Just the Facts, Ma’am….

May 4, 2018 / Lee Hutch / 1 Comment

Just the facts, ma’am.

Dear Readers,

I am re-listening to the radio version of Dragnet which ran from 1949-1957. Along with Gunsmoke and Tales of the Texas Rangers, it is my favorite OTR program. I picked up something with this listen that I actually missed the first time I listened to it. In the first season, each episode was dedicated to the memory of a fallen officer. Most of them were killed in 40s with a few from the late 30s. I made a point to look up the names on the Officer Down Memorial Page and found out the circumstances. The dedications were to officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty (as opposed to accidental deaths) for the most part.

If you look at every decade from the 1920s through the 2010s, the 40s were the second safest (with only the 50s being safer) while the 20s followed by the 30s were the deadliest. This makes sense, if you know your history. With Prohibition and then the Depression, it was open season for organized crime and consequently open season on law enforcement. During World War Two, with so many people away in the military, law enforcement deaths declined, however, they did tick upwards slightly in 1946 and 1947.

In my own career, I personally knew two officers who were shot and killed in the line of duty, but we tend to think of crime as a recent thing, it seems. The idea that law enforcement deaths were double in the 1920s what they are today is shocking to most people. But crime never takes a holiday, nor did it suddenly emerge in the 1970s. (The third deadliest decade, by the way.) As time permits, I plan on sharing some of the stories of officers who were killed during the 40s, particularly those who were murdered during the War years. So stay tuned for further information.

Hutch

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Murder, Utility Knickers, and the Seamy Side of Wartime England

February 12, 2017 / Lee Hutch / Leave a comment

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Friends,

Arson investigators have a difficult job since the crime in their case, fire, can do a number on your crime scene! (as can the firefighters sometimes) That said, it leaves evidence behind also. You just have to know where to look for it. Fires leave patterns, accelerants leave traces, and people leave clues. This makes a tough task a little easier. Imagine returning to the scene of a murder only to find out that it has been bombed into oblivion. That, Dear Readers, was the task faced by the intrepid Inspectors from Scotland Yard during the Second World War.

Though often we look at times of national catastrophe or struggle as a uniting factor that brings people together, that does not negate the fact that under it all a criminal element still lurks in the shadows. In the case of the blacked out cities of Europe, those shadows grew larger and the hiding places more numerous. Even Berlin, the city at the center of Hitler’s Empire was rocked by a series of bizarre sex murders in 1940 though the government kept it secret as the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) quietly worked the case. In fact, as we will see, secrecy was a big issue in dealing with crimes in wartime.

Sir Robert Peel created the Metropolitan Police in London in 1829 while serving as Home Secretary. This paved the way for the first large professional police force in the world. And, maybe more important, it led to police officers being called “Bobbies” or “Peelers”. In fact, the Irish (my people!) brought the term “Peeler” with them to the United States and it was the first commonly used slang for police officers in eastern cities in the US. Can’t say it is all that popular anymore. I never got called that during my time in law enforcement. But it would have been cool if I had. By the time England declared war on Germany in September 1939, the British police force and the government intelligence branches (MI 5 and 6) were up to the challenge. Just as they had with the Fire Service, the government hired thousands of auxiliary policemen to help fill the spots left open by those who left to enlist in the military. However, the detective inspectors tended to be long term men who knew their way around a crime scene.

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When I was a “peeler”, I worked weekends, holidays, and night because crime doesn’t take a vacation or sleep. Nor does it disappear just because your country is at war. As soon as war was declared, the British police force helped the government in rounding up enemy aliens and people with suspicious loyalties for internment. Some of those interned were British citizens, but that did not stop them, just as it did not stop us from interning Americans citizens with Japanese ancestry. One question that we must consider is why did crime rates in England go up during the war years? I suppose there are a variety of factors. First, large numbers of people are thrown together in stressful circumstances. That is a major part of it. Second, we have the fact that for soldiers and civilians alike in England, death could come on any given night. This can give rise to a certain sense of fatalism and an anything goes attitude. And then you add in the increased opportunity for crime with blackouts and the like. Thus wartime England was not as safe as you might think.

To begin with, the fact that London remained blacked out for much of the war and people spent a lot of time in bomb shelters meant that your everyday burglars had a field day. Rings of mostly youth with a few professionals thrown in, would watch houses after dark. When the air raid sirens went off, they would see if the people left to go to a public shelter. If so, they could break into the house with little fear of detection. As an added plus, if the house was hit by a bomb or incendiary, then it would obliterate the evidence! Perfect! The British government took a dim view of this as they also did looting bombed out homes but with their resources already stretched thin, combating it proved to be a very tough task. Fraud and the black market also consumed resources, but more important than that was the “serious” crimes of rape and yes, even murder.

