Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca

Strange True Tours - New Orleans

2012-01-19T08:17:00.000-05:00

Jeffery Holmes, who conducts Strange True Tours New Orleans, wrote to let us know that the Macheca family burial site in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 will be incorporated into his tours this summer.

121 years ago: Attack on Police Chief Hennessy

2011-10-15T08:07:00.000-04:00

One hundred and twenty-one years ago on this date, New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy was shot and mortally wounded a short distance from his home. He succumbed to his wounds the following morning.

Chief Hennessy

Hennessy (left) attended a meeting of the Police Commission during the evening of October 15. The meeting broke up at about nine o'clock. Hennessy was driven back to police headquarters at the southwest corner of Common (Tulane Avenue) and Basin Streets. Captain William O'Connor of the private Boylan Protection Agency met him there and was to escort the police chief home. Hennessy had received a number of death threats from the local Mafia and the city fathers hired the Boylan agency to keep him safe.

Though Hennessy had a reputation for punctuality (he lived with his widowed mother and reportedly tried not to give her reason for worry), the chief did not immediately head home. Instead, he and O'Connor chatted at police headquarters for more than an hour. They left the building a few minutes after eleven.

While Basin Street was the most direct route between Hennessy's office and his home on Girod Street, heavy rains of earlier in the day had made the road unpassable. Hennessy and O'Connor took a significantly lengthier route, riverward on Common Street and then up Rampart Street to the intersection with Poydras Street. At that corner, the two men stopped into Dominick Virget's Oyster Saloon for a late snack. A teetotaller, Hennessy had a glass of milk with his plate of oysters.

At eleven-thirty, the men stepped out of Virget's and continued up Rampart Street. They paused in front of the McDonough schoolhouse at the corner of Rampart and Girod, about one and half city squares from Hennessy's home. O'Connor said goodbye to Hennessy at that point, though he had been charged with seeing the chief all the way home. O'Connor crossed the intersection diagonally to his left - his intended destination is unknown - while Hennessy turned right on Girod.

The chief took only a few strides and then halted as a young man darted out of a Girod Street doorway and ran toward Basin Street whistling loudly. The youth turned right onto Basin and disappeared around the side of Mrs. Ehrwald's second-hand store.

Girod Street shed roof.

Hennessy managed just a few steps more. As he reached the front of the residence at No. 269 Girod Street, shotgun pellets tore into him from his left. The initial blast, originating from the darkness under a shed roof on the opposite site of Girod (right), shredded his umbrella, disabled his left hand and knocked him backward. Hennessy instinctively drew his ivory-handled Colt 45 revolver. Another blast of shotgun pellets ripped through his slacks and shattered his right knee. On his way to the ground, the chief was struck by pellets in the chest and abdomen and then in the face and neck. Hennessy fired his revolver into the darkness across the street as he struggled to stand up.

Two shadowy figures stepped into Girod Street. Illuminated by a streetlamp, they advanced toward the fallen police chief. They fired large-caliber slugs into Hennessy's midsection and then ran off.

Hennessy miraculously managed to rise to his feet. He stumbled a few yards to the corner of Basin Street and dragged his disabled leg a few more paces down Basin. He collapsed onto the front steps of No. 189 Basin Street. Captain O'Connor, at most only a single square away when the gunfire erupted, reached the chief's side far too late to fulfill his function as bodyguard.

"They gave it to me," Hennessy mumbled, "and I gave it back the best I could." O'Connor asked if the chief could identify his attackers. Hennessy said, "Dagoes."

Read Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia, 2d edition.

148 years ago: Macheca and the black market

2011-08-28T13:37:00.000-04:00

One hundred and forty eight years ago on this date, young Joseph P. Macheca of New Orleans was tried and convicted before a Union military court of selling stolen army rations.

Macheca, by then a veteran of Confederate service in Louisiana, was found selling U.S. Army-labeled barrels of pork and beef through his stepfather's produce store. He and some conspirators were tried before a military tribunal on Aug. 28, 1863. While Macheca's conspirators - members of the Union occupying force in New Orleans - were sentenced to prison time, Macheca was subjected only to a $50 fine.

Soon after, Macheca left New Orleans for Texas, where he gathered a small fortune as a smuggler.

120 years ago: Macheca gravesite

2011-03-15T07:07:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia:

"J.P. Macheca's relatives and friends passed through his Bourbon Street home in a steady stream Sunday. Curious onlookers, denied entry into the home, lined the banquette and spilled out into the roadway. The Daily Picayune noted that Bourbon Street 'was well nigh blockaded throughout the day.'
"J.P.'s body, dressed in a fine, black suit, was laid out in the black draped front parlor of the home he had shared with five of his seven children. His open, metallic casket, ornamented with gold and silver and lined with white satin, stood in the center of the room. A tall crucifix was positioned at the head of the coffin. A silver candelabra stood directly behind that, softly lighting the room and casting several faint cross-shaped shadows on J.P.'s remains.
"A large crowd squeezed into the house when the Very Reverend Hyacinthe C. Mignot, administrator of St. Louis Cathedral, arrived with Father Berronet to bless the deceased.
"In late afternoon, six pall bearers—Macheca Brothers employee Dan Fleming, stevedore Henry Peters, railroad fruit agent John Louis Grashoff, attorney Anthony Sambola, Special Officer Alphonse B. Donohue and Custom House Examiner John Thatcher—moved toward the center of the room. The lid of the coffin was lowered and fastened in place. It, too, was accented with gold and silver. An engraved gold plate on the lid held a single word: 'Rest.'
"J.P.'s children stepped forward to say goodbye to their father. Each fell into a sobbing hug with the metal casket. Family friends helped them to regain their composures.
"As the bells of St. Louis Cathedral tolled, J.P.'s funeral cortege moved along Hospital Street and then up Chartres Street. A great many carriages followed the hearse.
"Newspapers noted that none of J.P.'s numerous clubs and organizations attended as a group. Crescent City Democratic clubs, Pelican Hook and Ladder No. 4, the Red Lights Club and other local institutions apparently feared being linked with J.P. in the public perception. Their collective trepidation did not keep individual members from attending the funeral in large numbers.
"The procession halted for a time within the great cathedral as organist Gabriel Tusson played a funeral hymn and Father Mignot chanted prayers and offered words of hope for the family. Near dusk, the cortege moved on to St. Louis Cemetery, where J.P.'s remains were interred beside those of his wife."

Interestingly, the location of J.P. Macheca's burial site had been forgotten for some time. It had been misrecorded as lying in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Our good friend Andrew Dodenhoff recently discovered the gravesite in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. The name "Jos. P. Macheca" is barely visible at the bottom of the stone in this photograph. The name directly above it, "Briget O'Dowd" was Macheca's wife, who died after a long illness in 1883. The name at the top of the stone appears to be that of Macheca's half-sister who died as a baby. Rosa Maria's death occurred during one of the worst periods of Yellow Fever in New Orleans history, but it occurred in April, which would have been too early in the year for the mosquito-borne disease to strike.

120 years ago: Parish Prison murders

2011-03-14T02:00:00.001-04:00

On March 14, 1891, under the cover of a large, angry mob, teams of assassins hand picked by William Parkerson and other New Orleans political leaders, broke into Orleans Parish Prison and murdered eleven men held prisoner there.

An execution squad, supposedly assigned to bring Italian prisoners outside for trial by the mob, corners helpless men in the Orleans Parish Prison courtyard. While the men beg for mercy, the squad opens fire with rifles provided by its political bosses.

