Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans Kindle Edition

EMPIRE OF SIN is about New Orleans, but it’s divided into three segments. Gary Krist, that author, starts with a hook, the murders or near murders of grocery store owners in the Italian part of town, thought to have been committed by The Black Hand.

The second aspect of the book deals with Storyville. The mayor, council members, and businessmen were worried that the city had a bad reputation as a crime-ridden Babylon. They were willing to look the other way while prostitution houses, gambling, and what they considered sin went about its business, but they wanted to segregate it to one part of town, and that was Storyville. Krist centers on two vice lords, Tom Anderson and Josie Arlington. Arlington was a madam; Anderson owned several dance halls, with a hand in prostitution etc, ran an oil company on the side, and was a Congressman for almost the entire twenty years Storyville existed.

The third area Krist concentrates on is jazz music which evolved in the prostitution houses and dance halls of storyville. I was surprised to find that one man was given credit for the origination of the music. Buddy Bolden played with such passion and volume that he influenced such previously more conventional musicians as “Jelly Roll” Morton, a Creole who played piano in some of the prostitution houses. Eventually we get to Louie Armstrong, who wasn’t among the first wave of jazz musicians. He was born to a fifteen-year-old girl and started playing in a band at the Home for Wayward boys. He eventually got a job as a stand-in for Joe "King" Oliver, whom he cited as a great influence.

Eventually the reformers win out, thanks mostly to prohibition and World War I. The War Department didn’t want its soldiers falling prey to the degradation and disease that existed in Storyville. A railroad terminal was also built on the border of Storyville, and passengers had to pass houses of ill repute in order to get where they were going. So, New Orleans was clean for a while, but the city was still playing second fiddle to Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas, and the city leaders finally realized that they could sell what was formerly known as vice, mainly the music and the partying (See Mardi Gras). Most of the great musicians, including Armstrong, had already left when their livelihood dried up. Something else unexpected occurred. Prior to the reform movement, the blacks, Creoles and whites intermixed and got along about as well as anyplace in the South. Afterwards, Jim Crow reared its ugly head.

About a hundred and fifty pages after Krist first introduces what the mayor thought was a serial killer, Krist returns to the case. More murders are occurring. Many of them have the same M.O. The intruder cuts out the lower panel of a back door, he stages the scene to look like a robbery, and he uses an axe he finds on the property, and he leaves it there when he’s finished with his grisly business. In the last section of the book, Krist identifies a possible killer, but he can’t prove it, so the case remains unsolved.

Kudos go out to Krist for including a bibliography, and index, and footnotes, something that pseudo historians these days don’t seem to find necessary. Krist also includes about a dozen pictures, usually at the beginning of chapters or sections. I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it to history lovers and those who just like the city and are curious about how it evolved.

I read Empire of Sin right after reading Satchmo - Louis Armstrong's autobiography. Clearly, I'm interested in the people and history of New Orleans, but I was truly blown away but the Krist masterpiece. Not only did I my knowledge of and love for New Orleans grow, but it was a pleasure to read such a beautifully written piece of work. It was also exciting, as a former English and current History teacher, to find myself learning new vocabulary. I truly enjoy Krist's use of language. I highly recommend this book. Now I'm even more excited for my annual trip to the Crescent City ... the city where my husband and I were married in Pirates Alley ... the City that has had its hooks in us ever since.

I wavered between giving the book three of four stars. It is a well researched and written account of this period in New Orleans' history. The book breaks no new ground but rather does a very nice and readable job of weaving together the major incidents and forces that shaped New Orleans life during this time. I agree with a previous reviewer's comment about the overemphasis on some of the more notorious crimes committed during the period which would have better been gathered in a single chapter than serve as the principal organizing theme of the book. But I think it is better than "o.k." and thus four stars. Two other comments. Any future edition of the book should reflect the recent discovery that Louis Armstrong had a prior arrest and stay at the Colored Waif's Home for Boys, than the one reflected in the book's account. See, http://www.nola.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/12/our_times_the_louis_armstrong.html. Also the book unfortunately adopts the nostalgic and popular view of Storyville as a noble social experiment were women willingly entered the life of prostitution which they happily practiced in glamorous salons. The reality of course was otherwise. These women (often teenagers) were forced into the life by crushing poverty where they were victimized by pimps and madams and spent their typically short lives addicted to drugs and afflicted by STD's. Thus, instead of gracing the beginning of chapter 10 with one of E.J. Bellocq's more famous photo's of a seemingly happy and carefree prostitute, the author would have better used one of Bellocq's darker images of the face of a much older and worn sex worker staring at the lens through an ugly black eye.

This book is excellently worded and the writing is straightforward. There are components of this book that flabbergasted and some that were horrible. How reformists separated the peoples of New Orleans was absurd and there are still those elitists around today. I loved the in depth look into the Mayor of Storyville. It was probably easy with all the public and legal documents related to him. Great read!

I have long ago adopted New Orleans as a cultural home. As a French Metis or Creole, it makes sense, so I must admit some bias I regard to the subject matter. I purchased this book after having read a similar one written in the 1930's that left me slightly disappointed. This one did not. It IS a history of crime, underworld, and jazz in New Orleans. It is also a quick paced, fun, & entertaining read that never gets slow or boring. Great book.

The really great thing about this book is how the author puts you right on the step, right back in time, right in the middle of drunken brawls, red light districts, political intrigue. The author is a tremendous story-teller. A reader who does not know much about the "marrow" of New Orleans, its history, its people, its complex cultural origins, should definitely read this book. It's a page turner. I will keep this one.

I am passionate about historical fiction, especially American 17th and 18th century when it's inclusive of all Americans. I was unaware of Italians New Orleans history. I was especially impressed with the detailed history of black jazz musicians origins and ultimate migration to the north.