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Time and space dictate that I can only share a few cases with you. First, we have the Dobkin Case. Apparently Mr. Dobkin got tired of his wife Rachel and decided to kill her. Plenty of murders have their origins here it seems. Anyway, he murdered her and buried her body under the rubble of a bombed out church hoping that if she was discovered, the authorities would write it off as a bombing victim. Almost, Mr. Dobkin. Almost! It took over a year for anyone to discover the body and owing to the fact that she had obviously been dead a while, an autopsy was conducted. During said autopsy, the intrepid pathologist Dr. Simpson discovered that the hyroid bone was fractured, thus indicating Rachel died of strangulation. Oops! And as an added oops, Mr. Dobkin covered her body in lime hoping to speed the decomposition but he used the wrong type! (Builder’s lime rather than quicklime) That may have actually preserved the body better than it would have otherwise been! The jury convicted him in less than a half hour and he was promptly hanged. Makes you wonder if other people tried this very thing and got away with it, doesn’t it?

Though often called a serial killer, our next dealer of death is really more of a spree killer. In serial murders, the killer has a “cooling off” period in between according to the almighty F.B.I. Young Gordon Cummins did not. He went on a six day murder spree earning him the very English name, “The Blackout Ripper”. On February 10, 1942, the body of a 40 year old woman was found in an air raid shelter. She had been strangled and her handbag was stolen. Inspectors and the pathologist surmised that the killer may have been left handed. The next day, a prostitute was found murdered in her apartment. The victim had been strangled, had her throat cut, and had her sexual organs mutilated with a can opener which was left at the scene. The scene was eerily reminiscent of Scotland Yard’s most famous open case, Jack the Ripper, as it looked like one of his crime scenes. Luckily, they were able to get prints off the can opener. The Home Office clamped down on the story as they did not want to spark a panic. However, worse was to come. And quickly.

Gordon Cummins

The next day, yet another prostitute was discovered murdered in her apartment. The scene was one of the most brutal you could encounter back then. She had been strangled with a stocking. The killer took the time to mutilate her with several objects and to violate her body with a candlestick. The next day, he struck again. This time the victim was not a prostitute but a 32 year old married woman. She too was strangled and mutilated. Word reached the press despite the wishes of the Home Office and they dubbed the killer the “Blackout Ripper”. Unlike Jack, this guy wouldn’t quit. He took a day off after his fourth murder and on Valentine’s Day, he struck again. This time his dastardly deeds were interrupted by the arrival of a delivery boy and his victim survived. She reported he was wearing an RAF uniform and when he made his getaway, he left his gas mask and its case behind! Hours later a prostitute reported she had been approached and then attacked by a man in an RAF uniform too. She fought him off and he left his belt behind during his escape.

His gas mask had a serial number and inspectors tracked it to a Gordon Cummins. Upon searching his apartment, they found items belonging to the victims and matched his prints to the one on the can opener. Naturally, he was promptly convicted and even more promptly hanged, during the middle of an air raid, no less! He may have killed other women and there were some within Scotland Yard who believed he did.

Evelyn Oatley, the beautiful second victim.

As much as we would think that hard times bring a country together, as you can see, the worst elements of our society are still very much present for duty also. When the Americans arrived in England, our cousins across the pond liked to blame the presence of our soldiers for the increase in crime. They said at the time that the problem with the Americans was that they were “overpaid, oversexed, and over here!” I doubt that had all that much to do with the increased crime rates though it not doubt added to the rate of unwed pregnancies, after all, some of the English women wore utility knickers. One Yank and they were off! VD rates soared as did prostitution. I’ve seen estimates that one out of every ten American soldiers in Europe during the war contracted some sort of “unwanted guest” but I do not know how accurate those statistics are.

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Hey lady, on a scale of zero to America, how free are you tonight?

As tempting as it is to complain about working conditions, and Lord knows I did enough of that when I was a peeler, at least you don’t have to work whilst bombs fall around you. Air raids tend to make a right cock up of crime scenes. Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about bombs. Rookie patrol officers on the other hand……

My name is Hutch and I am a Half A$$ Historian who never met an English girl wearing utility knickers, unfortunately.

P.S.: For more along these lines, check out Murder on the Home Front by Molly LeFebure and the PBS film by the same name.