While the event is known as the Cresent City Lynchings and is recorded as the largest single lynching to take place on American soil, its cold-blooded and deliberate nature is at odds with our usual definition of "lynching," a spontaneous, emotional and violent uprising. Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia argues that the event was a calculated mass murder conducted for political rather than emotional reasons. The New Orleans Mafia, supposedly the target of the so-called "lynch mob," was left unharmed by the attack. Its boss, Charlie Matranga, was not even targeted by the execution squads.

Today, we recall the Italian-American victims of this attack:
- Joseph P. Macheca
- Manuel Polizzi
- Rocco Geraci
- Loreto Comitis
- Frank Romero
- Antonio Bagnetto
- James Caruso
- Charles Traina
- Pietro Monastero
- Antonio Marchesi
- Antonio Scaffidi

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia (Softcover 2d edition)

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia (Kindle 2d edition)

Holiday discount - 25% off cover price

2010-11-26T12:15:00.000-05:00

Save ‎25%
of the cover price of Deep Water's second edition softcover by making your holiday purchase through the Createspace store. You must enter discount code D6WEG757 during checkout.

Click here to purchase Deep Water from Createspace

or point your web browser to https://www.createspace.com/3473160

(This is a limited time offer.)

Signed copies in time for the holidays

2010-11-22T05:10:00.000-05:00

The coauthors of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia are making a limited number of signed second edition (softcover) copies available for online purchase this 2010 holiday season.

Note: As the coauthors reside a considerable distance from each other, it will not be possible to ensure holiday delivery of books signed by BOTH. However, individually signed and personalized copies can be ordered through Nov. 26 for $32.95 each (shipping is included). Use the links below to place your order. Please specify the full name of the book recipient.

Second edition softcover
signed by Thomas Hunt

Second edition softcover
signed by Martha Sheldon

In addition, a very small number of First Edition hardcover and softcover copies can be signed by coauthor Thomas Hunt and shipped in time for the holidays. To ensure availability, mailto:deepwaterbook@gmail.com

Amazon reduces holiday price for Deep Water

2010-11-18T04:33:00.000-05:00

Holiday shoppers: Amazon is now advertising a special low price on Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia (2d edition).

Set in the Gilded Age of New Orleans, this historical biography conveys J.P. Macheca's epic life story, as it finally sets the record straight on the 1890 assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy and the 1891 Crescent City lynchings. The authors illustrate the deliberate influence of the Democratic "Ring" on the growth of the Mafia criminal society and underline the inextricability of organized politics and organized crime in the period.

List priced at $25.95, the current Amazon sale price is just $18.68 (a savings of $7.27 per copy). Click below to visit Amazon.

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia

120 years ago: Hennessy assassination

2010-10-15T06:50:00.000-04:00

October 15, 1890: New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy was shot and mortally wounded near his Girod Street home. Hennessy's assassination sparked a wave of anti-Mafia sentiment that led to the murders of Crescent City businessman J.P. Macheca and ten other men held at Orleans Parish Prison.

Download Second Edition on Scribd

2010-09-06T09:25:00.000-04:00

The electronic second edition of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia is now available for purchase and download through the Scribd.com document-sharing service. Like the Amazon Kindle version, the Scribd download can be purchased for $9.99.

Scribd Download

Amazon Kindle

Second Edition paperback hits shelves

2010-08-20T16:44:00.000-04:00

The second edition of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia is now available for sale through the CreateSpace (publisher) store and through Amazon.com..

Set in the Gilded Age of New Orleans, this historical biography conveys J.P. Macheca's epic life story, as it finally sets the record straight on the 1890 assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy and the 1891 Crescent City lynchings. A longtime street warrior for the corrupt and ruthless New Orleans Democratic machine, Macheca was also the patron of the fledgling American Mafia in southern Louisiana. His underworld connections brought him into conflict with Hennessy and ultimately cost him his life. Macheca and ten other men implicated in Hennessy's assassination were killed while held within Orleans Parish Prison. The incident is remembered as the largest lynching in American history. However, the authors argue that Macheca's life was ended not through the spontaneous rage of a lynch mob but through a calculated act of betrayal by Macheca's former friends and allies.

As Macheca's life story unfolds, Deep Water examines the many momentous events of his time and place, including Civil War, federal occupation, Reconstruction, violent political and racial division. The authors illustrate the deliberate influence of the Democratic "Ring" on the growth of the Mafia criminal society, and they underline the inextricability of organized politics and organized crime in the period.

From the authors: "Since Deep Water was first published in 2007, additional information became available on a number of subjects we felt would be of interest to readers. This information included details of J.P. Macheca's financial, social and personal life, as well as links between the New Orleans Mafia and underworld organizations in Tampa, Dallas, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. The second edition includes these new finds in addition to a foreword by the late Joseph Maselli, an expanded photo section, additional information on New Orleans crimes attributed to the Mafia and an expanded Epilogue."

The list price of this edition in softcover is $25.95.

Deep Water is also now available in the Amazon Kindle electronic format and can be downloaded through the Kindle store at a price of just $9.99.

Second Edition available for Kindle

2010-08-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

The second edition of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia is now available for users of Amazon's Kindle electronic book device. This electronic version of Deep Water has been priced at $9.99. It can be downloaded through the Amazon Kindle store.

A softcover of Deep Water's second edition is due to be released by the end of this month.

Excerpt appears in Mafia history journal

2010-08-02T19:51:00.000-04:00

An excerpt from Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia appears in the current (summer 2010) issue of Informer: The Journal of American Mafia History (see cover at left). The excerpt, entitled, "America's First Mafia War," deals with a Reconstruction Era conflict between factions of the Crescent City's Sicilian underworld. The result of the gang warfare was the overthrow of the old Mafia order led by the Agnello family of Palermo and the establishment of a new criminal society that grew to influence communities from the Florida Gulf coast to southern California.

The issue may be purchased online through the MagCloud service. Visit http://informer.magcloud.com/ to preview or purchase.

Deep Water second edition available soon

2010-08-02T19:43:00.000-04:00

A revised and expanded second edition of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia (see cover at left) will be available for sale by the end of August. The book will be appear first in trade paperback. An E-book should follow quickly.

The second edition includes an expanded photo section; additional information on the impact of the early New Orleans Mafia on communities across the American South; further details on Macheca's personal, social, financial and criminal experiences; and a foreword by the late Joseph Maselli.

The release date will be announced here soon.

Joseph Maselli, 1924-2009

2009-11-23T18:33:00.001-05:00

Deep Water coauthors Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon sadly note the passing of Joseph Maselli (right) and extend their deepest condolences to his surviving family and many friends. Joseph Maselli, a distinguished leader in the Italian-American community in New Orleans, was enormously supportive of the Deep Water project and composed a preface for the book's upcoming second edition. His obituary is presented below:

Joseph Maselli died Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, after a brief hospitalization at Ochsner Foundation Hospital. He was 85. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Antoinette Cammarata Maselli, his brother Dominick Maselli, his four children, Joseph Maselli, Jr. ( Donna), Frank Michael Maselli, Jan Maselli Mann (Jim) and Michael Gerard Maselli (Stacy); eight grandchildren, Caroline Maselli, Annie Maselli, Matthew Mann, Michael Mann, Michael Maselli, William Maselli, Melani
Maselli and Sandy Maselli. He was predeceased by his parents, Frank Maselli and Mary Iannetti Maselli, his brother, Carmine Anthony, and his grandson, Joseph Maselli, III.

He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Italian immigrants, and was transferred to New Orleans during WWII, ultimately meeting his wife of 63 years, Antoinette Cammarata and attending Tulane University on the GI Bill. After graduating from Tulane in three years, he opened a small liquor store which eventually grew to become City Wholesale Liquor Company, and wholesale distributorship which is a thriving business 60 years later. A true entrepreneur, he ran or financed numerous other businesses throughout the New Orleans area.

