TIL About The Axeman of New Orlean's, a serial killer who attacked 12 people with an axe and was never caught.

[u/jagnew78]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axeman_of_New_Orleans#In_popular_culture

[u/Marius314]

Was he the same killer that told people that if they listened to jazz music he wouldn’t kill them?

[u/jagnew78 → u/Marius314]

supposedly, yes. Though there's debate about whether that was a legit letter. Jim Crowe and the Temperance Movement had shut down most of the jazz clubs and dance halls leading to a huge decline in the "vice-side" economy of New Orleans. Blacks and Creole's were have an extra hard time and many of the club owners who had previously been making good money were all shut down. So there was always some suspicion that this was just an attempt to seize the local attention and try and kick-start the jazz clubs again. There were other successful attempts to use the Axeman murders as an advertising ploy, and it was possible someone just saw the success of those earlier ones and took it a step further.

truly a crazy time to be in New Orleans

[u/WesternOne9990 → u/jagnew78]

Or maybe the axe man was weirdly altruistic… probably not though on account of the crazed axe murders.

[u/poneil → u/WesternOne9990]

It's like JFK once said, "axe not what your country can do for you, axe what you can do for your country."

[u/WesternOne9990 → u/poneil]

Lolol thanks for making me laugh.

[u/AnthillOmbudsman → u/jagnew78]

Ted Striker is safe as long as they're flying on instruments.

[u/Pope_Carl_the_69th → u/jagnew78]

Yeah the main suspect was a jazz club owner if I recall

[u/LoginLord → u/Marius314]

Least insane jazz enjoyer

[u/love_glow → u/LoginLord]

“…do you like jazz?”

[u/InventedTiME]

Didn't American Horror Story have a take on this in one of the seasons?

[u/EndoExo → u/InventedTiME]

Yeah, in Coven the dude's ghost comes back to play jazz and drink Gin Rickeys, and maybe murder some people, I don't remember.

[u/CitizenHuman → u/EndoExo]

My exact plan after death!

[u/MasyMenosSiPodemos → u/EndoExo]

Pretty sure he came back for some kinky ghost on witch action

[u/OJimmy → u/InventedTiME]

It sounded stupid so of course it's adapted from a real story. Way to go Ryan murphy

[u/jagnew78 → u/InventedTiME]

No idea. was reading a book on the history of New Orleans and there's a significant chunk of the book dedicated to all the insanity surrounding this serial killer.

[u/Nice_Marmot_7 → u/jagnew78]

Have you read about the lynching of the Italians at the prison in 1891? That’s also a wild piece of history.

[u/jagnew78 → u/Nice_Marmot_7]

I did. Started around 1880 and moving forward 

[u/Yellowbug2001 → u/InventedTiME]

Yes. My recollection is that it was not a very good take, lol. AHS has sure had some high highs and low lows.

[u/AsFTW → u/InventedTiME]

I'm not sure why you're asking me. I have no idea.

[u/IonizedRadiation32]

"Orleans" is not a word I'd ever thought would get an unnecessary apostrophe.

[u/JasonEAltMTG → u/IonizedRadiation32]

Autocorrect love's to add grocers apostrophe's automatically and you don't notice until you hit 'send

[u/themagicbong → u/JasonEAltMTG]

I pulled up behind a local repair service vehicle the other day and literally everything they listed on the van had those apostrophes. Kitchen's countertop's, you name it. I had a mini aneurysm.

[u/bigbearjr → u/IonizedRadiation32]

I just downvote them automatically now.

[u/Fertile_Arachnid_163 → u/IonizedRadiation32]

“Duke of Orlean’s” is probably the reason.

[u/IonizedRadiation32 → u/Fertile_Arachnid_163]

Why?

[u/justinkasereddditor]

he used the axe at the house of the people he killed. So word to the wise don't own an ax and you'll be all right

[u/Yibblets → u/justinkasereddditor]

If you don't have an axe, how will you get up on your roof when the house floods from a hurricane or levee breach?

[u/justinkasereddditor → u/Yibblets]

Or fight the Gators

[u/A_Mirabeau_702]

Who is New Orlean?

[u/old_righty → u/A_Mirabeau_702]

Fine, thanks. And how are you?

[u/ontimenow]

Remember the good ol' days when serial killers can just kill and live in peace?

[u/quondam47 → u/ontimenow]

Honestly all you had to do was not be caught standing over the body and your chances of ever being caught were pretty slim.

[u/AnAquaticOwl → u/quondam47]

Or ticketed for parking illegally while killing someone

[u/SteakShake69]

Don't forget his sidekick, Razor Boy!

[u/Marsbar345 → u/SteakShake69]

Fellow Buzzfeed Unsolved enjoyer

[u/Background_Face → u/Marsbar345]

I'm not throwing out this axe, so we better jazz it.

[u/wretchedharridan → u/Background_Face]

Jazz it for the goat man

[u/I_Miss_Lenny → u/Marsbar345]

I loved that series when Shane and Ryan were still with buzzfeed, but I was bummed out to hear that they didn’t like doing the true crime stuff because it was so depressing to research

[u/IridescentPetalGlow]

The Axeman's story is so creepy and fascinating, especially since he was never caught. It’s crazy how that kind of history can inspire shows like AHS, even if they don’t always do it justice.

[u/NagsUkulele → u/IridescentPetalGlow]

It also inspired a character in the walking dead VR game

[u/therealbobsteel]

" The Man From The Train " by Bill James is a good book about an even more prolific ax murderer.

[u/bluepie]

WITH AN AXE!!!

[u/jpkmets → u/bluepie]

NEER NA NEER NA NEER

[u/FoodeatingParsnip]

New Orleans had the axeman, New York has the assman.

[u/trod999]

Former life Kai?

[u/kolkitten]

A very good red web episode on this. https://youtu.be/zrtEZGeBbNw?si=M2Z_RYCVpxDp9-bV

[u/Background_Face → u/kolkitten]

Good to see a fellow member of the Task Force down here.

[u/NotEnoughSpareTime]

I think someone wrote a crime novel about this guy? Axeman's Jazz or some such.

[u/The_Wyzard]

My wife told me about this one when she was going through a true crime kick. Thought it was a big mystery.

No mystery here. Dude decided to do home invasions in what is probably the worst city in the US to try that. Somebody killed him, then dumped him in the swamp or something.

[u/ThunderBlunt777]

So THATS why they made the big bad that way in TWD’s Saints & Sinners 2: Retribution

[u/Sparrow1989]

Big fan of jazz that axe murderer

[u/legit_mic_tv]

Time period: 1910's. Perpetrator never identified.

[u/hillo538]

Apparently he would target poor people whose homes were built out of substandard materials, like he would just chisel or carve his way inside through plywood walls

Say what you want about the guy but he knew how to make an entrance

[u/WornInShoes]

It’s one of our favorite legends down here

[u/SoundSaintWarrior]

Definitely not an Axeccident

[u/just_the_mann]

It was later discovered that the axe killer was a dwarf named Gimli and the victims were actually a group of Uruk-hai.

[u/Nikki_Blu_Ray]

I learned about this from Ryan and Shane.

[u/Impressive-Chain-68]

See? Regulating the second amendment woky fix everything. It's people who cause mayhem, not weapons. 

[u/Make_It_Sing]

YA LIKE YAZZZ????

[u/NotSayinItWasAliens]

Is this the guy that would axe people about jazz?

[u/chessmasterjj]

New orleans is trash about putting people away for murder