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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The court appearances of immigrant Italians for the 1890 murder of New Orleans police chief David Hennessy was the first organized crime trial to capture worldwide attention. Though it is now a household term, the word "mafia" wasn't a part of the American lexicon till the acquittal of half of the 19 defendants in the case that led to a mob lynching of 11 Italians, nine of whom had been found not guilty and two who had yet to be tried. The lynchings—the largest mass lynching in American history—not only caused great tensions between Italy and the U.S., but the trial itself left a stigma on Italian-Americans that has lasted to the present day. Freelance reporter Smith digs deep into the Big Easy's murky past to uncover the underlying connections between the compromised police force, the battling Italian dockworkers' syndicates and the city's corrupt political factions that made New Orleans' legal system ineffective in the simplest of cases. Quoting heavily from newspaper accounts, Smith is able to bring a local and timely flavor to his otherwise straightforward account of Hennessy's life, the murder and its spiderweb of repercussions. The sensational nature of the case certainly lends itself to conspiracy theories, but Smith stays unbiased, allowing his readers to use the facts to come to their own conclusions. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
New Orleans has more myths than most cities, and still, the truth is sometimes more astounding than the myth. Smith dissects the notorious 1890 lynchings that introduced the term Mafia to Americans. Myth has it that an upstanding Irish police chief was killed in a conflict between rival Italian gangs, and that when the murderers were acquitted amid allegations of jury tampering, a righteously indignant barrister orated a mob into a frenzy that culminated in the acquitted being yanked from the Orleans Parish Prison and lynched. The incident mushroomed into the recalling of the Italian ambassador to the U.S. Smith discloses a much more complicated story of interconnected, international events followed by promulgation of a sugarcoated version of what happened that glossed over massive political and police corruption for generations. And this in New Orleans! In telling the story of Chief Hennessy's murder, Smith reveals the history that paved the way for Huey Long, Carlos Marcello, Edwin Edwards, and associates in Louisiana's piquant political culture. A rich, insightful slice of Americana. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
The court appearances of immigrant Italians for the 1890 murder of New Orleans police chief David Hennessy was the first organized crime trial to capture worldwide attention. Though it is now a household term, the word "mafia" wasn't a part of the American lexicon till the acquittal of half of the 19 defendants in the case that led to a mob lynching of 11 Italians, nine of whom had been found not guilty and two who had yet to be tried. The lynchings—the largest mass lynching in American history—not only caused great tensions between Italy and the U.S., but the trial itself left a stigma on Italian-Americans that has lasted to the present day. Freelance reporter Smith digs deep into the Big Easy's murky past to uncover the underlying connections between the compromised police force, the battling Italian dockworkers' syndicates and the city's corrupt political factions that made New Orleans' legal system ineffective in the simplest of cases. Quoting heavily from newspaper accounts, Smith is able to bring a local and timely flavor to his otherwise straightforward account of Hennessy's life, the murder and its spiderweb of repercussions. The sensational nature of the case certainly lends itself to conspiracy theories, but Smith stays unbiased, allowing his readers to use the facts to come to their own conclusions. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
New Orleans has more myths than most cities, and still, the truth is sometimes more astounding than the myth. Smith dissects the notorious 1890 lynchings that introduced the term Mafia to Americans. Myth has it that an upstanding Irish police chief was killed in a conflict between rival Italian gangs, and that when the murderers were acquitted amid allegations of jury tampering, a righteously indignant barrister orated a mob into a frenzy that culminated in the acquitted being yanked from the Orleans Parish Prison and lynched. The incident mushroomed into the recalling of the Italian ambassador to the U.S. Smith discloses a much more complicated story of interconnected, international events followed by promulgation of a sugarcoated version of what happened that glossed over massive political and police corruption for generations. And this in New Orleans! In telling the story of Chief Hennessy's murder, Smith reveals the history that paved the way for Huey Long, Carlos Marcello, Edwin Edwards, and associates in Louisiana's piquant political culture. A rich, insightful slice of Americana. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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