Dave did an amazing job. It was meant to be a life sentenceand at hard labor in Angola prison, which often didn't mean a very long onebut Henry toughed it out and was released after 20 years. The Historic New Orleans Collections Williams Research Center. Nevertheless, the "Trunk Murders" stood out as an exceptional case of violence that rattled and captivated the city. Hitmans rap sheet only scratches the surface. Stop At: Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. The money,. From there he caught the Illinois Central Panama Limited en route to Chicago. indicated that it had been skillfully removed Before coming to New Orleans, Henry had worked as a butchers assistant in New Iberia. Ill make him look like something thats been run through a sausage mill. On a Thursday, October 27, 1927, Housekeeper Nettie Compass entered the second-floor apartment at 715 Ursulines Street in New Orleans and stepped into a pool of blood. Headlined Bodies Found in Trunks, it tells the ghastly end of Theresa and Leonide Lonie Moity. He also resented his sister-in-law, Leonide, calling her a negative influence on his wife. Once the police arrived, they found the dismembered bodies of Leonide Moity and her sister-in-law, Theresa Moity, stuffed into trunks in the . Nettie testified she remembered Henry pulling her aside and whispering not to be scared if she heard the children crying in the early morning. Back in prison, he died in 1957 of a stroke, ending the story of the New Orleans Trunk murders. In his confession to the District Attorney, Henry admits that he considered killing himself and the children, but changed his mind when he imagined his wife running around with Joe Caruso and the rest of them., A newspaper report of the crime at 715UrsulinesAvenue. CONTACT US After determining that Henry had headed to a Camp Street boarding house, where he planned a getaway by ship, Superintendent Healy radioed the seven ships sailing out of New Orleans that day to be on the lookout. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Learn history of a murder and see the spot where they made their plans. This is our very first virtual live show from July 23, 2020 held at AS220 in Providence RI. In a closet, police found two small traveling trunks packed with the expertly butchered corpses of two young women. This unusual method of stowing the bodies is where the story gets its name. The so-called 'Porthole murder' and subsequent prosecution of steward James Camb infuriated the nation in 1947. From the time the Moitys moved in, Theresa and Caruso were pretty thick, Henry claimed in his confession to the District Attorney. Listen to this episode from Infamous America on Spotify. Both couples and their young children lived in the small apartment. It might have been the height of Prohibition, but liquor was never hard to find in New Orleans. The afternoon before the murders, he told the housekeeper, Nettie Compassthe woman who later discovered the victimsthat he should take a pistol and shoot both of those basterds [sic]. Later that evening, Nettie said she saw Henry, Theresa, Leonide, and the children leave the apartment in good spirits. The first step for the investigators was to question the womens husbands. Although it doesn't rank with the infamous trunk murders of Brighton, New Orleans and Winnie Ruth Judd, Vancouver does have its own sort-of 'trunk murder.' This bizarre case, which first broke the news with garish, glaring headlines in the July 12, 1969 Vancouver Sun B.C. When the coroner and Healys female colleague, Gwen, arrived. Her cautionary tale, presented as a personal letter, speaks of finding joy again after a failed marriage. This was the last of 3 walking tours, hands down Dave was the best. Upon. Two years later, a police officer in St. Louis, Missouri, stopped the escaped convict for suspicious behavior. It being a difficult trade, his wife had become a crone before her time, and Hans' eye was turned by a young girl. He was given two consecutive life sentences. There was a travel trunk on the floor and inside were the severed arms, legs, head, and torso of Theresa. An enraged Henry began drinking, interrupting his bender to purchase the murder weapon. Less than a decade after his pardoning, he shot his then-girlfriend and was sentenced to another 5 years in prison for attempted murder. Layer by Layer: A Mexico City Culinary Adventure, Sacred Granaries, Kasbahs and Feasts in Morocco, Monster of the Month: The Hopkinsville Goblins, Get Real: Defining Reality With Ashley Christine, How to Grow a Dye Garden With Aaron Sanders Head, Paper Botanicals With Kate Croghan Alarcn, Writing the Food Memoir: A Workshop With Gina Rae La Cerva, Reading the Urban Landscape With Annie Novak, Secret Nun Cookies at Monasterio del Corpus Christi, How a Lone