On October 16th, 1890, New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy was shot to death while walking home. His death would spur violence and mass arrests, and suspicion against Italian-American immigrants who seemed to be a part of a sinister criminal conspiracy known as the mafia. His murder would result in a notorious trial, followed by an infamous event of mob justice.
The “Murder at the Regatta” was a story of jealousy, passion, and some say even madness that shocked and fascinated the nation, and changed the very nature of how murder was seen and prosecuted in the United States.