LocalWorksHVN: Hot of the Presses! The Crescent City Lynchings, by Tom Smith
Posted by Jo-anna Horn, March 24th , 2007.
The Crescent City Lynchings, The Murder of Chief Hennessy, the New Orleans “Mafia” trials, and the Parish Prison Mob.
Nearly a century before The Godfather and The Sopranos became American icons, a group of Italian immigrants and Italian Americans were accused of gunning down New Orleans police chief David Hennessy. Crescent City Lynchings is a compelling look at organized crime and the notorious anti-Italian mass lynching in the aftermath of the murder in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. The author presents an in-depth and nuanced account of the episode that popularized the term “Mafia” in the American lexicon.
“The Sopranos meets the Big Easy in an engrossing examination of a crime that rocked late-19th-century Louisiana.” Kirkus Reviews