Murders in Paradise

February 9, 2017March 10, 2023 / Lee Hutch / Leave a comment

Postwar Los Angeles, where prostitutes and pimps, perverts and panty sniffers mingled with detectives and derelicts, cowboys and conmen. As the city’s population exploded with a postwar housing boom, organized crime exploded as well. Bugsy Siegel set up the Flamingo Hotel where his buddy Mickey Cohen ran a gambling racket. In 1947, the mob had Siegel bumped off after they grew suspicious that Siegel and his insanely attractive, if a little off in head, girlfriend Virginia Hill were skimming money. Someone popped Siegel with an M-1 Carbine through the window. Was it really money? Or did his own girlfriend set him up? We’ll never know. Virginia was found dead in a park in Austria in 1966, an apparent suicide. After Siegel’s death, Cohen grew more influential along with his top lieutenant, bag man, and enforcer Johnny Stompanato. Handsome Johnny went on to date the gorgeous Lana Turner until her thirteen year old daughter stuck a knife in him. A kid punched the ticket of the most dangerous man in town. Officials ruled the death a case of self defense.

Virginia Hill…..femme fatale. In my mind, I picture her as a redhead. Femme fatales always have red hair.

Gangsters imported reefer and H while Hollywood stars basked in the Golden Age of American films. High ranking officials within the city and the police department were on the take as well. LAPD ran a Red Squad to track known and suspected communists as well as protection rackets. High ranking police commanders looked the other way while gangsters slung dope, preferring to target black teenagers and pachucos for drug offenses without targeting the supply side. Who were the good guys? Who were the bad guys? Who knows! Everybody was out to make a quick buck. And there were plenty of opportunities for that in the City of Angels.

There were plenty of opportunities for murder as well. The defense industry in Southern California boomed during the war years and with the end of a shooting war and the beginning of a cold war, it showed no signs of letting up. During the war, single women made their way to the city to work, renting rooms in flophouses, hotels, or private residences. The men came home after 1945 and brought domestic homicide with them. Couples fueled by alcohol battled with fists. Sometimes, the wife ended up dead. Women offed their husbands too, though not as often.. And let’s not forget the murder suicides. The police had little difficulty solving domestic homicides and sent plenty of men to the gas chamber at San Quentin. But was there something else stalking the city? Some diabolical fiend out to torture, murder, and mutilate women? Well, Dear Reader, read on if you dare and then you can tell me.

Ora Murray

On the night of July 26, 1943, Ora Murray, 42, went out dancing with her sister at the Zenda Ballroom. She hooked up with a dapper man who called himself Paul. He offered to drive her around a show her the sights in Hollywood. Orra agreed. Several hours later, a dog owned by a caretaker discovered the partially nude and badly beaten body of a woman on a golf course. It belonged to Ora. Her undergarments had been violently ripped away and the killer removed her dress and then wrapped it around her body. He also placed a white gardenia on her shoulder. Odd, that. Strangulation was the official cause of death. Now this murder took place just outside the city limits and so the Sheriff’s Department handled the investigation, which went nowhere fast. Meanwhile, the bodies continued to stack up.

Georgette Bauerdorf, a life lost too soon.

She was young, rich, beautiful, and, on Oct. 11, 1944, very, very dead. That night, Georgette finished her shift as a hostess at the Hollywood Canteen where she danced with servicemen. When she drove away in a Pontiac Coupe, it was to her own rendezvous with death. At 11:00 am the next morning, a maid found her body floating in the bathtub with the water still running. She wore the top part of a pajama set, indicating that she returned home unmolested and prepared for bed. Her badly bruised knuckles and scratches on her bare thighs told detectives that she did no go gently into that good night. The police believed she returned home, ate a snack, and was attacked by a person whom she may have known. They further postulated said person might have been lying in wait. A neighbor said they heard her yell “Stop! You’re killing me!” around 2:30 am but they ignored her cries as they assumed it was a simple domestic dispute. (Other than the “You’re killing me part, I guess.) Though the killer beat Georgette and put her face down in the bathtub, the police found a bandage shoved down her throat which caused her to asphyxiate. The killer drove off in her car which was found abandoned later, gas tank empty. The case went cold and investigators never found her killer.

Elizabeth Short. The Black Dahlia.

The Crime Scene.