Researcher Faced Down Millions of Army Ants on the March in Ecuador, The Hunt for an Elusive Florida Shipwreck That Killed 41 Enslaved People, Puzzle Monday: Golf, Only Slightly Abstracted. According to the nonpartisan watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, the city recorded 280 murders in New Orleans in 2022, the highest number of killings in a single year since 1996. The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. (Photo: Lauren George). The property is shown in this 1960s photograph. A natural story teller he portrayed his stories well. NEW ORLEANS | "The Trunk Murders" from Infamous America on Podchaser, aired Wednesday, 24th August 2022. This isn't emphasized so much in the New Orleans papers, because, frankly, the city had respectfully declined to participate in Prohibition. What To Expect Additional Info Confirmation will be received at time of booking Wheelchair accessible Minimum age is 16 years Near public transportation His early release turned out to be a terrible mistake that nearly cost another young woman her life. When he admitted his identity, he was returned to prison in Louisiana. Writing the Food Memoir: A Workshop With Gina Rae La Cerva. Shrieking, he fled from the place.". The Times-Picayune published portions of the story in a short article about the personal effects left behind by the women. Inside, the police found the various rooms of the small apartment to be spattered with gorethe mattress in the bedroom was soaked in blood, the bathroom cabinet dripping with it, and amongst some discarded clothing, several severed fingers. He was sentenced to five years at Folsom Prison for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Texarkana Moonlight Murders & The New Orleans Trunk Murders Morbid Jul 25 2020 1 hr 27 mins Looks at this! Buried in a deep gash on one of the victims backs, the coroner found a gold wedding band. Joseph told police he had recently moved in with his sister after catching Leonide with another man. The married Caruso operated a real estate office from the ground floor of 715 Ursulines. There was no place like New Orleans in the Roaring 20s. Joseph also told the police that he was sure that it was his brother Henry who committed the murders. The quotes tell you everything you need to know about the feelings about 'modern women.'. He also believed that Leonide had been a negative influence on his wife so he killed her as well. Joseph said Henry fled to a Camp Street boarding house and planned to board a ship soon. Before the womens dispatch and disassembly, there were whispers of their familiarity with men other than their husbands. She was supposed to be cleaning the home of the two Moity women and their husbands, Henry and Joseph Moity, but instead she stumbled into a horrible crime scene. Two couples had serious marital problems, and a few days before Halloween in 1927, the home became the site of an infamous crime The only window into the womens interior lives is preserved in a story written by Leonide. The sisters married brothers Henry and Joseph Moity, the New Orleans Police Departments prime suspects in the case. He started seeing his wife coming out of the sausage grinder, and after a customer reported to the police they'd found a bit of wedding ring in their dinner, Hans was carted off to an insane asylum to live out the rest of his life. It was a cautionary tale warning women against marriage, making analogies to a prison or a life sentence. Yet violent crime continued to soar across . If only that woman would've appreciated what she had, all this ugliness could've been avoided. The superintendent of the prison was not all concerned because he thought Henry would come back since there was a chance he was going to have his sentence reduced because he was drunk at the time of the incident. Be careful. We just did the ghost tour with Jonathan, and he was wonderful! But all was not well in an apartment near the French Quarter. (Photo: Lauren George), On Wednesday October 26, things had come to a head in the Moity household when Theresa and Leonide revealed their plans to move out. PATREON: www.patreon.com/exploreoregonINSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/pdxfilmexplorerFACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/exploringportlandTIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@theamateurhistorianREDDIT SUBREDDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/the_amateur_historian/ WORDPRESS BLOG: https://stevetheamateurhistorian.wordpress.comIn the iconic French Quarter of New Orleans there stands, still today, a rather modest two-story residence along Ursuline Street. Upon the gruesome discovery of the two murdered women, New Orleans Superintendent of Police Thomas Healey set about locating the husbands. The New Orleans Murder Block. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. "We're taking . Back in the 1920s, a pair of horrific murders took place on the 700 block of Ursulines Avenue in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Any required or suggested items listed on your confirmation email. It's hard to not take away the sexism and worry about feminism underlying it all. The story goes that Hans Muller killed his wife, and, to hide his crime, made sausages out of her body and served them out of his butcher shop for weeksonly to be found out after a customer bit into a piece of Mrs. Mullers wedding ring. Lyle Saxon, renowned author and collector of Louisiana folklore, included a very short piece about Hans Muller in Gumbo YaYa, telling of how he and his (unnamed) wife ran a successful sausage business. Henry scooped up his kids, hailed a cab and dropped them with his sister without a word about what had happened. It is not often that we bring heavily covered cases to the podcast but even if you have heard this ca. Despite his two-year sojourn, the Louisiana Pardon Board recommended his release in 1947. The money, the booze, and the passions flowed freely. On the afternoon of Thursday, October 27, 1927, Nettie Compass entered the second-floor apartment at 715 Ursulines Street to do some cleaning. ST39306. Henry began his sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiary on July 6, 1928. Though the legacy of Henrys crime may persist in another local legend: the Sausage Ghost. Recounted in the 1945 Louisiana folklore collection, Gumbo Ya-Ya, the tale tells of a woman murdered by her butcher husband and turned intoyou guessed itsausages, to be sold to unsuspecting customers on Ursulines Avenue. He attempted to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, largely leaning on the idea that the two things that drove him to kill were whiskey and the cruelty of his wife. Murder in New Orleans: The Creation of Jim Crow Policing by Jeffrey S. Adler, True Crime Storytime Volume 1: 12 Disturbing True Crime Stories to Keep You Up All Night by True Crime Seven, M. Moore, https://bayoujustice.com/2022/06/new-orleans-infamous-trunk-murders-revisited/, https://www.hnoc.org/publications/first-draft/amid-roaring-twenties-new-orleans-brutal-french-quarter-murder-shocked-city, https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-gruesome-case-of-the-1927-new-orleans-trunk-murders-9265686efced, https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/leonide-lonie-lee-24-6psjh5, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18410325/person/968198839/story, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18410325/person/968199470/story, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18410325/person/19772034862/story, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18410325/person/19768989342/story, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18410325/person/19772375006/story, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18410325/person/853927401/story, https://www.nydailynews.com/true-crime-justice-story/ny-justice-story-headless-wives-20200426-aexdupfh4fffvcqkxcswdu6tvi-story.html, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-trunk-murders-and-sausage-ghost-of-1920s-new-orleans, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194196134/theresa-moity, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/204197455/henry-penrose-moity, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/204264040/joseph-moity, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/536382910/, https://newspaperarchive.com/biloxi-daily-herald-oct-28-1927-p-1/, https://soapboxie.com/government/The-Infamous-New-Orleans-Trunk-Murders, https://www.facebook.com/TodayInHorrorHistory/posts/october-26-1927new-orleans-louisiana-henry-moity-30-kills-his-wife-and-sister-in/2766760236978267/, https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/flappers, 2022 Shockingly Wicked Podcast, LLC. In 1957, he died of a stroke in Californias Folsom Prison, where he is buried. On the way home from their outing, a local busybody made a casual comment to Theresa, implying that there were rumors she was going to run off with Caruso that night. Henry had previously been a butcher before landing in New Orleans, so the method and motive all lined up perfectly to convict in court. The women's entire value was what they could do for the men. Texarkana Moonlight Murders & The New Orleans Trunk Murders Morbid Episode 159 Looks at this! Henry did not make it hard for prosecutors to prove premeditation. The grim Times-Picayune article from October 28, 1927 is filed into a binder at the Williams Research Center of New Orleans. Both Joseph and Henry were going from job to job and the family was scraping by financially. Extensive