When the Folsom Prison inmate died in 1957, word reached Louisiana. She saw blood right away and her screams attracted authorities. The women and children went to bed. According to the nonpartisan watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, the city recorded 280 murders in New Orleans in 2022, the highest number of killings in a single year since 1996. The all-male jury couldn't decide if that was a valid defense or not, and compromised on a verdict of "guilty without capital punishment," rejecting the prosecution's death penalty recommendation. Then he saw the bloody ghost of his wife, with her head crushed to a pulp, coming toward him. It also marks the second annual increase in murders in the city after 2019's 50-year low of 120 murders, which one crime analyst points out was still high for a city the size of New Orleans. Other stories say that the hard work took a toll on his wifes physical appearance and he no longer found her attractive. On that same page Barbara Brooks, "Editor of Advice to the Lovelorn" says she "Sees Tragedy As Result of Bedraggled and Besmirched Love.". By 1934 he was made a trusty which meant he was given additional responsibility and minimal supervision. Henry had worked briefly as a butcher, and the Times-Picayune gleefully pointed out that the manner in which the two bodies of the women were mutilated and dismembered indicated a man familiar with this trade. Radio dispatches alerted departing steamer ships to be on the lookout for a stowaway passenger answering to Henrys description: tattooed and, according to the newspaper, singularly hairy., The room which shares a wall adjacent to crime scene. Artists, writers, and partisans of the bohemian lifestyle were drawn to the lower rents and old-world aesthetic of the Vieux Carr. We take you on a journey through NOLA's real-life horror stories including Madame LaLaurie, The Trunk Murders and The Katrina Cannibal. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Though the legacy of Henrys crime may persist in another local legend: the Sausage Ghost. Recounted in the 1945 Louisiana folklore collection, Gumbo Ya-Ya, the tale tells of a woman murdered by her butcher husband and turned intoyou guessed itsausages, to be sold to unsuspecting customers on Ursulines Avenue. There was no place like New Orleans in the Roaring 20s. 715 Ursulines Avenue was the home of the Moity brothers, their wives, and children. The city recorded the most homicides per capita among major U.S. cities in September, but Jackson, Mississippi, unseated it as the murder capital by the end of the year. The in-person tour is on hiatus, but THNOC's Visitor Services department produced a new series of videos based on the stories. In the decades after the Civil War, many wealthier residents of old inner-city neighborhoods had moved to garden suburbs along Esplanade Avenue, St. Charles Avenue, and further uptown to escape urban nuisances such as warehouses and sugar refineries. Two couples had serious marital problems, and a few days before Halloween in 1927, the home became the site of an infamous crime (, Danse Macabre: The Nightmare of History,. Discovered in a cabinet in her bedroom, its believed to be a thinly veiled autobiographical account that she had tried to publish in a popular womens magazine. He went to Theresas bedroom and stabbed her. Rumors started to spread, as no one had seen his wife in some days. Henry began his sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiaryon July 6, 1928. It is not often that we bring heavily covered cases to the podcast but even if you have heard this ca. One night as she was sweeping up the floors he came behind her and strangled her to death. Lady fingers. Four fingers had been cut from a womans hand After placing the fingers back on the bed, Gwen moved to a second bedroom, found a second trunk, and opened it. EMAIL SIGN UP Why is Everyone Fighting Over the Skull of 'Brigand Villella'? Between 1920 and 1945, only 1.3 percent of local killers slaughtered their victims with axes or machetes, and no other New Orleans killer hacked off his victims' heads and limbs. The grim Times-Picayune article from October 28, 1927 is filed into a binder at the Williams Research Center of New Orleans. HubPages is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. Two couples had seriou Then, Henry really went to work, beheading and cutting the women to pieces, stuffing them into the trunks they meant to leave with. The afternoon before the murders, he told the housekeeper, Nettie Compassthe woman who later discovered the victimsthat he should take a pistol and shoot both of those basterds [sic]. Later that evening, Nettie said she saw Henry, Theresa, Leonide, and the children leave the apartment in good spirits. Although certainly dead by now, there is no record or obituary I