In October 1890, David Hennessy, the chief of police in New Orleans, was ambushed outside his home. He was shot multiple times and died the following day. Several Italian men were put on trial, but a jury failed to convict them. Angry residents sought revenge, storming the old Parish Prison and killing 11 people, hanging two of them and shooting the rest.  

The incident is still known as one of the darkest in the city's history, both for the violent manner in which the police chief died and for the indiscriminate lynching of the exonerated suspects. Some New Orleanians of Italian heritage no doubt still remember facing the schoolyard taunt "who killa da chief?" as children.