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

“In The Crescent City Lynchings, Tom Smith recounts one of the darker chapters in the city’s history, along the way skillfully placing the sordid events of March 14, 1891, within the tense cultural context of postbellum New Orleans…” The Times-Picayune (continue reading here.)

Click photo for more of Tom Smith at work, in New Haven, to benefit The Tipitina’s Foundation.

Tom Smith has worked for 30 years as a freelance writer, researcher, and editor, covering topics ranging from notorious trials to popular music and the American West. He also adds, “My other jobs over time include long stints as a professional musician, justice of the peace, and assistant registrar of voters, as well as shorter experiences as assistant fine arts appraiser, auction runner, and a long list of minimum wage manual labor jobs in New Orleans and Boston.”

“I started the research at the very beginning of 1989 after a friend who knew how much I love New Orleans remarked that I should write something about the city.” (Continue reading an interview with Tom Smith here.)

Check out a review of The Crescent City Lynchings here.

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