Mr. Maselli was an amateur sports enthusiast with a special love for the Tulane Green Wave. He supported amateur boxing and traveled with the U.S. Olympic boxing team to Russia in 1971 and then brought the Russian team to fight an exhibition match against the U.S. team at the Louisiana
Superdome a few years later. He was also on of the founders of the Carrollton Boosters in the late 50’s.

By 1975, Mr. Maselli focused his energy on civic endeavors and, in particular, on preserving the Italian culture and heritage, and fighting against prejudice on behalf of all nationalities. He
founded the Italian American Federation of the Southeast and was founding member of National Italian American Federation in Washington D.C. He published the Italian American Digest and founded the American-Italian Museum. He was instrumental in developing the Piazza d’Italia in New Orleans and served as an ethnic advisor to Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. In 1984, he developed the “Italian Village,”one of the most popular aspects of the World’s Fair.

Included in his many honors were his receipt of The Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Medal of Freedom, the National Conference of Christian and Jews Weiss Award, and the Torch of Liberty Award of the Anti-Defamation League. He was awarded the title of “Grand Ufficiale,” the highest commendation from the Italian government for his lifetime work preserving the Italian Heritage.

He considered his children and grandchildren as his proudest accomplishments.

Honorary Pallbearers were John Amato, Justice Pascal Calogero, Dr. Phillip Cancilleri, Ernest Colbert, Eddie Compass, Larry Conkerton, Thomas D’Angelo, Lolis Elie, Judge John Gale, William Goldring, Nick Greco, Dominic Grieshaber, Russ Herman , Jim Letten, Moon Landrieu, Tommy
Lasorda, Ron Maestri, Salvatore Panzeca and Joseph Scelsa.

His funeral service was held at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church at 1139 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, Louisiana. Interment followed in Metairie Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations to the American Italian Renaissance Foundation, P. O. Box 2392, New Orleans, La. 70176 in memory of Mr. Maselli, will be greatly appreciated.

Second Edition cover

2009-10-18T09:24:00.000-04:00

Hunt discusses Danbury CT murder

2009-10-12T07:14:00.000-04:00

The 1909 Mafia murder in Danbury, Connecticut, was the discussion topic at the Danbury Museum and Historical Society on Oct. 8, 2009. Thomas Hunt, coauthor of Deep Water, spoke to a small audience of 15 people about the slaying of farmer Giovanni Zarcone and that event's connections to the Morello Mafia organization of New York. He traced Zarcone back to his Sicilian roots in Bagheria and tracked his eventful life from his arrival in Manhattan in 1901, through the infamous Mafia Barrel Murder of 1903 to his ambush on a quiet country road on July 27, 1909.

On the 100th anniversary of the Danbury murder, Hunt published a detailed history of the event in his quarterly periodical, Informer: The Journal of American Mafia History. The Oct. 8 discussion was arranged by Brigid Guertin and Diane Hassan of the Danbury Museum and Historical Society.

The text of his Oct. 8 remarks can be downloaded through the Scribd.com service:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20841805/1909-Mafia-Murder-in-Danbury-text

(A free Scribd account is required for download.)

The July issue of Informer, featuring the history of the Zarcone murder, also can be downloaded from the Scribd.com service:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20054920/Informer-v02n3-2009-July

Hunt to discuss 1909 Mafia murder

2009-10-03T12:07:00.001-04:00

Deep Water coauthor Thomas Hunt will discuss "The 1909 Mafia Murder in Danbury, Connecticut," on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, 7 p.m., at Huntington Hall, Danbury Museum and Historical Society, 43 Main Street.

A collection of images, news clippings and maps related to this topic is available through the Scribd.com service:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20569384/1909-Mafia-Murder-in-Danbury

Deep Water wins Silver Medal

2008-05-22T17:35:00.000-04:00

Deep Water is the Silver Medalist in the South Region Nonfiction category of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. The final "IPPY" competition results were announced this afternoon. Awards Coordinator Jim Barnes noted that this year's contest attracted more than 3,100 entries.

"The quality of entries this year is totally amazing, and we're seeing better designed books, reading higher quality writing and being exposed to a more widely diverse collection of concepts," he said. "We've been impressed with the in-depth research in our nonfiction and current events entries..."

Deep Water selected as IPPY semifinalist

2008-05-13T16:58:00.000-04:00

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia has been selected as a semifinalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Competing in the South Region Nonfiction category, Deep Water is one of five category semifinalists. Final award winners will be announced May 23, 2008.

This year's Independent Publisher Awards competition drew in 3,100 entries from 49 U.S. states and 17 other countries. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each category. The awards presentation is scheduled for May 30 at BookExpo America in Los Angeles.

Hunt interviewed for Newsday article

2008-02-26T16:16:00.000-05:00

Thomas Hunt, coauthor of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia and publisher of The American Mafia website ( http://www.onewal.com/ ) was interviewed recently by reporter Keiko Morris for a New York Newsday story.

Giovanni Zarcone, resident of Brooklyn and owner of a Manhattan butcher shop, was among those arrested in connection with 1903's infamous Barrel Murder. Secret Service agents keeping an eye on the activities of the Morello Mob, a band of counterfeiters and extortionists, noticed Barrel Murder victim Benedetto Madonia in the company of the Morello group within Zarcone's butcher shop the night before Madonia's lifeless body was found on a New York streetcorner crammed into a barrel. They surmised that a wagon belonging to Zarcone had been used to move the remains. They couldn't make the charges stick, however. Zarcone and the rest of the accused were let go.

Over the next few years, several of the suspects died violent deaths. Investigators decided that the Morello Mob was eliminating witnesses to the Madonia murder. Though Zarcone moved himself and his family to a farm in Danbury, CT, the Morello Mob appears to have caught up with him there. He was shot to death outside of his home in the summer of 1909, his body dropped at the front doorstep.

Thomas is a longtime researcher into the activities and personalities of the Morello Mob. Some of his work can be found at the still under construction Caged Wolves website ( http://www.cagedwolves.com/ ).

Deep Water shines a "penetrating light"

2007-09-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

“In their frank telling of Macheca's epic life story, authors Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon shine a penetrating light into the shadowy dealings of Gilded Age New Orleans. They present a convincing case for the inextricability of organized crime and organized politics in that era... Along the way, they document some of the more significant and colorful events in Louisiana history.”

- Joseph Maselli
FounderAmerican Italian Renaissance Foundation
New Orleans, LA

Positive review from Blogcritics

2007-07-21T16:11:00.000-04:00

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia earned very favorable notice from Blogcritics.org reviewer Scott M. Deitche.

"...This is one of the more foundational organized crime books ever written...," Deitche wrote in a review published yesterday. "Thomas Hunt brings the story alive through his rich attention to details. You can practically smell the fetid air of the New Orleans waterfront."

"...Rich familial history [is] intertwined with the background history," Deitche noted. "I think in teaming with Martha Macheca Sheldon, Hunt made a smart move. Anecdotal family stories bring a dimension to the Macheca saga that you rarely get from a general Mafia book. Not wanting to lavish too much praise on the authors, but it's always exciting to find a new way to approach a subject..."

The review concluded, "Deep Water is a worthy addition to the organized crime canon and the greater body of books on Civil War-era America."

The full text of the review is available online at: Blogcritics.org.

The review already has been picked up and republished on Boston.com (the Boston Globe's website) and Cleveland.com (the Cleveland Plain Dealer's website).

