The 1891 New Orleans lynchings were the murders of 11 Italian Americans and Italian immigrants in New Orleans by a mob for their alleged role in the murder of police chief David Hennessy after some of them had been acquitted at trial. It was the largest single mass lynching in American history. Most of the lynching victims accused in the murder had been rounded up and charged due to their Italian ethnicity.
The lynching took place on March 14, the day after the trial of nine of the nineteen men indicted in Hennessy's murder. Six of these defendants were acquitted, and a mistrial was declared for the remaining three because the jury failed to agree on their verdicts. There was a widespread belief in the city that Italian-American organized crime was responsible for the killing of the police chief, in a period of anti-Italian sentiment and rising crime. Italian-American voters were also known to prefer the scandal plagued city political machine to the new Reform Democrat Mayor, whose own role in inciting the violence that followed may well have been an attempt to misuse government power for the repression of his political opponents.
Believing the jury had been fixed, a mob broke into the jail where the men were being held and killed eleven of the prisoners, most by shooting. The mob outside the jail numbered in the thousands and included some of the city's most prominent citizens. American press coverage of the event was largely congratulatory, and those responsible for the lynching were never charged.
The incident had serious national repercussions. The Italian consul Pasquale Corte in New Orleans registered a protest and left the city in May 1891 at his government's direction. The New York Times published his lengthy statement charging city politicians with responsibility for the lynching of the Italians. Italy cut off diplomatic relations with the United States, sparking rumors of war. Increased anti-Italian sentiment led to calls for restrictions on immigration. The word "Mafia" entered the American lexicon, and the awareness of the Italian mafioso became established in the popular imagination of Americans.
The lynchings were the subject of the 1999 HBO film Vendetta, starring Christopher Walken. The film is based on a 1977 history book of the same name by Richard Gambino.
Background
Anti-Italian sentiment in New Orleans
In late 19th-century America, there was a growing numbers of Italians, who had been brought in by the business community to replace black labor. Sugar planters, in particular, sought workers who were more efficient than former slaves; they hired immigrant recruiters to bring Italians to southern Louisiana. In the 1890s, thousands of Italians were arriving in New Orleans each year. Many settled in the French Quarter, which by the early 20th century had a section known as "Little Sicily." Furthermore, during the whole of the 19th century and well into the 20th, Italian immigrants to the United States were often referred to as "White niggers".
In a letter responding to an inquiry about immigration in New Orleans, Mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare expressed the common anti-Italian prejudice, complaining that the city had become attractive to "...the worst classes of Europe: Southern Italians and Sicilians...the most idle, vicious, and worthless people among us." He claimed they were "filthy in their persons and homes" and blamed them for the spread of disease, concluding that they were "without courage, honor, truth, pride, religion, or any quality that goes to make a good citizen.".
According to Humbert Nelli, Mayor Shakspeare had been elected as a Reform Democrat with the backing of a Louisiana Republican Party that had grown increasingly powerless since the end of the Reconstruction era. Both Mayor Shakspeare and the Republicans, however, were united in opposition to the city's corrupt and scandal plagued political machine, which was called the Regular Democratic Organization and remained firmly supported by the city's Italian-American voters. According to Nelli, this may well have been the real reason for the Mayor's outspoken anti-Italianism.
Assassination of David Hennessy
On the evening of October 15, 1890, New Orleans police chief David Hennessy was shot by several gunmen as he walked home from work. Hennessy returned fire and chased his attackers before collapsing. When asked who had shot him, Hennessy reportedly whispered to Captain William O'Connor, "dagos" (a derogatory term for Italians and others of Mediterranean heritage). Hennessy was awake in the hospital for several hours after the shooting, and spoke to friends, but did not name the shooters. The next day complications set in and he died.