As the 28-year-old lay in bed, she awoke to see a dark figure standing over her, and was bashed in the face repeatedly. Edward Schneider who was 8 months pregnant. On August 5th a third similar attack was made on a Mrs. Besumer was then charged with murder and served nine months in prison before being acquitted on May 1, 1919, after a ten-minute jury deliberation Two days later she died, but before she passed she told authorities that she suspected it was Louis Besumer who had attacked her. After the attack, one side of Lowe’s face was partially paralyzed and on August 5th, she had surgery performed in an effort to correct it. Though the crime made the newspapers, of bigger note to some was the “scandal” of the mistress. Once again people were questioned and one man arrested, but they were later released. Though badly injured, both were still alive. Besumer had been struck with an ax above his right temple and Lowe was hacked over the left ear. When no one opened the store in the morning, they were discovered lying in a pool of blood. Louis Besumer, a grocer, and his mistress, Harriet Lowe, lived in quarters at the back of the store. Investigators immediately questioned several people but all were released for lack of evidence.Ī little more than a month later, another couple was attacked in the early morning hours of June 27, 1918. Near the couple’s home, a message written in chalk read: “Mrs. Police ruled out robbery as motivation for the attacks, as money and valuables left in plain sight were not stolen by the intruder.

When law enforcement began to investigate they found the bloody clothes of the murderer, as he had obviously changed into a clean set of clothes before fleeing the scene. As they lay sleeping in their apartment above the Maggio grocery store the killer cut the couple’s throats with a straight razor before bashing in their heads with an ax. The first to succumb to the sharp blade of the Axeman was an Italian grocer named Joseph Maggio and his wife, Catherine on May 23, 1918. The Times-Picayuneįor over a year, from May 1918 to October 1919, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana was in a frenzied panic over a roaming serial killer dubbed the “Axeman”.

“Who’ll be next?” is the question being asked by detectives and Italians of New Orleans. Jazz Axman of New Orleans, art by Claudia Rodriguez, Wrought Ink

Louisiana serial killer 23 victims