Scott M. Deitche is an authority on organized crime. He is the author of two books on the Tampa, Florida, crime family: The Silent Don and Cigar City Mafia.

St. Louis event a "huge success"

2007-06-19T11:54:00.000-04:00

Martha signs a copy of Deep Water.

We wish to express our thanks to all who came out to tonight's reading/booksigning event in St. Louis, MO. Management of the Ladue Crossing Barnes and Noble was surprised by the large turnout and termed the event a "huge success." We also wish to thank Jennifer L. Lynch, community relations manager of the Barnes and Noble store, for her assistance in planning the event.

Booksigning in St. Louis on June 19

2007-05-17T11:50:00.000-04:00

We invite you to attend a reading and booksigning for Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 19, in the Ladue Crossing Barnes and Noble in St. Louis, MO.

Hardcover and paperback copies of Deep Water will be available for sale before and during the event.

Coauthor Martha Sheldon, a descendant of the New Orleans Macheca family, is a native of St. Louis. She is a graduate of Villa Duchesne Sacred Heart and of Washington University. She has held volunteer positions with SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, Malcolm Bliss Mental Health Center and Barnes Jewish/Christian Hospital. She and her daughter reside in the city.

This is the second signing event for Deep Water, which was released in February by iUniverse.

Deep Water signing draws a crowd

2007-04-17T11:39:00.000-04:00

We wish to express our thanks to all who helped make tonight's booksigning event in New Orleans such a success, in particular John Macheca, Andrew Dodenhoff, and Britton and Deb from Garden District Book Shop. The event, originally scheduled for 5-7 p.m., had to be extended to 9 p.m.

We were delighted by the large turnout and by the opportunity to meet with former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu and his wife Verna, American Italian Foundation President Joseph Maselli, historical researcher Doug Casey of Metairie and historian/entrepreneur Fernando Cuquet of Mississippi, as well as the many descendants of the Macheca clan who stopped in for the event.

Tom speaks with Fernando Cuquet.

Martha meets with Joseph Maselli.

The authors are interviewed by Christopher Tidmore (99.5 FM).

Early reviews and endorsements

2007-03-15T17:15:00.000-04:00

“Deep Water is a memorable reading experience. It is both a vivid down-to-earth description of ante- and post-bellum New Orleans, and also significant history, with colorful documents and episodes from the lives of ordinary people. Once you start reading it, it is hard to put down. The denouement, the murder of Joseph Macheca in the midst of a mass lynching, has never before been told so closely from Macheca business records. This book will force a reassessment of a famous event in the history of American organized crime.”

- Peter Dale Scott

Author of Deep Politics and the Death of JFK.

“An excellent, meticulously detailed ... account of the birth of the American Mafia and a wonderful study of New Orleans from the Civil War/Reconstruction periods up through the famous mass lynching. Macheca comes across as a fascinating rogue. Deep Water ... shows a marvelous objectivity and a close analytical reportage based on the best available evidence.”

- Rick Mattix

Editor of On the Spot Journal.

“...Through a combination of historical records and family lore, the authors trace Macheca's rise to successful merchant while concurrently describing the political and social changes in New Orleans in the last half of the 19th Century... [A] convincing analysis of the inextricability of organized crime and local politics”

- Kirkus Discoveries

“...Couldn’t put it down...Bravo! It is brilliant work. Working with a tightly woven fabric of injustice, you have objectively and meticulously unstitched the legend for truth, as honestly as possible. Congratulations to you both for this wonderful contribution to Louisiana and American history.”

- Julie Eshelman-Lee

Louisiana historian

“ ... The book centers very much around the life of J. P. Macheca and his ... career in New Orleans. I found it all very interesting and informative. I was also happy to see my own prejudice confirmed: the Hennessy murder emerges out the turbid racial and political situation in the city ... I was impressed by how much information you got a hold of.”

- James Fentress

Author of Rebels and Mafiosi.

“Deep Water is excellent. You really did your homework. ...The Macheca history is terrific... I am impressed on how you got to the meat of the Battle of Liberty Place and the Burke affair. You took two complex subjects and explained them concisely... I really enjoyed it.”

-Doug Casey

Louisiana historian.

Booksigning in Crescent City on April 17

2007-03-07T11:36:00.000-05:00

NEW ORLEANS, March 7, 2007 — Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon, coauthors of the biography "Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia," will appear at Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans next month to discuss and sign copies of their book.

"Deep Water" captures the life and times of the 19th Century New Orleans businessman and gang leader considered by many to be the "godfather" of the first Mafia organization to germinate in American soil. The book answers at last the many questions surrounding the 1890 assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy and the subsequent lynchings, in which Macheca lost his life. The book is published by iUniverse, Inc., of Lincoln, NE. Additional information is available through 1-800-AUTHORS.

Mr. Hunt is an organized crime historian who resides in New Milford, CT, with his wife and their three chldren. Ms. Sheldon is a native of St. Louis, MO, a descendant of the Macheca Line, and an authority on her family history.

The event is scheduled for Tuesday, April 17, between 5 and 7 p.m. The Garden District Book Shop is located in the historic Rink property at 2727 Prytania Street.

News Release: New Milford, CT

2007-02-15T11:29:00.000-05:00

Gang Organizer Macheca

Betrayed by Allies,

Murdered in 1891

NEW MILFORD, CT, Feb. 15, 2007 — A biography co-authored by crime historian Thomas Hunt of New Milford places the birth of the American Mafia in 19th Century New Orleans and tracks the gradual rise and precipitous fall of the man many consider its first “godfather.”

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia challenges the legends of the mob’s earliest days and establishes the facts of the 1890 Hennessy assassination, the 1891 Crescent City lynchings and the underworld’s close ties with the city's political machines. Building upon more than a decade of research into archival records, published and unpublished histories and Macheca family traditions, Mr. Hunt and Macheca descendant Martha Macheca Sheldon expose political corruption from antebellum Louisiana through the bloody Reconstruction Era, illustrate the squalor of 19th Century immigrant communities and detail the various intrigues and underworld rackets of the period. They tackle historical misrepresentations of Joseph P. Macheca as a foreign-born Mafioso, proving he was a native Louisianan, a Confederate patriot and a street warrior for the conservative Democratic cause.

“Joseph P. Macheca was a major force in the underworld of his day,” Mr. Hunt explained. “But it is important to view his crimes in an appropriate context. Gilded Age New Orleans was very much a wild, frontier town. During our research, we often encountered situations in which no substantial difference could be found between the actions of respected community leaders and the actions of outlaws. On occasion, the motives and methods of professional law enforcers were indistinguishable from those of lawbreakers.

"We believe Macheca, longing for acceptance from the local establishment, allowed political bosses to push him deeper and deeper into underworld conspiracies. When the bosses decided he had become more of a liability than an asset, they simply disposed of him.”

Deep Water has been positively received by experts in Louisiana history and criminal research. Peter Dale Scott, crime historian and author of numerous works including Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, says, “[Deep Water] will force a reassessment of a famous event in the history of American organized crime.” Louisiana historian Julie Eshelman-Lee describes Deep Water as a “brilliant work” and a “wonderful contribution to Louisiana... history.” Crime researcher and author Rick Mattix says it “shows a marvelous objectivity.”

Mr. Hunt publishes the American Mafia history website (www.onewal.com) and the MobNews current events blog (http://mob-news.blogspot.com/), while also editing the Organized Crime category of the Internet’s Open Directory Project (dmoz.org). He previously served as Managing Editor of the Putnam County (NY) Courier, the Bethel (CT) Beacon and the Pawling (NY) News-Chronicle; as Assistant Editor of the New Milford (CT) Times and Aviation Digest magazine; and as Publisher and Editor of the Danbury (CT) Weekly Tribune. He is a member of the Louisiana Historical Society, the New Milford CT Historical Society and the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime. A native of the Bronx, NY, he is a 15-year resident of New Milford, where he lives with his wife and their three children.