She is perhaps the most famous dead girl in American History, a young woman drawn to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood with dreams of becoming an actress. But like so many would be stars, reality soon set in. Her mutilated and bisected corpse was found in a vacant lot on 49th and Norton in Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Elizabeth Short was only 22 when she died. Journalists dubbed her The Black Dahlia, and her murder has inspired much speculation in the decades which followed. I’m not an expert on her murder, though I’ve read widely about it. There are numerous suspects, though none were ever charged. What the person or persons responsible for her death did almost defies even the most diabolical minds. They kept her alive for a short period of time. Bound, tortured, forced to eat feces, the official cause of death was determined to be bleeding from multiple deep lacerations to the face coupled with shock from repeated blows to the head. It is the most heinous of crimes, and Elizabeth Short never got the justice she deserved.

Jeanne French.

Not even a month after Elizabeth Short died, another woman, Jeanne French, met her death at the hands of a fiendish killer. She was 45 years old, a nurse, a pilot, and the former wife of a rich Texan in the oil business. A construction worker on the morning of February 10th saw what he thought was a pile of women’s clothes. He walked over to investigate and saw a fur coat. When he lifted it, the man received quite a shock. Underneath the coat was the brutally beaten, nude body of Jeanne French. The killer struck her in the head with a blunt instrument, perhaps a socket wrench, and the proceeded to beat and stomp her to death. The blow to the head didn’t killer her. Internal bleeding from her fractured ribs did. It took her a long time to slowly bleed to death. The coroner believed she was probably unconscious after the blow the head, a small mercy for sure. The killer then removed red lipstick from her purse and wrote “Fuck You, BD” (or maybe PD) on her body. She’d had a fight with her estranged husband the night before her death, but his whereabouts at the time of the murder were attested to. Jeanne was last seen alive at a club in the company of a “swarthy” man. They left together. But this, as the others, went cold. Police rounded up the usual suspects, but came away with nothing.

From the file labeled weird comes the strange case of the murder of 15 year old Lillian Dominguez. On the night of October 2, 1947, young Lillian attended a school dance. When it ended, she set out for home with her sister and a female friend. As they passed the intersection of 17th Street and Michigan Avenue in Santa Monica, the trio crossed paths with a man who walked by them in the darkness. They walked a few feet and Lillian told her sister “That man touched me.” A few steps later she yelled “I can’t see!” and promptly collapsed and died on the pavement. The cause of death? Stabbing. The killer stabbed her straight in the heart with either a stiletto knife or maybe an ice pick. Though she had two companions with her, they were unable to give any description to the police other than the fact that the killer had been male.

Death prowled these streets.

And there were others. Too many to give full attention to, as they deserve. Evelyn Winters, 42, found nude, beaten and strangled to death in March of 1947. Laura Telestad, 37, found nude and strangled with a strip of cloth. Body dumped in a vacant lot. Rosenda Mondragon, 20, found nude, tortured and strangled. Body dumped a mile from where Evelyn Winters’ body was discovered. Gladys Kern, 50, a real estate agent found dead in a house she was scheduled to show in 1948. Beaten and stomped to death. Louise Springer, kidnapped in her car. Found beaten, strangled, sexually assaulted and sodomized with a tree branch. Jean Spangler, 27, had been a roommate of Elizabeth Short. Jean disappeared and her body was never found.

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Was Los Angeles in the grips of a fiendish serial killer? The short answer is maybe. I’m not an expert in homicide. When I was a detective, arson was my specialty, but I’ve received training in homicide investigations and have worked arson-homicides, so I know a thing or two, but Freud I ain’t. The manner and method of some of these cases would indicate that the police may have had one assailant on some of them. But others don’t really fit given the age or manner of death of the victim. I do think we can say with some certainty that some of these cases were the work of one person. Murders are not new. Crime is not new.

If anything, the study of history teaches us that f—-d up people have been around forever. Serial murder is not a recent phenomenon, nor are sexual homicides. Though we look back with a bit of nostalgia, the truth is Los Angeles was trapped in its own true life noir tale in the 1940s. With the police and city administration on the take, evidence could be made to disappear (as happened with the evidence associated with the Dahlia case). Cases could be penned on a minority to protect a well connected individual. Though the police were able to do more forensically at the time than you might think, it wasn’t enough. Given the time that has passed, these women will never get justice. Their killers got away with it. And that, Dear Readers, is a tragedy.

L.H.

P.S. – For a fun glimpse at post-war Los Angeles, check out my favorite PlayStation game L.A. Noire. It’s available on the PS3 and PS4. Seriously, I play the shit out of it. If I could live inside a video game, it would be either L.A. Noire or Red Dead Redemption 2 (and maybe the first one too).

