The Truth Behind Columbus Day
Updated May 17, 2025
What they didn’t teach us in school
It began with the murder of David Hennessy, a police chief in New Orleans who was shot while walking home from work. As he lay dying, a witness asked him who did it. Hennessy reportedly whispered a slur for Italians..
At the time, New Orleans was home to more Italian immigrants than any other Southern state. Between 1884 and 1924, nearly 300,000 Italian immigrants, mostly Sicilian, moved to New Orleans, earning the French Quarter the nickname “Little Palermo.”
Hennessey’s murder fanned the flames of anti-Italian sentiment. Police rounded up hundreds of Italians, even those who didn’t seem to be associated with the attackLocal papers fueled the fire, demanding justice and declaring nine men who were arrested on suspicion of a connection to the murder guilty before they were even tried.
When news spread that the trial had resulted in six not-guilty convictions and three mistrials, the city went wild. A mob of angry residents broke into the city’s arsenal, grabbing guns and ammunition. A smaller group of armed men stormed the prison, grabbing not just the men who had been acquitted or given a mistrial along with several others. Eleven men’s bodies were riddled with bullets and torn apart by the crowd. Some corpses were hanged; what remained of others were torn apart and plundered for souvenirs.
The eleven mean were Antonio Bagnetto a fruit peddler, James Caruso, Loreto Comitis a tinsmith, Rocco Geraci, Joseph Macheca, Antonio Marchesi, Pietro Monasterio a cobbler, Emmanuele Polizzi, Frank Romero a ward politcian, Antonio Scaffidi, and Charles Traina.
No one was ultimately charged in Hennessey’s murder and the lynch mob went unpunished.