could locate. The content may not be suitable for all readers. He also resented his sister-in-law, Leonide, calling her a negative influence on his wife. Two years later, a police officer in St. Louis, Missouri, stopped the escaped convict for suspicious behavior. Blood-soaked mattresses where the victims had lain. The first step for the investigators was to question the womens husbands. When the coroner and Healys female colleague, Gwen, arrived. He was underweight and bedraggled and he quickly admitted who he was. There's no way to really paraphrase this next bit, so: "One night, soon after, he heard a "thump! Eventually, Mueller began to have an affair with the woman which made his wife angry. In one of the bedrooms they found a blood soaked mattress with severed fingers. Allows using the site with your screen-reader. She had barely set foot inside before encountering traces of blood. An enraged Henry began drinking, interrupting his bender to purchase the murder weapon. Listen to this episode from Infamous America on Spotify. This tour was great because he didnt focus on the same few stories you hear on yours - he really brought stories to life with his passion and deep background knowledge about NOLA. . He boarded an Illinois Central train car, like the one seen here, and fled to St. Louis. Our planet is pockmarked with the scars of these extraterrestrial visitors. <p>There was no place like New Orleans in the Roaring 20s. Look at how kind he could be- how tender! The California court sentenced the Louisiana man to five years in Folsom Prison, unaware of the concurrent life sentences a New Orleans court handed down two decades earlier. Was This Letter Written by Sherlock Holmes? Still, Henry was upset that his wife didn't make him dinner. At 8 p.m. on March 13, a woman's body was found in the trunk of a silver Camry about seven blocks from the . Henry said his wife, Theresa, threatened to leave him, invoking his vengeance over her infidelities and neglect of the children. "What stoop? Meanwhile, the French Quarter had become increasingly home to working-class residents, thanks to decreasing property values and proximity to employment opportunities. I will post images of some of the actual newspaper clippings below, if you want to blow them up and read for yourself. He attempted to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, largely leaning on the idea that the two things that drove him to kill were whiskey and the cruelty of his wife. Joseph Moity turned himself in to the authorities as soon as he heard about the discovery. But all was not well in an apartment near the French Quarter. At a Los Angeles hotel in 1956, Henry shot his girlfriend Alberta Orange in the chest, puncturing her lung. (Photo: A newspaper report of the crime at 715UrsulinesAvenue. When I pulled up the trunk lid, a womans body, arms, and legs severed from the torso, was exposed. PRIVACY POLICY They had been drawn to the city by the call of promise and opportunity, but the move wasnt all it was cracked up to be. Her ghost is said to have haunted the shop until Muller went insane. Headlined Bodies Found in Trunks, it tells the ghastly end of Theresa and Leonide Lonie Moity. It was a smaller group than other tours we saw and very entertaining! Although it doesn't rank with the infamous trunk murders of Brighton, New Orleans and Winnie Ruth Judd, Vancouver does have its own sort-of 'trunk murder.' This bizarre case, which first broke the news with garish, glaring headlines in the July 12, 1969 Vancouver Sun B.C. Readers of TTAG know all how Murder City, USA gained its moniker. In a closet, police found two small traveling trunks packed with the expertly butchered corpses of two young women. Saxon credits a "Miss Rica Hoffman" as "remembering" the story, "which occurred in the city some years ago.". Mortified, Henry ran back out to the street, and there he succumbed to the siren song of the bottle, for the first time going into a speakeasy and falling into a whiskey jug. Rife with grammatical errors, its thinly veiled autobiographical story cautioned young girls to be careful, for marriage is a life sentence. The rejection slip from her submission to a popular confessions magazine lay in a pool of her own blood. If fictional stories of serial killers is more your style, why not try reading my latest book, Blood on the Bayou? The ensuing manhunt led through swamps and shipboards before a bedraggled Henry was pulled from nearby Bayou Lafourche. As he later recounted to the DA, She didnt say a word or move. Special thank you to our sponsors for this episode: Violet and Suds - Get 20% off your order using our code, WICKED20. Henrys past employment as a butchers assistant was a key point in his two trials. . Douglas J. The couple came with next to nothing and had created a successful business. Read