American Horror Story is full of appearances from prolific serial killers, but its interpretation of the Axeman of New Orleans during its Coven season remains one of its most bone-chilling. The character in the show, played menacingly by Danny Huston (pictured above), is based on real-life murders — mostly on Italian grocers — that occurred in New Orleans between 1918 and 1919. He first murdered an Italian couple who owned a grocery by slitting their throats as they slept and then bashing their skulls in with his ax. A month later, he attacked a second couple (also grocers), but both survived their brutal wounds (the woman blamed the attack on her boyfriend, who was arrested and thrown in jail before being acquitted nine months later).
A few months after that, reports of more and more attacks rolled in: a young pregnant woman who awoke to a dark figure standing over her before he bashed her face in with his ax (she miraculously survived), an elderly Italian grocer who died from head trauma, and an immigrant grocer who was attacked along with his wife and 2-year-old daughter (the parents survived, but their daughter did not). The killer later sent a threatening letter to the Times-Picayune newspaper that made a bizarre proposition to the city's residents:
"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."
Although no one died that night, attacks continued until Oct. 27, 1919, after the murder of grocer Mike Pepitone. Police were unable to determine who was responsible, and thankfully he was never heard from again.