Deep Water has been published by iUniverse, an affiliate of Barnes & Noble. It is available for sale through iUniverse.com and other major booksellers.

News Release: St. Louis

2007-02-15T11:20:00.000-05:00

New biography explores

American Mafia's birth

in New Orleans

St. Louis, Feb. 15, 2007 - A St. Louis woman’s lifelong obsession to discover the secret of her family history led her to the person many consider the first “godfather” of the American Mafia.

“I heard a lot about family history while growing up,” recalled Martha Macheca Sheldon. “When I learned there was a missing piece of the story, I was determined to find it. My father and other relatives wouldn’t talk about it. Over the years, I was able to pick up bits of information from various sources, until the skeleton was finally out of the closet.”

Ms. Sheldon traced family roots to19th Century New Orleans. In that time and place, her Macheca ancestors were generally well-to-do, law-abiding entrepreneurs and pioneers of the produce trade. However, Martha’s great-uncle Joseph P. Macheca happened to be the leading suspect in the 1890 Mafia assassination of New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy and one of the victims in the worst lynching in American history.

Confronted with generations-old lies and denials, Ms.Sheldon decided to set the historical record straight. More than a decade of her research has been channeled into a recently released biography she co-authored with crime historian Thomas Hunt of Connecticut. Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia dispels many of the myths of the mob’s earliest days and establishes the facts of the Hennessy assassination, the Crescent City lynchings and the underworld’s kinship with corrupt political machines of the period. Ms. Sheldon and Mr. Hunt stitch together the details of Macheca’s life and the betrayals that resulted in his death.

“This book... will force a reassessment of a famous event in the history of American organized crime,” explained Peter Dale Scott, PhD., a noted author and crime historian.

Ms. Sheldon, widow of artist Stephen B. Sheldon, is the daughter of Arthur Michel Macheca Jr. and Marie Lucks Macheca. She is descended from Joseph P. Macheca’s half-brother John, a principal owner of the New Orleans-Belize Royal Mail and Central American Steamship Company. She is a graduate of Villa Duchesne Sacred Heart and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Washington University. Ms.Sheldon worked in interior design and, for a time in Los Angeles, CA, in the production of television commercials with her husband. She has served as a volunteer for SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, Malcolm Bliss Mental Health Center and the Barnes Jewish/Christian (BJC) Hospital. On the Auxiliary Board of Directors at BJC, she has served as a member of the Risk Management Board, as Patient Representative Director and as Public Relations Director.

Deep Water has been published by iUniverse, an affiliate of Barnes & Noble. It is available for sale through iUniverse.com and other major booksellers.

About the Authors

2007-02-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

Fascinated with organized crime since childhood, Thomas Hunt publishes the American Mafia history website (http://www.onewal.com/), and the Mob-News current events blog. He also edits the Organized Crime category of the Internet’s Open Directory Project and regularly contributes articles to the On the Spot quarterly historical journal of crime and law enforcement history. He is a veteran journalist and a member of the Louisiana Historical Society, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society and the New Milford CT Historical Society. Born in the Bronx, NY, he lives in New Milford, CT, with his wife and their three children.

A descendant of the Macheca line, Martha Sheldon is an authority on her family history. Discovering and telling J.P.'s life story has been her obsession since first learning "the family secret" over a decade ago. She has assembled a network of Machecas determined to unearth long-buried family truths. A graduate of Washington University, she has worked at interior design and television commercial production. She has also served in volunteer management roles with St. Louis Mo. area medical centers. She lives with her daughter in St. Louis.

Offered through Barnes and Noble

2007-02-05T11:17:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your interest in our book. We are very happy to announce that Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia is now available for purchase through the online bookstore of Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble is the Internet's largest bookstore, stocking more than one million titles for immediate delivery. The company is affiliated with iUniverse, Inc., publisher of Deep Water.

Research

2007-02-05T11:00:00.000-05:00

In researching Deep Water, we made extensive use of archival sources. These included Notarial Archives, municipal archives and the State Archives in Louisiana; National Archives facilities in Washington, D.C., New York and Fort Worth; the Louisiana Historical Society Archives; the Williams Research Center library; and Pinkerton National Detective Agency archives held by the United States Library of Congress, Court documents, land transfer records and business correspondence were also used.

Louisiana historians, including Joseph Maselli of the American-Italian Renaissance Foundation, Doug Casey and Fernando Cuquet, contributed their knowledge and resources to the work, along with descendants of the Macheca clan who have spent many years researching their family history. A number of unpublished articles, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations were also accessed. Hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles were carefully considered, as were published materials on Louisiana history, New York history, the War Between the States, and the history of organized crime in Sicily and the United States.

A partial list of sources (excluding government documents, and books and articles used in a minor way) follows:

Books

Asbury, Herbert, The French Quarter: An Informal History of New Orleans... (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., 1938).
Bragg, Jefferson Davis, Louisiana in the Confederacy. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997).
Cassar, Paul, Early Relations Between Malta and U.S.A. (Valletta, Malta: Midsea Books Ltd., 1976).
Castellanos, Henry C., New Orleans As It Was. (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 1990).
Chandler, David, Brothers in Blood: The Rise of the Criminal Brotherhoods. (New York: Dutton, 1975).
Fentress, James, Rebels and Mafiosi: Death in a Sicilian Landscape (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000).
Gambino, Richard. Vendetta (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977).
Garvey, Joan B. and Widmer, Mary Lou, Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans. (New Orleans: Garmer Press, 1982).
Gentile, Joseph, The Innocent Lynched (San Jose: Writer's Showcase, 2000).
Horan, James D., The Pinkertons: The Detective Dynasty that Made History. (New York: Bonanza Books, 1967).
Huber, Leonard V., Landmarks of New Orleans. (New Orleans: Orleans Parish Landmarks Commission, 1964).
Huber, Leonard V., New Orleans: A Pictorial History - from earliest times to the present day. (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1971).
Kendall, John Smith, History of New Orleans. (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1922).
Landry, Stuart Omer Jr., The Battle of Liberty Place. (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Company, 1999).
Nelli, Humbert S., The Business of Crime: Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976).
Pitkin, Thomas Monroe and Cordasco, Francesco, The Black Hand: A Chapter in Ethnic Crime. (Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1977).
Repetto, Thomas, American Mafia: A History of its Rise to Power (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004).
Rimanelli, Marco and Postman, Sheryl Lynn, The 1891 New Orleans Lynching and U.S.-Italian Relations (New York: Peter Lang, 1992).
Rousey, Dennis C., Policing the Southern City: New Orleans, 1805-1889 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996).
Walker, General William, The War in Nicaragua (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1985).
Wilson, Charles M., Empire in Green and Gold (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968).

Articles - General

Buel, Clarence Clough, "The Degradation of a State; Or, The Charitable Career of the Louisiana Lottery," Century Magazine, February, 1892.
Casey, Doug, “The Sicilian Feud” (unpublished).
Cuquet, Fernando J., "The Boston Club Massacre" (unpublished).
Duke, Thomas S., “The Murder of Police Chief Hennessy,” Celebrated Criminal Cases of America, p. 444-446 (San Francisco: James M. Barry Co., 1910).
Park, George, “Lynching: Now it Can Be Told,” letter, Truth Magazine, Nov. 9, 1936.
Smalley, Eugene V., "The New Orleans Exposition," The Century Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 1, May, 1885. p. 3-14.