about how William Dorr crossed the country to commit a remarkable murder. The property is shown in this 1960s photograph. He was given two consecutive life sentences. We have the benefit of nearly 100 years of progress between then and now, but several things jump out at the modern eye. ", Found amongst the dead woman's things was a manuscript, written in pencil, submitted and rejected fr, At the exact same time the papers had side-by-side national stories about Velma West, the flapper murderess and it was 180 degrees from the Moity coverage. The perpetrator, dubbed, "The Axeman," busted down the doors of people's homes and, in some cases, slaughtered whole families with his axe. Both couples and their young children lived in the small apartment. The message, over and over, was that this was the fault of a bad woman. On Saturday, October 29two days after the womens bodies were discoveredcrewmen of the freighter Gem reported Henry Moity to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff. Continuing our true crime tour of New Orleans, next up is the gruesome murders of Theresa and Leonide Moitymore widely known as the New Orleans trunk murders. In his 1976 memoir, Healy described their discovery: We found red stains on the floor and saw a large trunk in a bedroom, partially open. The victims, later identified as Theresa and Leonide Moity, were both in their mid-twenties and natives of New Iberia. PRESS Henry stayed up, stewing about his wifes infidelity until his mind boiled over into rage. Henry, they said, begged his way onto the ship using a false name, but the crew recognized his tattoo after reading a newspaper account of the crimes. Clothing tossed from the trunks littered the living room where police found the severed fingers. However, a butcher at a New Iberia sausage factory told the reporter that the Moity brother who worked for him was named Joseph. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . very informative and theatrical. Saturday Aug 27, 2022 Love Me Not: The New Orleans Trunk Murders (LIVE FROM TCPF) Likes Share At the end of the Roaring Twenties, New Orleans was rocked by one of the grizzliest murder scenes the city had ever seen. After separating from her husband, Joseph, Leonide continued to live with Henry and Theresa, and Henry fretted over her influence on his wife. The married Caruso operated a real estate office from the ground floor of 715 Ursulines. We just did the ghost tour with Jonathan, and he was wonderful! Henry was found guilty in both cases and sentenced to two concurrent terms of life in prison. . We had a great time listening to the true crime stories and walking the streets on a cold NOLA night. Moreover, only 1.5 percent of local homicides had more than a single victim. Spend 2 hours listening about gruesome murders of the French Quarter. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. Nettie walked up the stairs to the second floor of the Ursulines address and as she stepped into the Moity family home, her feet were met with blood-stained floors. Sausage Man/Hans Muller House New Orleans, LA (Wheres the Beef? A natural story teller he portrayed his stories well. Learn the truth of Mad Madame and of her escape from justice. The same line about Theresa Moity not sweeping was even used on Velma. There was no place like New Orleans in the Roaring 20s. The superintendent of the prison was not all concerned because he thought Henry would come back since there was a chance he was going to have his sentence reduced because he was drunk at the time of the incident. Already jealous and seeing suitors around every corner, he flew into a rage, but vowed to forgive her if she would just be a "good" wife. Upon the gruesome discovery of the two murdered women, New Orleans Superintendent of Police Thomas Healey set about locating the husbands. please think ahead of you and do not make the mistake Ive made, because it does not always turn out the right way, you can still be disappointed. Our tour guide was amazing when it came to the city's history in general but also knew both personal and commonly known areas where gruesome murders have occurred in New Orleans. Stop At: Lalaurie Mansion, 1140 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70116-2706. Meanwhile, in terms of the homicide rate, New Orleans captured the crown for . 