P.P.S. or P.S.S. – The best serial killer name of all time is the Servant Girl Annihilator who terrorized Austin, Texas in the mid 1880s. Talk about keeping Austin weird…

Beware the Axeman! A Diabolical Fiend Ushers in Jazz Age New Orleans

January 10, 2017October 11, 2018 / Lee Hutch / Leave a comment

Friends,

Americans are drawn to crime like moths to a flame. Whole societies obsess over serial killers and unsolved murders. We even have serial killer “groupies”. (Yes, I’ve met a few.) As much as we are repulsed by seemingly random acts of violence, we are fascinated by it as well. I don’t know why this is. Perhaps humans all have voyeuristic tendencies? Crime interests people. I learned early on in my public safety career to never tell strangers what I did for a living. They would immediately ask “What is the worst thing you’ve ever seen.” This is akin to making me relive your worst nightmare. So never ask that question!

If you look through newspapers and other means of popular culture from yesteryear, one thing you will notice is that crimes fascinated people 100 years ago just as they do today. Just as crimes like the O.J. Simpson case and little ole Casey Anthony draw huge media attention and consequently captivate American audiences, so too did the Mary Rodgers case from the 1840s, the Lindbergh Case from the 1930s, and the list goes on and on. We have a mistaken belief, it seems, that back in “the good old days” one needn’t fear being murdered or assaulted. Everyone went to church all the time and did nothing but good deeds. That, my Dear Readers, is a load of bullsh!t. People were just as…….fudged…….up back in the day as they are now. Human nature hasn’t changed.

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So let us now turn our attention to New Orleans, Louisiana. The year is 1918. The month is May. In France, thousands of US soldiers are pouring into the country every day to bolster British and French troops. Soon they will help thwart Germany’s last attempt to win the war. Congress passes the Sedition Act which, among other things, makes it illegal to criticize the war effort. New influenza cases continue to pop up, the first of a deadly pandemic that will eventually kill millions. New Orleans is a city in transition. Once the home of Storyville, a thriving redlight district among the most notorious (and profitable) in the world, the city is now dealing with the after effects of its closure. The US Military considered it a bad influence on soldiers and thus pressured the city into shutting down what residents called “The District”. The mayor of New Orleans, Martin Berhman, said “You can make it [prostitution] illegal. You can’t make it unpopular.” True enough. Now The District is home to restaurants and jazz clubs, more music than sex. And of course, it being Louisiana and all, The District was also home to numerous low gambling dives.

On the night of May 22nd, 1918, a foul villain entered the home of a married couple, both Italian immigrants, named Joseph and Catherine Maggio. The two were attacked in their beds in the most horrendous of ways. The assailant slit their throats with a straight razor. The damage done to Mrs. Maggio was so severe that her head was almost completely severed. When finished with his heinous task, our killer then bashed them repeatedly in the head with an ax. Mercifully, Catherine expired quickly, as far as the police could tell but Joseph was still among the living when he was discovered by his brothers. One of the brothers, Andrew, quickly became the prime suspect as the razor blade was found to belong to him. He owned a nearby barber shop and an employee reported seeing him remove the blade. Plus, despite the killer smashing down a door, Andrew claimed to hear nothing of the attack itself and was only awakened by strange gurgling noises coming from the bedroom of our victims. Not a thing was found missing from the home, thus the motive had to be murder. Murder most foul! Young Andrew said he arrived home in a highly intoxicated state due to his imminent departure to join the Navy. Having once been a young college student myself, I can sympathize with his “state” on the night of the attacks!

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Dear Readers, if I may impart a bit of wisdom to you, it is generally not a good idea for married people to have affairs. If you have ever watched a Lifetime Movie, you will know what I speak is true. One month after the murder of the Maggios, our fiend struck again. A “gentleman” named Louis Besumer was attacked whilst in bed with his mistress, a woman named Harriet Lowe. They were discovered the following morning when a grocer arrived with a delivery. Both were unconscious but still alive, bleeding from wounds to the head. The police managed to revive them long enough to get statements. According to Besumer, they were “asleep” when they were attacked. Perhaps. Or perhaps they were caught in, shall we say, the act. Lowe stated that a mulatto man attacked them but given the injuries that she had suffered and the fact that the attack took place in the dark, her statement is questionable. However, our esteemed NOPD considered it good enough to arrest the first available black man, who happened to have been previously in the employ of Besumer. And now things take a turn for the strange. Ms. Lowe at first claimed to be the wife of Mr. Besumer but this fact did not stand up to careful scrutiny. Though she slipped in and out of consciousness over the next few months, the police were able to speak with her numerous times. Before she died, she declared that Besumer himself was the killer! Given the fact that the murder weapon did belong to him, the police charged him with the deed. He was found not guilty after a jury deliberated for ten minutes! Her veracity was no doubt challenged due to the fact that she also accused Besumer of being a German spy. This was also not proven, of course. Chiefly because it probably wasn’t true. Hopefully none of you have ever had a jealous partner accuse you of being a serial killer!