Articles - Louisiana Historical Quarterly Archives

Coxe, John E., "The New Orleans Mafia Incident," Vol. 20, No. 4, 1937.
Dabney, Thomas Ewing, “The Butler Regime in Louisiana,” Vol. 27, No. 2, 1944.
Greer, James Kimmins, “Louisiana Politics, 1845-1861,” Vol. 12, No. 4 and Vol. 13, No. 1, 1929-1930.
Hennessey, Melinda Meek, "Race and Violence in Reconstruction New Orleans: The 1868 Riot," Vol. 20 , 1979.
Karlin, J. Alexander, "New Orleans Lynchings of 1891 and the American Press," Vol. 24, No. 1, 1941.
Kendall, John S., “Blood on the Banquette,” Vol. 22, No. 3, 1939.
Kendall, John S., "Who Killa De Chief," Vol. 22, No. 2, 1939.
Kurtz, Michael L., "Organized Crime in Louisiana History: Myth and Reality," Fall 1983.
Lestage, H. Oscar, "The White League in Louisiana and its Participation in Reconstruction Riots," Vol. 18, No. 3, 1935.
Prichard, Walter, ed., "The Origin and Activities of the White League in New Orleans: Reminiscences of a Participant in the Movement," Vol. 23, No. 2, 1940.
Renshaw, Henry, “A Sketch of the Life and Career of Pierre Soulé,” Vol. 2, No. 3, 1900.
Zacharie, James S., "New Orleans - Its Old Streets and Places," Vol. 2, No. 3, 1900.

Articles - Newspapers

Newspaper coverage from the New Orleans Daily Picayune (1869-1895), the New Orleans Times-Democrat (1869-1891), the New York Times (1862-1894) and the Atlanta Constitution (1868-1914). Additional articles were drawn from the following Louisiana newspapers: the Item, the States, the Bee, the Crescent and the Bulletin from New Orleans; and the Lafayette Advertiser.

Additional Sources

Adams, Margaret, “Mafia Riots in New Orleans,” thesis, Tulane University, 1924.
Baiamonte, John, “The Myth of the Mafia in Louisiana,” Southeastern Louisiana University oral history tape, Italian Century Week, Oct. 22, 1982.
Botein, Barbara, "The Hennessy Case: An Episode in American Nativism, 1890," Doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1975.
Carroll, Ralph Edward Jr., "The Mafia in New Orleans, 1900-1907," Master's thesis, Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans, La., June 1956.
Hennessey, Melinda Meek, "To Live and Die in Dixie: Reconstruction Race Riots in the South." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 1978.

Deep Water story synopsis

2007-02-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

Joseph P. Macheca served as a street warrior for the intensely corrupt New Orleans Democratic machine, as a pioneer of the Crescent City’s fruit trade, as a Confederate privateer in the Gulf and, according to legend, as the “godfather” of the first Mafia organization to germinate in American soil.

Macheca lives on in New Orleans legend as the criminal overlord whose 1891 lynching death atoned for the assassination of city Police Chief David C. Hennessy. However, Macheca’s death was less a spontaneous lynching than a cold-blooded murder. The gang leader's old political and underworld allies sacrificed him so their own roles in local intrigues might not be discovered and so they could assume control of his assets.

Deep Water is the historical biography of Joseph P. Macheca. It establishes the factual details of Macheca’s epic life story and sets them against the vivid backdrop of Gilded Age New Orleans.

Man of action

More complex than the one-dimensional villain of legend, Macheca was an attention-starved and publicity-seeking man of action.

As a young man, he enlisted in the Confederate army only to watch as his native New Orleans fell quickly to a federal invasion. As his military unit disbanded, he moved to Galveston, Texas, and continued to aid the South by running supplies through the Union's blockade of Gulf ports. After the war, he opposed Reconstruction efforts and served in a leadership capacity during an armed insurrection against Republican rule in Louisiana.

Macheca was among the first American businessmen to engage in the produce trade with Central and South America. The Macheca fruit trade brought goods into the American West, Midwest and Northeast. Macheca's efforts generated a vast fortune and won him the position of Consul of Bolivia. The direct beneficiaries of his commercial trailblazing, the Standard Fruit and United Fruit companies, live on today as Dole and Chiquita.

There was also a dark side to Macheca. He led a large gang in bloody rages against African Americans in New Orleans. He served as a patron of the city's Sicilian underworld, involving himself in gang feuds and in a broad Mafia conspiracy. He eagerly did the bidding of unscrupulous political leaders, who used embezzlement, extortion and murder to advance their personal agendas.

Underworld

A branch of the Sicilian Mafia existed in New Orleans before the Civil War, when the underworld organization followed the lead of Palermo immigrant Raffaele Agnello and specialized in protection and lottery gaming. Agnello initially had trouble with the city's large contingent of Sicilian immigrants from Messina - eastern Sicily had no Mafia tradition. Separate Messina criminal gangs, who dabbled in counterfeiting and protection rackets, battled Agnello's Mafia for years.

Agnello was assassinated in 1869 just as final victory seemed to be in his grasp. Shrapnel from the blunderbuss blast that killed him crashed through the glass at the front of Macheca's fruit store.

The traditional Palermo-based Mafia was eventually replaced in New Orleans with the Stuppagghieri, a radical Mafia branch born in Monreale, Sicily. Macheca embraced the new underworld order and worked secretly with its leaders, the Matranga clan.

Old-line Mafiosi attempted again to take control of the city around 1880. A decade-long struggle between the Matranga and Provenzano clans featured grisly murders and the assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy, believed to be a Provenzano ally.

Though 1891 lynchings at Orleans Parish Prison, which claimed the lives of eleven men including J.P., were said to have been directed at the Stuppagghieri, the Matranga organization emerged from the experience stronger than ever.

Frontier town

The New Orleans of Macheca's time was very much a frontier town, prone to lawlessness and violence. Its rich colors, magnificent buildings and delightful tastes and sounds masked numerous dangers.

During his lifetime, Macheca witnessed the dramatic rise of the port of New Orleans, experienced the first Rex parades of Mardi Gras, attended annual fancy dress balls and socialized with the influential and wealthy men of the community. However, he also lived through the horrors of the Yellow Fever epidemics, the eruption of decaying corpses in city cemeteries and the devastation of war.

Macheca failed to keep up with his times. As New Orleans civilized and became genteel, he stood out as a throwback, a street thug in a business suit. His profitable business ventures failed, and Macheca was financially ruined. His black-and-white, friends-and-enemies view of the world became inadequate.

Old political and underworld allies, whose duplicitous natures allowed them to outwardly embrace progress and civility while inwardly retaining their greed and brutality, left him behind. Eventually, they conspired to eliminate him.

Betrayal

From Macheca's earliest days, death constantly lurked nearby, claiming his relatives, friends and foes. It finally came for him early in 1891. Trapped and helpless in a prison hallway, he tried in vain to open a locked cell door. A shot fired at close range entered the rear of Macheca's skull and ripped through his brain.

Historically, that shot has been blamed on a spontaneous uprising within the New Orleans community - a lynch mob. But Deep Water proves that the lynch mob was used to cover Macheca's premeditated murder and that Macheca's lone assassin was in league with his former friends.

Amazon offers Deep Water for sale

2007-02-05T07:49:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your interest in our book. We are very happy to announce that Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia is now available for sale through the Amazon.com online bookstore. Headquartered in Seattle, WA, Amazon.com is one of the world's largest online merchants, serving many millions of regular customer accounts.

