The French Market in New Orleans

America's First Mafia War

New Orleans, 1868-1872

Discouraged by the loss of their leader and faced with a highly organized, well funded and rapidly growing opponent, a number of Agnello’s loyal followers fled New Orleans. Some others joined with the Stuppagghieri. A few stubbornly resisted the new order in the underworld. The Matranga group showed no mercy toward its rivals and incorporated the murder of Stuppagghieri enemies into the requirements for membership in the group.

Joseph “Peppino” Agnello sparked a brief resurgence of the Palermitani, which allowed him to witness the destruction of two of his brother’s enemies. He and Salvador Rosa cornered Joseph Banano and Pedro Allucho near the French Market on the morning of July 22nd, 1869, and did them up.

However, the tide was against the old-line Palermitani. Agnello ally Rosa was jailed briefly at Orleans Parish Prison following the Banano and Allucho murders and then died of a mysterious illness. Some suspected that Rosa had been poisoned. Another key Agnello associate, Salvador Honorata, was shot dead near the French Market a year later.

Agnello managed to escape injury in an assassination attempt at Lafayette Square in spring of 1869. His luck got progressively worse after that. The following May, he suffered a deep stab wound to the chest during a confused scuffle in downtown Faubourg Marigny where Louisa Street meets the river. He recovered from that injury in time to have a rifle slug rip through his chest and left arm on Dryades Street on September 13th, 1871. Doctors believed the wounds to be mortal, and Agnello’s loved ones prayed around his bedside for days as he coughed up blood. But it was not yet Agnello’s time. The gang leader regained his health once again.

In April 1872, Joseph Agnello appeared ready for a cease fire. He met with a Messinian gunman, Joseph Maressa (also known as Vincent Orsica), behind the French Market on April 19th. The meeting went badly and the men separated angrily. At dawn the next day, witnesses spotted Agnello and Maressa wrestling on the Picayune Pier. (Many Sicilian luggers and other vessels docked at the pier, which was located at the center of the French Quarter riverfront.)

Picayune Pier

Agnello broke free of Maressa and lunged toward the moored schooner Mischief. Three men rushed to Maressa’s side, drew shotguns and fired at the fleeing gang leader. Upon reaching the Mischief, Agnello drew a long-barreled pistol and returned fire. A customs inspector named Joseph Simon Soudé, fifty one years old and just married the previous summer, got caught in the crossfire and suffered a mortal wound. A boy, Edward Nixon was also struck by the flying lead. His injury was superficial.

Maressa, wielding a powerful horse-pistol, ran to the Mischief and fired at the center of Agnello’s chest. A large slug passed through the target’s heart and tore a gaping hole in his back. Agnello dropped momentarily to the schooner’s deck but then arose and took two steps toward his attackers. But even Joseph Agnello’s amazing constitution was no match for this final injury. He collapsed dead onto the Mischief as police arrived and placed four Sicilian gunmen under arrest. Joseph Florada, the suspected assassin of Raffaele Agnello, was among the accused.

After Peppino Agnello was proved mortal, the rest of his faction scattered. Sacarro and his young family fled to Texas, settling in the Dallas area. Alphonse Mateo, his wife and his daughter disappeared from New Orleans.

Little Sicily’s merchants generally sought security arrangements from the new Stuppagghieri. The lives of those who did not seek such arrangements became less rewarding and more perilous with the passage of time. Important business contracts were canceled suddenly and without explanation. Homes and businesses were repeatedly ransacked. Family members were threatened or kidnapped.

The most obstinate merchants saw their places of business suddenly and inexplicably burst into flames. After such a warning, only a few continued to resist the might of the Stuppagghieri. When some of their mutilated remains turned up in New Orleans canals and drainage ditches, the rest fell in line.

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