Our fiend then took a break. But only for a short while. On August 5th, Mrs. Schneider opened her eyes and found a man hovering over her in the dark. As she no doubt adjusted to the shock, he began to smash her in the face. The victim was discovered when her husband arrived home from work after midnight. The police surmised that a lamp was the weapon here, not an axe, which may be the reason why Mrs. Schneider survived. In a shocking twist, our victim was eight months pregnant at the time! She gave birth two days later to a healthy child. Mrs. Schneider was not able to tell the police anything of use regarding the attack. So the police arrested another handy subject only to have to release him a short time later!

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Naturally by this point the media was having a field day with their coverage of the series of baffling and seemingly random attacks. And our villain was about to escalate his behavior. Five days after Mrs. Schneider met the Axeman, he struck again. This time his victim was an elderly man named Joseph Romano. Hearing a commotion, his two nieces entered the room and saw our fiend as he made his escape. They described him as a dark-skinned, heavy man, wearing a dark suit and a slouch hat. (At least he had style!) Sadly, Mr. Romano left this world a few days later due to the severe head trauma he sustained in this latest bloodbath. And now, Dear Readers, panic gripped the city. People called the police to report shadowy men hiding behind every lamppost. Some reported finding axes left in their backyards! A retired detective stated that he felt these murders were connected to others which had happened in 1911. That did nothing to quell public fears. He hypothesized that our fiendish killer may have be a Jeckyl and Hyde wherein he would appear outwardly normal until moved to kill. This, of course, caused people to look very carefully at their neighbors. Is your neighbor just odd or are they a killer?

After the murder of Mr. Romano, the Axeman took a break. Or did he? It is possible that he moved on to other areas for a while to help avoid detection. Perhaps Baton Rouge or Mobile appealed to him and he visited for a while. With his axe. The city breathed a sigh of relief as it looked as though our fiend was finished with the Big Easy. But no. He had other plans for New Orleans. On the night of March 10th, Across the river from New Orleans lies the town of Gretna. That dark night neighbors awoke to screams coming from a house. They ran over to investigate and found a tragic scene. A husband and wife had been attacked while in their beds. The mother held a two year old girl in her arms who was sadly deceased, killed by a blow to the neck. The parents would survive. Mrs. Cortmiglia accused a local man and his son of attacking her family. Her husband denied this most strongly. The accused man was in too poor a physical condition to have done it. His son was too big to have crawled through the missing door panel whereby the killer gained access. None of this concerned the police. Both were arrested and convicted. The 18 year old son was sentenced to swing from the gallows while his father received a life term. After the trial, Mr. Cortmiglia divorced his wife, no doubt angry that she falsely accused two men of murder. A year later, she recounted her story and the two men were released. But an innocent man very nearly went to the gallows for a crime he did not commit.

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Our Axeman had a sense of humor. Three nights after the attack on the Cortmiglia family, he sent a letter to the newspapers. “From Hell” it said, no doubt a tip of the slouch hat to Jack the Ripper! I will now give you a brief quote:

Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. If I wished, I could pay a visit to your city every night. At will I could slay thousands of your best citizens, for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death.

Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you people. Here it is:

I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.

Well, as I am cold and crave the warmth of my native Tartarus and it is about time I leave your earthly home, I will cease my discourse. Hoping that thou wilt publish this, that it may go well with thee, I have been, am and will be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or realm of fancy.

The Axeman

Needless to say, Dear Readers, the citizens of New Orleans certainly did jazz it up that night. The Axeman was true to his word. Nary a murder was committed. No one got the ax. He took another break from axing the citizens of New Orleans, only to strike again on August 10th. Our victim survived, but was unable to give any information about the attacker. Six weeks later, a 19 year old woman who lived alone was brutally attacked whilst in her bed. Neighbors found her in a pool of her own blood, sans several teeth, with a nasty head wound. Alas, an ax was found in her front yard. Thankfully young Miss Laumann did not succumb to her wounds, but the police received no additional information as she was unable to recall the details of the dastardly attack. After another long pause, the killer struck for the last time (that we know of) on October 27th when he murdered Mr. Pepitone in the usual brutal fashion. Sadly, the victims wife who interrupted the killer in the midst of his foul deed could not give a good description to the police.