Deep Water timeline

2007-02-04T16:27:00.000-05:00

TIMELINE BELOW

1814-15	Joseph Mercieca (later Macheca) is born to farming family on the Maltese island of Gozo. Peter Carvanna’s birth in Sicily coincides with Ferdinand’s return to the throne of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
1840s	Joseph Macheca and Peter Carvanna settle in New Orleans, Louisiana. Macheca is a pioneer of the fruit trade. Carvanna is an outlaw.
1843	Peter Carvanna Jr. (later Joseph Peter Macheca) is born to Peter and Marietta Carvanna in New Orleans. Peter and Marietta live as husband and wife.
c. 1847	Peter Carvanna, convicted of a serious crime, receives a sentence of life in prison. Under Napoleonic Code, his relationship with Marietta dissolves.
c. 1848	Joseph Macheca, 33, and Marietta, 23, marry. Though not legally adopted, Peter Jr.'s name is changed to Joseph Peter (“J.P.”) Macheca.
1851	Son John, half-brother to J.P., is born to Joseph (37) and Marietta (27) on July 24.
1852	Son Michael, half-brother to J.P., is born to Joseph (38) and Marietta (28) on Dec. 24.
1854	Daughter Rosa Maria, J.P.’s half-sister, is born to Joseph (40) and Marietta (30), in early March. Rosa Maria is baptized in St. Louis Cathedral, May 28. Joseph and Celestine Saliba, immigrants from Malta and Joseph Macheca’s close friends, are the godparents.
1855	Rosa Maria Macheca dies and is buried in St. Louis Cemetery II.
1856	Whig Party collapses. Bands of armed men seize a number of New Orleans polling places and permit only Know-Nothings to vote. Attempted murder of court clerk Norbert Trepagnier, local Know-Nothing leader, prompts violent reprisals in New Orleans’ Sicilian colony.
1857	David C. Hennessy is born to Margaret and David Hennessy Sr., 275 Girod St., New Orleans.
1859	Joseph Macheca Sr., 44, establishes wholesale fruit business. He also sells fruit from a Front Street shop. J.P., 16, participates in the business. Joseph Sr. purchases an Old Levee Street business site on May 24.
1860	New Orleans unveils a 14-foot statue of Henry Clay at the intersection of Canal and St. Charles/Royal Streets on April 12. Statue stands upon a seven-tier granite base. John Macheca, 10, travels to Malta for several years of schooling. Joseph, Marietta and Michael take the trans-Atlantic trip with him, leaving J.P. to handle the family business. In November, Republican Abraham Lincoln is elected U.S. President with less than forty percent of the nation’s popular vote.
1861	Louisiana state legislature formally adopts the Ordinance of Secession on Jan. 26, separating the state from the federal Union. State seizes federal Mint and Customhouse buildings in New Orleans as well as nearby forts. Joseph, Marietta and Michael Macheca return to New Orleans. Louisiana joins Confederate States of America on Feb. 4. New Orleans experiences food and fuel shortages and unemployment as a result of a federal blockade of Gulf ports. J.P. Macheca enlists in the 22nd Louisiana Infantry of the Confederate Army on Sept. 10. Federal forces grabbed Ship Island near mouth of Mississippi in December.
1862	Joseph Macheca Sr. dictates his will to notary Abel Dreyfous on March 31. Admiral Farragut's federal fleet bombards Forts St. Philip and Jackson at mouth of Mississippi on April 18 and later sails up the Mississippi to New Orleans. U.S. General Benjamin Butler, with 15,000 federal troops, takes command in New Orleans on May 2. New Orleanian William Mumford is executed for desecrating the American flag. J.P.’s enlistment period expires. He is allowed to return home. Peter Carvanna, allowed out of prison, visits Marietta. He is killed within days of the visit. J.P. Macheca, 19, and Bridget O'Dowd, 16, marry and leave New Orleans for Galveston, Texas. Macheca earns money by working with Confederate blockade runners.
1863	Son John J. Macheca is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca.
1865	John Macheca, 13, returns to New Orleans from Malta. J.P. returns from Texas. Civil War major hostilities end as Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders on April 9. Lincoln is mortally wounded on the evening of April 14. He dies the following morning. Joseph Macheca Sr., 50, purchases Toulouse Street property from John Avegno for $8,400 on Nov. 11.
1866	Louisiana Constitutional Convention at the Mechanics Institute turns into a bloody race riot. Thirty eight people die as police do little to halt the violence. State’s Reconstruction authorities dismiss the local New Orleans government and take control of the police.
1867	Joseph Macheca Sr., 52, purchases Dauphine Street property from H. Rosselin on March 18. Son William W. Macheca is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca. Republican authorities in Louisiana hire Republicans and African-Americans for police jobs, dismissing white Democrats. Arthur Guerin kills Special Officer David Hennessy Sr. in a barroom gunfight. The officer's son, David C. Hennessy is welcomed into the police force as a messenger.
1868	Reconstruction government creates the Louisiana State Lottery. Due to a corrupting influence that appears to reach into every aspect of Louisiana life, it becomes known as “the Octopus.” J.P. buys the schooner Cecelia. Military occupation of Louisiana ends, but Republican-dominated state legislature forms Metropolitan Police, answering only to state officials. Crescent City Democratic Club and similar conservative organizations join in an anti-Republican White League network. J.P., 25, supports Presidential candidate Horatio Seymour of New York against Republican Ulysses Grant. J.P. assembles a large gang, comprised mostly of Sicilians and named the Innocenti (Innocents), leads them in violent attacks against New Orleans African-Americans starting Oct. 24. Prominent Democrats, fearful that the attacks will result in Republican reprisals, force J.P. to disband the Innocents in November. Innocenti member Litero Barba is murdered on his way home from an Oct. 28 party at the Orleans Ballroom. Sicilian immigrants from Palermo take up arms against those from Messina.
1869	Sicilian gang warfare forces Messina faction leaders to hide briefly in Galveston, Texas. The leaders return in March and are attacked at New Orleans Poydras Market. J.P. secretly contests the leadership of Palermo Mafia leader Raffaele Agnello in the Sicilian community. During a walk toward the Macheca shop on April 1, Agnello is shot and killed. Monreale-based Stuppagghieri Mafia becomes the dominant force in New Orleans’ Sicilian underworld. Son Joseph Peter Macheca Jr. is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca.
1870	J.P. is full partner, with Joseph Sr. and Paul Biggio, in the Macheca business. Son Michael is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca in January. J.P. reestablishes the Innocents as a “protection” force for Sicilian businesses. Paul Biggio dies on April 24. Michael Macheca, six months old, dies on July 24.
1871	Daughter Mary "Mamie" is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca. Deputy Criminal Sheriff James D. Houston shoots and kills Arthur Guerin outside a courthouse.
1872	After the murder of Joseph Agnello in July, the underworld war between the Palermo and Messina factions quickly ends. By the end of the year, two men – Republican William Pitt Kellogg and Democrat John McEnery – claim to have been elected governor. Rival state legislatures are also formed.
1873	Former Confederate General James Longstreet supports Republicans and wins appointment to lead the Kellogg government’s Louisiana state militia. McEnery government quietly forms its own militia under the leadership of Confederate Colonels John B. Angell and James D. Hill. Daughter Rosa is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca.
1874	Mardi Gras’ Rex parade becomes an annual event with its second edition in February. Son Joseph Robert Macheca is born to John and Maggie Macheca on June 11. In July, the Crescent City Democratic Club renames itself the Crescent City White League. Steamer Mississippi arrives at the Port of New Orleans Sept 12. with a shipment of weapons for the White League. Metropolitan Police board the ship and seize the weapons. Joseph P. Macheca, 31, captain McEnery Guards, leads an armed force of 300 Italians in the White League's revolt against the Republican state government on Sept. 14 (Battle of Liberty Place).
