Oct 25, 2026 · 48 min · 22 segments
Something has crept into this feed…For Halloween, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds has slipped through the walls to haunt your feed with an episode just for you. In 1918, a killer began slipping into…
Vanessa RichardsonHostTristin EngelsHostBy the late 1910s, the city had one of the busiest ports in the country, and people were pouring in from all over.
Music filled clubs and dance halls, jazz was just starting to take off, and it was earning a reputation as a place that never slowed down.
World War I was raging overseas, and New Orleans played an important role in military training and shipping.
Then came the pandemic known as the Spanish flu, which swept through the city and made death a frighteningly common part of everyday life.
But beyond those immediate crises, New Orleans remained a major destination for European immigrants looking to build new lives in America, especially Italians.
A lot of them found work selling produce, importing food, running markets, or opening neighborhood grocery stores.
In fact, Italians became so successful in the grocery business that they eventually operated nearly half of the local stores.
Before the turn of the century, 11 Italian men were lynched by a mob who believed they'd murdered the city's police chief.
In the years that followed, Italians continued to be stereotyped as criminals.
Whenever there was violence within the Italian community, outsiders were quick to blame the mafia or extortion schemes.
And by the spring of 1918, that already vulnerable community was about to have something else to fear.
In the early morning hours of May 23rd, 40-year-old Joseph Maggio and his 35-year-old wife, Catherine, were asleep inside the apartment connected to the grocery store they owned a few miles outside the French Quarter.
The intruder made their way to the bedroom and attacked Joseph with an axe, fracturing his skull.
Once they believed the couple was dead, the killer left the weapon in plain sight, a detail that would soon become part of a disturbing pattern.
By the late 1910s, the city had one of the busiest ports in the country, and people were pouring in from all over.
Music filled clubs and dance halls, jazz was just starting to take off, and it was earning a reputation as a place that never slowed down.
World War I was raging overseas, and New Orleans played an important role in military training and shipping.
Then came the pandemic known as the Spanish flu, which swept through the city and made death a frighteningly common part of everyday life.
But beyond those immediate crises, New Orleans remained a major destination for European immigrants looking to build new lives in America, especially Italians.
A lot of them found work selling produce, importing food, running markets, or opening neighborhood grocery stores.
In fact, Italians became so successful in the grocery business that they eventually operated nearly half of the local stores.
Before the turn of the century, 11 Italian men were lynched by a mob who believed they'd murdered the city's police chief.
In the years that followed, Italians continued to be stereotyped as criminals.
Whenever there was violence within the Italian community, outsiders were quick to blame the mafia or extortion schemes.
And by the spring of 1918, that already vulnerable community was about to have something else to fear.
In the early morning hours of May 23rd, 40-year-old Joseph Maggio and his 35-year-old wife, Catherine, were asleep inside the apartment connected to the grocery store they owned a few miles outside the French Quarter.
The intruder made their way to the bedroom and attacked Joseph with an axe, fracturing his skull.
Once they believed the couple was dead, the killer left the weapon in plain sight, a detail that would soon become part of a disturbing pattern.
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