And so the Axeman faded into history and memory, though he is not well known outside of New Orleans, at least until he showed up as a character in a season of American Horror Story. The police never had much to go on. But the larger lesson here is that the good people of New Orleans refused to bow down to him, even when he was in the midst of his brutal spree. Indeed, a musician even penned a special song for him called “The Axeman’s Jazz (Don’t Scare Me Poppa). It was published in the months when the Dastardly Villian held sway over the birthplace of jazz. You can listen to one version of it here. Did the Axeman die? Was he arrested for another crime? Or did he simply take his horror show on the road? We’ll never know.

Hutch

Sleeping With the Enemy: Or Beware the Honey Trap!

January 7, 2017February 12, 2017 / Lee Hutch / 2 Comments

Anya Chapman, Russian Spy Redhead + Foreign Accent = Me Spilling the Beans

This post is rated PG-13 for Adult Situations and Sophomoric Humor.

Friends,

Let me start off by saying that the title of my post has nothing to do with the fact that I am a Southern boy married to a Yankee. Second, be warned that adult situations and the occasional juvenile humor will follow. For those with delicate ears, or actually eyes, maybe you should go visit the Disney website. I’m sure they have something that will be suit your needs. Though from what I’ve heard, some folks say they drop some pretty perverted images in their movies. History, when studied as it should be, is raw, vile, obscene, heroic, cowardly, and sometimes, yes, perverted. If we try to censor the more salacious bits from the narrative then we do a great disservice to the study of the past. History can be offensive and if you have any sense of decency then parts of it should be offensive. Luckily I am not a historian. I am merely a Half-A$$ Historian which means that I can tell lurid tales all day if I want. Today is one of those days. Actually, I just want to see how many hits a post will get by having a hot redheaded Russian lady as the lead picture. I jest, but only partially.

My inspiration for this post came when I stumbled across this article from across the pond. British government and military employees were being warned to be wary of the honey trap. This term can mean a couple of different things. One definition actual does involve bees and honey. The hip hop definition of a honey trap is a woman who is employed by another woman to test the loyalty of said woman’s boyfriend. The honey trap approaches and flirts with him to see if he responds, then reports back to his girlfriend. I have never fallen victim to this kind of honey trap. But only because no girlfriend of mine has ever employed one. Now I am married to a redhead who would neuter me with a rusty spoon if said honey trap were to approach me, so I guess I’m safe. The third type of honey trap is the one which will command our attention today. This involves a female agent provocateur approaching a man, usually a military or government person, and getting “friendly” with him. She then gains access to his home or apartment, his car, cell phone, etc. Said femme fatale then either gets him to divulge sensitive information or snoops around and finds it on her own. If you have watched a single James Bond film, I think you understand this concept pretty well. Advertisers say that sex sells. I believe everything I see on TV, so I guess perhaps it does. But sex is supposed to be fun. Not a weapon. Right? Wrong!

The Honey Trap (also known as Honeypot) is as old as mankind, which we shall see later. It really became widespread during the good old days of the Cold War. The KGB and the Stasi (East German) were really, really good at setting honey traps. In fact, there was a KGB school just for female agents to train them in these…….techniques. Now to be fair, the Western Allies including the US no doubt did the same but not on as wide a scale. Incidentally, the KGB code word for a honeypot was……wait for it….. “swallow”. The KGB also used male agents as honeytraps to use on men who might be susceptible to that. They called them “fruit flies”. While most reports of honey trap/pot operations read like dime store novels with steamy rendezvous in hotel rooms, automobiles, or desk tops, it is an effective intelligence weapon. Deception and Intelligence are an important part of warfare and have been for as long as we have made organized war on our fellow man. Sometimes we get it right. Other times we get it wrong. But when intelligence fails, it is often in a spectacular way. (Think 9/11) Since this is a history blog, I shall now give you some famous honey traps/pots from history!

The First Redheaded Temptress!

1. Eve

Yes, the very first woman was a honey trap. Think about it. God said don’t eat the apple. Eve ate the apple. Then she “convinced” Adam to eat it. Do you really think she just handed Adam the apple and said “Here, first guy, eat this apple that God said not to eat. It will be fun.” I rather doubt it happened that way, assuming it happened, of course. I’m pretty sure she promised him something in return and the author of Genesis wisely left that out lest thousands of years of children in Sunday School learned about sex. (Not counting those, like me, who got in trouble for giggling whilst reading Song of Solomon during the service.) Also notice the color of Eve’s hair? In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church often portrayed Eve as having been a redhead. If you’d like, check out my other post on famous redheads here. I guess that belief is why they considered red hair to be the Mark of the Devil and persecuted redheads for being witches. As I am married to one (a redhead, not a witch), I’m 50/50 on the whole Mark of the Devil thing.

