Dina Gerasia commented on H-ITAM@H-NET.MSU.EDU, that she had seen a very moving exhibit, "Without Sanctuary" at the NY Historical Society a few years ago, that displayed photos of lynchings from the collection of James Allen.
Ms. Gerasia commented that
conspicuously missing were images of the largest mass lynching in US history
and no written reference to it was displayed. She is attempting to
write a paper that cures
that oversight.
Ms. Gerasia was referring to the Lynchings that occurred in 1991 in New Orleans, LA, and was inquiring as to the existence of photos of that or any other I-A lynchings.
(1) The book "Vendetta" by Richard Gambino, and the movie of the same name, based on the book, starring Christopher Walken, portrayed the lynching of ELEVEN Italian Americans in New Orleans, LA on March 14, 1891, by a mob of twenty thousand people, gathered together by the political, business, and labor elites a day after a jury ACQUITTED six Italian Americans of the murder of the city’s police chief.
Barnes
& Noble.com - Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in U.
S. History, Vol. 1
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(2) On July 21, 1899, in
Tallulah, Madison, LA, Five (5) Italian American Grocers, Charles, Frank,
and Joseph Defatto, Joseph Cereno, and Sy Deferroch were Lynched.
"Without Needles"
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Before we go any further,
I should share the origin and definition of the word : Lynching
The History of Lynching
Lynching
differs from ordinary murder or assault because it is a killing that is
committed outside the boundaries of due process by a mob who enacts revenge
for an offense. During the late 19th century, lynching frequently
enjoyed the approval of the public. It is a practice that was committed,
ostensibly, in the name of justice. But the motivations for these killings
were alien to the themes of justice and honor....
Lynching is a derivative term that was taken from the name of Col. Charles Lynch who was a landowner in Virginia in 1790. Lynch had a habit of holding illegal trials of local lawbreakers in his front yard. Upon conviction of the accused, which was usually the case, Lynch took to whipping the suspects while they were tied to a tree in front of his house....
Over
time, this practice became known as simply “lynching”....The term “lynching”
refers only to the concept of vigilantism, in which citizens would assume
the role of judge, jury and executioner. Vigilante groups were common during
the last half of the 19th century and were fed by a strong notion that
the existing laws were not functioning properly resulting in criminals...
The
actual process of lynching was morbid and incredibly violent. Lynching
does not necessarily mean hanging. It often included humiliation, torture,
burning, dismemberment and castration. Victims were beaten and whipped,
many times in front of large crowds that sometimes numbered in the thousands.
Coal tar was frequently used to douse the unfortunate victim prior to setting
him afire.Onlookers sometimes fired rifles and handguns hundreds of times
into the corpse while people cheered and children played during the festivities.
Pieces of the corpse were taken by onlookers as souvenirs of the event.
Such was the case when James Irwin was lynched on January 31, 1930. Irwin
was accused of the murder of a girl in the town of Ocilla, Georgia.
Taken into custody by a rampaging mob, his fingers and toes were cut off,
his teeth pulled out by pliers and finally he was castrated. It still wasn’t
enough. Irwin was then burned alive in front of hundreds of onlookers (Brundage,
p. 42).... victims were hacked to death, dragged behind cars, burned, beaten,
whipped, sometimes shot thousands of times, mutilated; the savagery was
astonishing.
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(3)
Ybor City, FL: September 9, 1910.
Included
in the "Without Sanctuary" Exhibit, is the photo (#6 0f 81) of the bound
corpses of two Italian immigrants, Castenego Ficarrotta and Angelo Albano,
handcuffed together, hanging in a Florida swamp. One with note affixed
to feet, the other with pipe in mouth.
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(4)
1911-Croton Lake, NY - 6 Italian Americans Executed for 1 Murder
Mark Gado-Crime Library.com
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(5)
Walsenburg, CO No information available. Would appreciate any clues.
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(6)
Illinois, No Information available. Would appreciate any clues
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Special
Note to Diane Gerasia:
You may want to check with the following sources:
(1)
Eighteen
Ninety-One New Orleans Lynchings & U. S.-Italian Relations: A Look
Back
Author:Sheryl
Lynn Postman
Edited
by: Marco Rimanelli
Binding:
Hardcover, 425 pages
Publisher:
Lang, Peter Publishing, Incorporated
Published
Date: 05/01/1992
List:
USD $59.95
ISBN:
082041672X
http://www.addall.com/Browse/Detail/082041672X.html
====================================================
PROJECT:
THE
CRESCENT CITY LYNCHINGS: The Murder of Chief Hennessy & the New Orleans
"Mafia" Trials (tentative title)
By
Tom Smith
Fall
2002 (Ms. Delivery)
An hour before midnight on October 15, 1890, Chief David Hennessy was fatally wounded as he walked home from New Orleans police headquarters. The bungled attempt to convict his alleged killers disintegrated into the worst mass lynching in American history and the most famous international incident of The Gilded Age.
THE CRESCENT CITY LYNCHINGS recounts of one of the bloodiest and most misreported episodes in U.S. history. As Hennessy lay dying, he murmured that "dagos" had shot him. Because the popular young police chief had intended to testify in a trial involving two rival families of Italian fruit stevedores later that week, he was taken at his word. Mass arrests shook New Orleans' Italian immigrant community. After four months of police and municipal bungling, 19 Italians and Italian-Americans were indicted for the murder. Nine men were tried in "the greatest legal event in New Orleans history." When the jury acquitted six of the defendants and announced mistrials for the remaining three, a mob of 8,000 people led by the city's political and social elite smashed their way into the Parish Prison. Nine of the prisoners were shot. One was hanged from a lamp post, another from a tree. The mob's leaders argued that their actions returned the rule of law to New Orleans.....
Tom Smith, a former New Orleans resident, has been a freelance writer for over twenty years and has contributed to Great American Trials (1993), Great World Trials (1997), and Sex, Sin & Mayhem: Notorious Trials of the 1990s (1995), all from Visible Ink Press. His writing has appeared in such publications as Living Blues, CT Life, and New England's Advocate newspapers. (Proposal and 125,000-word Ms. Available.)
http://www.nepa.com/new.htm#THE%20CRESCENT%20CITY%20LYNCHINGS:%20The%20
Murder%20of%20Chief%20Hennessy%20&%20the%20New%20Orleans%20"Mafia"%20Trials
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