1875	Son Arthur is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca.
1877	J.P. designs the speedy clipper-schooner Joseph P. Macheca and has it built in Bath, Maine. During a vacation trip with her husband, Marietta Macheca, 53, dies in Malta on Jan. 8 and is buried there. The business of Joseph P. Macheca, commission merchant, appears to separate from the traditional family business.
1878	Joseph Macheca, 64, dies Aug. 8 aboard French ship Canada on return trip from Malta. J.P. and his brothers unite briefly in Joseph P. Macheca & Bro. business at 129 Old Levee Street, headquarters of the earlier Jos. Macheca & Co. Sicilian fugitive Giuseppe Esposito visits New York City.
1879	Giuseppe Esposito arrives in New Orleans in spring. J.P. supports him as leader of the city's Sicilian underworld. John and Michael Macheca move to end J.P.’s involvement in the family business and to limit his inheritance of the estate left by Joseph Sr. and Marietta. Macheca Brothers business (John and Michael) acquires its first steamship, the Wanderer, built in Philadelphia. J.P. aids Bolivia in its brief war against Chile. Son Edward Michael is born to J.P. and Bridget Macheca.
1880	J.P. aids Bolivians fleeing to the United States after the unsuccessful war against Chile.
1881	J.P. Macheca & Co. serves as agent for fruit plantations in British Honduras, Bay Islands and Jamaica. New Orleans Mayor Shakespeare vetoes plan to reorganize municipal police force. Over his objection, the Common Council creates the Chief of Aides position and fills it with Thomas Devereaux. Daily States interviews J.P. Macheca at his offices (8 Toulouse Street) on June 12 about fruit market. Detectives David and Mike Hennessy apprehend Sicilian bandit Esposito on July 5. Esposito is taken to New York City for deportation hearings. Violence between rival Provenzano and Matranga Mafias erupts. Shootout between Devereaux and the Hennessys results in serious injury to Mike Hennessy and fatal injury to Devereaux. Hennessy cousins are charged with Devereaux's murder.
1882	James D. Houston, leader of the Ring Democrats, manages the reelection campaign of Gov. Samuel D. McEnery. On April 27, the Hennessy cousins are found not guilty of murdering Thomas Devereaux. Upon release from custody, Mike Hennessy and his wife move to Houston. David Hennessy remains in New Orleans, works with private police agency. James D. Houston is involved in a shootout with rival Democrats at a primary election polling place.
1883	Steamship Stillwater is built for Macheca Bros. John and Michael give J.P. a payment of $1,200 to end his involvement in family business. Bridget O'Dowd Macheca (36) dies July 14 of tuberculosis at a South Prieur Street sanatorium. The business of Joseph P. Macheca & Co., fruit sellers, fails at the end of July, leaving $100,000 in liabilities. J.P. and his children leave their Toulouse Street home and settle in a shotgun duplex at No. 279 Bourbon Street. J.P. goes to work in his brothers’ firm.
1884	Steamship Clearwater is built for Macheca Bros as the firm also acquires the Kate Carroll. Macheca Brothers fleet wins a British commission to haul mail to the colony of Belize (New Orleans-Belize Royal Mail). After delays and financial problems, Cotton and World's Exposition at New Orleans opens in December. David C. Hennessy leads private police force of 300 men for Exposition security.
1885	James D. Houston is seriously wounded (hand) in a gunfight against staffers at the offices of the New Orleans Mascot newspaper. Democratic party is deeply divided into Ring and Reform factions. Macheca Line and Leonard Mueller's shipping line are investigated May 23 for their role in transporting unwilling young men from New Orleans to plantations and railroad building projects in Honduras and Guatemala.
1886	Matranga and Locascio stevedore firm underbids Provenzano firm, wins contracts from produce shipping companies and becomes the main agent for Sicilian longshoremen. Mike Hennessy is shot five times and killed while returning home from a Houston theater.
1887	Reform Democrats campaign against Ring and lottery corruption. The Young Men’s Democratic Association, led by attorney William Parkerson, is the key Reform group within the City of New Orleans. James D. Houston manages campaigns of Gov. Samuel D. McEnery and Mayor J. Valsin Guillotte. Parkerson advises reform candidates Francis T. Nicholls and Joseph A. Shakespeare.
1888	In a gunfight between Democratic factions early Jan. 1, Patrick Mealey of the reform group is shot and killed by a Ring thug. James D. Houston is blamed and loses much support around the state. At Jan. 10 Democratic convention in Baton Rouge, James D. Houston pledges to support reform candidates. Joseph Shakespeare wins election as mayor of New Orleans, appoints David C. Hennessy his new police chief.
1889	Provenzano-Matranga feud heats up. Vincent Ultonino is found dead, his throat cut, in a roadside marsh on Jan. 5. Joey Mattaino found dead in his home, his head burned in the fireplace, on Feb. 24. Pietro Vitrano is discovered beaten to death in March. New Orleans municipal police department is reorganized. The chief of aides (detectives) position is eliminated. Hennessy is approved as the superintendent of a unified force. J.P. and his brothers part ways in the spring. They will not speak again. Hennessy and J.P. broker a peace conference between the Provenzano and Matranga underworld factions at the Red Lights Club. Mamie, daughter of J.P. and Bridget Macheca, marries Cheri Eugene Sarrazin on Sept. 28. Former state treasurer E.A. Burke is indicted for fraud and embezzlement. The influential Ring politician and newspaper editor is in England attempting to finance a Central American gold mining operation.
1890	Early in the morning of May 6, a wagon carrying Matranga stevedores is ambushed at the corner of Claiborne and Esplanade Streets. Three men, including Antonio Matranga, are seriously wounded. Provenzano gang leaders are arrested. Ring attempts to extend lottery contract through a constitutional amendment. The Provenzano gang leadership is sentenced to life in prison for the ambush of the Matranga wagon. As the result of Chief Hennessy’s investigation into the Mafia in New Orleans and in Sicily and of a grand jury probe into police alibis for the Provenzanos, a judge orders a new trial for the Provenzano gang leadership. Hennessy intends to testify in the next trial. Hennessy receives a number of death threats through the summer. Police Chief David Hennessy is ambushed and mortally wounded outside his home. Hennessy dies at Charity Hospital, 9:06 a.m., Oct. 16. Hennessy attack is believed to have resulted from his threat to expose and eliminate the local Mafia. Many local Sicilians and Italians, including J.P., are arrested as suspects in the assassination.
1891	J.P. Macheca and eight other defendants are brought to trial Feb. 27 for the murder of Police Chief David Hennessy. Defendant Polizzi experiences an apparent emotional breakdown in court March 2 and allegedly names J.P. Macheca and Charles Matranga the heads of the New Orleans Mafia. Jury decides March 13 that none of the defendants are guilty. Gunmen under the direction of anti-Ring Democratic reformer William S. Parkerson and under the guise of a spontaneously formed lynch mob break into Parish Prison and murder J.P. Macheca and ten other prisoners on March 14.

Deep Water available for sale

2007-02-02T07:20:00.000-05:00

Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon proudly announce that Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia is available for sale through the iUniverse.com bookstore. iUniverse, Inc., of Lincoln, NE, an affiliate of the Barnes & Noble company, is the publisher of Deep Water.

Deep Water is the historical biography of Joseph P. Macheca, Confederate veteran, political warrior, commercial pioneer and legendary leader of the New Orleans underworld. It establishes the factual details of Macheca's epic life story and sets them against the vivid backdrop of Gilded Age New Orleans.