Hey there Delilah, what’s it like in the Valley of Sorek?

2. Deliliah

And you thought the Bible was just boring old religious stuff! Not so! The KGB probably used it as a honey trap instruction manual. So there was a guy named Samson who had a lot of strength because he never cut his hair. After smoting Philistines hip and thigh, he met a young lady in the Valley of Sorek named Delilah. I’m sure he walked up to her and said “Hey There Delilah” (sorry, couldn’t resist!). Anyway, after much back and forth, she “convinced” him to tell her what the secret of his strength was. She did and so while he was sleeping (probably worn out after the “convincing”), Philistines entered the room and cut off his hair. I guess he must have been a heavy sleeper. Anyway, I vaguely remember them blinding him but then he knocked down a temple or something. Guess I should have been paying more attention in church and not reading Song of Solomon. And notice that she too has red hair! I’m telling you, men couldn’t even resist redheads in the Bible!

How lewd!

3. Mata Hari

And now we take a great leap into the 20th Century with the Dutch born circus rider turned exotic dancer turned spy, Mata Hari. She was quite the popular dancer in gay ole Paree prior to the start of the First World War. When it did start, she made use of her status as a citizen of a neutral country to travel freely. It is not really known how involved she was in all of the intelligence operations prior to her capture. She did tell British Authorities that she was working for the French after they took her in for questioning. A few weeks before sending the Zimmerman Telegram, the Germans sent another one in which they named Mata Hari as one of their agents. She was “particularly” helpful. Mmmmhmmmm. I’m sure she was! Alas it was intercepted by the French and she was promptly arrested and charged with that most serious of charges, espionage. They didn’t really have much evidence, but she was convicted nonetheless. A short time later she was executed by firing squad. Hey, it beats getting impaled or burned at the stake, right? Decades later, German documents would be declassified and show that the French were right in their assessment. She was a spy. That said, they did not have the evidence at the time they convicted and executed her. But then again, they were French!

Queen of denial.

4. Cleopatra

While perhaps not a true “honey tap/pot”, Cleopatra certainly used her considerable “talents” to get what she wanted from both Caesar and Mark Antony. In order to meet Caesar and entice him to help her in her struggle for control of Egypt, she had herself smuggled into his room rolled up inside of a carpet! He unrolled the carpet and there she was! What a nice surprise. Caesar was obviously impressed. So impressed that he took her home with him and put her up in a nice villa in the countryside. He carried on a protracted affair with her despite having a wife at home. If you’d like an added creepy factor, she was 21 and he was 52! When Caesar had a bad day at the Senate Forum, she returned home to Egypt. But later during the Roman Civil War (one of many), she also “impressed” Mark Antony! Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your…….. She “convinced” him to have her sister killed. Long story short, her misdeeds came back to haunt her. Legend has it that she committed suicide by getting a poisonous snake to bite her. Not my choice for a way to go, but then again, the legend is probably false.

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“Hello comrade!”

5. Anya Chapman

She is the beautiful young lady picture on the Maxim cover above. Now, given her recent activities, I won’t go into much detail since it was on the news several years ago. But I will give you some links. Here is a great British article called How to Set a Honey Trap. It was alleged by the British that she may have been close to luring one of Obama’s cabinet members, but we don’t know who. Upon her return to Russia, Putin was alleged to have had an affair with her. If so, I’d like to shake his hand. But that’s probably not true. Still, the story of her spy ring which operated in the United States and the UK is very interesting. It’s something you’d expect in 1985, not 2009.

So see, Dear Readers, the use of sex as an intelligence weapon is nothing new. They did it in the Bible! Does the GRU, SVR, and FSB still employ honey traps? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that. There is a lesson to be learned from this. If you are a man who has a Top Secret/SCI Security Clearance or you are a prominent business executive and you look like Elmer Fudd, beware the hot lady with a foreign accent. She is not after you because she has a cartoon character fetish. In other words:

trap

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Half A$$ Historian who is convinced, given my wife’s red hair and attractive looks, that she is nothing more than a German Honey Trap. Or a Prussian Drillmaster. One or the other.

“You vill tell me ze secrets, ja?”

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