“These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions, the cut-throat practices, and the oath-bound societies of their native country, are to us a pest without mitigations…These men of the Mafia killed Chief Hennessy in circumstances of peculiar atrocity…Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans to stay the issue of a new license to the Mafia to continue its bloody practices.” –The New York Times Editorial Board (March 16, 1891)

Following the murder of New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy on Oct. 16, 1890, a feverish vendetta took hold and several Italian immigrants were rounded up and arrested without just cause. Nine of the 19 men who were indicted went to trial and the jury found none of them guilty of any crime.