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But she was 21, abused by her husband, violently, repeatedly, and in public, including earlier the day of the murder. Recounted, among other places, in Lyle Saxons collection of Louisiana folk tales, Gumbo Ya-Ya, The Sausage Ghost legend tells of mid-19th-century German immigrants Mr. and Mrs. Hans Muller, who opened a sausage factory on the ground floor of their property at 725 Ursulines Street, just a few doors down from the building where the Moity family lived. No purchase necessary. The manhunt for the other husband, Henry, began and he was found two days later while trying to make his getaway on a freight ship. There was a travel trunk on the floor and inside were the severed arms, legs, head, and torso of Theresa. New Orleans Parish Coroner, Dr. George Roeling determined that the killer had first bludgeoned the women with a lead billy club, before decapitating them with a machete and amputating their arms and legs. Back in the 1800s, a young German couple, Mr. and Mrs. Hans Mueller, opened a sausage factory in New Orleans. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. (THNOC, gift of Waldemar S. Nelson, 2003.0182.523). Afterward came the grim work of cutting up the bodies, as Henry stuffed the women into the trunks they had packed hours earlier. It was great to hear his local perspective on all the stories he shared. The only window into the womens interior lives is preserved in a story written by Leonide. Joseph told police he moved out after catching Leonide with another man. In 1927 Henry and Theresa lived at 715 Ursulines with his brother Joseph and his wife Leonide, plus their combined five children. The answer involves pseudoscience, politics, and a burglary at a windmill. On the way home from their outing, a local busybody made a casual comment to Theresa, implying that there were rumors she was going to run off with Caruso that night. ursuline street new orleans murders. Upon. However, 20 years before the publication of his book, the infamous New Orleans trunk murders became a national sensation, and, as is so often the case, it was more compelling than the fiction it was spun into. Hawaiis Native-Language Newspaper Archive, 'Discovering' Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Migration, The Real Story Behind George Washington's Dentures, See the Mysterious Horned Helmet of Henry VIII. The Texarkana Moonlight Murders were a series of unsolved murders and other violent crimes in 1946. Newly arrived immigrants from Sicily settled in large numbers beginning in the 1880s. Henry began his sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiary on July 6, 1928. The quotes tell you everything you need to know about the feelings about 'modern women.'. Joseph told police he had recently moved in with his sister after catching Leonide with another man. This article talks about who she was before being remembered as just a murder victim. Confirmation will be received at time of booking, Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately, This tour/activity will have a maximum of 30 travelers, Face masks required for travelers in public areas, Face masks required for guides in public areas, Hand sanitizer available to travelers and staff, Social distancing enforced throughout experience, Contactless payments for gratuities and add-ons. Later that evening, Nettie told prosecutors she saw Henry, Theresa, Leonide, and the children leave the apartment in good spirits. In his confession to the District Attorney, Henry admits that he considered killing himself and the children, but changed his mind when he imagined his wife running around with Joe Caruso and the rest of them., A newspaper report of the crime at 715UrsulinesAvenue. Refresh the page, check Medium. Her cautionary tale, presented as a personal letter, speaks of finding joy again after a failed marriage. Product code: C-49992P5. Responding officers uncovered the full horror of the murder scene: two small traveling trunks packed with the expertly butchered corpses of two young women. He was sentenced to five years at Folsom Prison for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He said they taunted him and said they'd decided to set up 'shop,' which he took to mean prostituting themselves. Stop At: Omni Royal Orleans, 621 St Louis St, New Orleans, LA 70130, USA, See where a murderer committed suicide and hear the story behind it, Stop At: Jackson Square, 615 Pere Antoine Alley, New Orleans, LA 70116-3234. Clumps of hair lay on the floor, caught in the shadows cast from Ursulines Avenue. Thank you for a great time! The perpetrator was known as the Phantom of Texarkana, although it was never determined that it was one perpetrator. I would recommend this True Murder tour to ANY crime doc fanatic (as I am), especially with Jonathan. Wonderful tour! Two couples had serious marital problems, and a few days before Halloween in 1927, the home became the site of an infamous crime that is still featured on ghost tours today.</p><p>Take a break from serious world with the . Did n't make him dinner bedrooms they found a blood soaked mattress with fingers... Said they 'd the trunk murders new orleans to set up 'shop, ' which he took to mean prostituting themselves grammatical,... 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