the United States started to fly. A lot of pressure from Italy and most of the United States were put on Washington, D.C. to do something to protect the people from its country from these crazy mobs. But the United States was like, you know, that's not on us. That's on Louisiana. So the governor of Louisiana decides to step in, like maybe smooth things over. He

He would tell the press that the mobs weren't racially motivated at all and that the crowd simply wanted justice for Chief David. It had nothing to do with race. They just want justice. Well, a grand jury was assembled and after some deep investigation, they concluded that there were just too many people involved and they weren't able to place guilt on anyone.

The grand jury did say that the Congress needed to make tougher immigration laws, which is like not what anyone was going for. Going on to say that this was all just a conspiracy from the Italian government to send criminals to the United States.

What a fucking joke. The mayor of New Orleans sang a similar tune. He said publicly that he didn't see anything wrong with the lynchings. He said he believed that it was legal public lynching because, quote, the Italians had taken the law into their own hands and we had to do the same, end quote.

I don't really have anything to say to that because what the fuck? In order to prevent an international war, because the United States government didn't want that shit. They were like, "What do we do?" Money, they bring in money, right? So they end up paying the families of the victims $25,000 each. Thanks. I mean, today it would be like around $750,000, which is cool, but like money doesn't bring people back from the dead.

Point blank period. This is my therapy couch because this is just too much sometimes, you know? How disappointing. Disappointing. All of it. So the president condemned the event as deplorable, which like a lot of people didn't even know what that meant. They had to look it up. And then he declared Columbus Day a one-time holiday because Christopher Columbus was a famous Italian. And it kind of just was supposed to make Italian Americans less mad at the government.

Yeah, thanks for the holiday, I guess, you know? I guess these efforts were enough to satisfy the country of Italy because obviously we never went to war with them, but still nobody even got like convicted or held accountable for what the fuck happened.

Media! First of all, we could start there. I don't know. Idea. So, on that day in New Orleans, a mob of white people who were, like, super upset at the mafia became so bloodthirsty that they murdered 11 people in broad daylight and got away with it. The craziest part of this entire event was, of all things, a children's game that would be played in elementary schools across Louisiana.

Seriously, for decades after the death of David Hennessy, kids would chase each other around shouting, who killed the chief? Yeah, like it was a random game and not something shouted during the literal murder of 11 Italian men. Like it was Ring Around the Rosie or something. Because you know, Ring Around the Rosie, also dark history based off bubonic plague. We should have mentioned that.

Damn it. This story sucks, okay? This is often cited as the largest targeted attack on Italian Americans in the United States. Honestly, I don't know about you guys, but for me, I had never in my... I never heard of this before.

I was like, what? Yes. Yes. Okay, this story sucks because a lot of reasons. One, it's kind of like a story that we've heard a million times here on Dark History, which is just like exhausting, right? Like how many times do we hear about immigrants coming to America to live a better life, a safer life, whatever. And obviously shit goes south, doesn't make sense, get treated like shit, get taken advantage of and whatever.

And then it gets like swept under the rug. It's weird. I don't get it. Do you get it? I don't know. You know what I was thinking about the other day? I was laying in bed. I couldn't sleep.

And I was thinking, like, America is, like, one big science project, and the rest of the world is kind of, like, watching us. Have you ever noticed that or thought about that? Like, all of us are immigrants from somewhere else, except for Native Americans. They were here first. But all of us are immigrants, and we're all just, like, fighting with one another. For what? Oh, I don't know. It's just weird. What is everyone so mad about?

Why can't we all just hold hands and kumbaya? My God. Real talk, dark history listeners out there, I don't know how to end this one because it's dark. It sucks. If I never heard about it, then I'm sure maybe you haven't heard about it. I mean, I'm not, I can't be the only one who didn't know about this story. I'm sure there's more stories out there like this. This is probably just one in a sea of a million, you know? So...

let's keep continuing the conversation. Let's try and share more stories and I would love to hear your reactions to this story over on social media so don't forget to use the hashtag dark history and let me know your thoughts, your opinions, if there are any other stories that are similar to this one because boy did this open up a can of worms of what the actual fuck you know? Jesus. Anywho sorry to drop all that on you and I'm like bye

Okay. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs if you want to see my hair. And also don't forget to catch Murder, Mystery, and Makeup which drops on Mondays. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a great rest of your week. Don't forget to make good choices and I'll be seeing you later. Dark History is an Audioboom original.

This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Kim Jacobs, Junia McNeely from 3Arts, Ed Simpson, and Claire Turner from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven, Daryl Christon, and Spencer Strassmore. Research provided by Tisha Dunstan. Writers Jed Bookout, Michael Oberst, Joey Scavuzzo, and me, Bailey Sarian. Special thank you to our historical consultants, Marco...

and Dr. Fred Gardifei. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarey, but today you're supposed to call me Jessica. I forgot to close the book! God damn it. Joan, you dirty little bitch. You forgot to tell me that we were done with the book. Anyways, so I'm gonna close the book. Another dark chapter concluded in our book of dark history. They weren't lying when they said this was dark.