archive searches turn up no Mullers, no sausage company, no gristly deaths. When housekeeper Nettie Compass arrived to clean the Moitys apartment on the morning of October 27, 1927, a scene of bloody disarray greeted her. After discovering a pool of blood at her feet, she ran from the apartment screaming and caught the attention of a few neighbors and the police. They were well respected for being hard workers and very pleasant sort of people. Thank you for a great time! Meanwhile, the French Quarter had become increasingly home to working-class residents, thanks to decreasing property values and proximity to employment opportunities. This story appears on THNOCs tour Danse Macabre: The Nightmare of History, which explores the darker side of New Orleans history. In one of the bedrooms they found a blood soaked mattress with severed fingers. In 1927, Theresa and Leonide shared a crowded existence with their husbandsbrothers Henry and Josephand Theresa and Henrys three small children in the second-floor rooms of 715 Ursulines Avenue. "She's a good time girl!" According to a 1957 letter from a Louisiana State Penitentiary prison warden, Theresa is alleged to have flaunted a ten dollar bill in [Henrys] face and bragged that she could make more in an hour (as a prostitute) then he could in a week., Later that day, Henry returned home to find Theresa and Leonide packing their belongings into two large trunks. In the back bedroom there was an identical scene, with the addition of a sugar cane knife sitting in the trunk. The couple came with next to nothing and had created a successful business. Both women had to sew and pick up other work to supplement their income. Before New Orleans Superintendent of Police Thomas Healey could find either man, Joseph turned himself in, telling investigators his brother killed both women. It was the fall of 1927 when housekeeper Nettie Compass entered the apartment on 715 Ursulines Street near downtown New Orleans. Yet she concludes with an ominous warning, Now to you readers, young girls especially . It contained a second womans body. The true story of Britain's notorious Chocolate Cream Killer. Why is Everyone Fighting Over the Skull of 'Brigand Villella'? (A bloodstained rejection slip was also found at the crime scene). The group . After serving an additional 2 years there, the convicted double murderer and prison escapee was inexplicably pardoned by Governor Jimmie Davis and became a free man once again. One night as she was sweeping up the floors he came behind her and strangled her to death. Healys dispatches to area law enforcement described Henry as having dark bushy hair, very dark brown eyes, and tattoo mark on arm, flower with lady face, also nude woman.. We had a great time listening to the true crime stories and walking the streets on a cold NOLA night. In his confession, Henry, enraged over an affair he believed his wife was having, explained his motives for killing the women but blamed alcohol for the crime. Henry was tried separately for each murder and found guilty. When she threatened to fire the younger woman, Mueller murdered his wife to keep his mistress. Anyone with more information may call the homicide unit at (504) 658-5300 or Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans Inc. anonymously at (504) 822-1111. Joseph told police he moved out after catching Leonide with another man. The victims, both in their mid-20s and both originally from New Iberia, were Theresa and Leonide Moity and were married to the brothers Henry and Joseph Moity. This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily. He tells a story reallllly well and it wasnt boring at all! There's no way to really paraphrase this next bit, so: "One night, soon after, he heard a "thump! There was no place like New Orleans in the Roaring 20s. The message, over and over, was that this was the fault of a bad woman. Stop At: Lalaurie Mansion, 1140 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70116-2706. (Mobile Users:. To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Average 4.83 out of 5 stars based on 177 verified reviews from Cool New Orleans and TripAdvisor, Were here to help. HOURS Henry was found guilty in both cases and sentenced to two concurrent terms of life in prison. He hacked twice at Leonide, who never woke. This is our very first virtual live show from July 23, 2020 held at AS220 in Providence RI. In 1927 a large family lived in a 2nd-floor apartment at 715 Ursulines Avenue. His 1941 appeal for a pardon was rejected by the governor and in 1944, he briefly escaped from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Good spirits and disassembly, there the trunk murders new orleans whispers of their familiarity with men than. 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