Bloody ends of early NOLA bosses - Part 3

Crescent City underworld leaders lost their lives in long Mafia feud

From Part 2: A temporary truce and a party at the Agnello home did not resolve difficulties in the New Orleans underworld. The party ended in violence. A short time later, Raffaele Agnello and his top enforcer burst into the home of a rival leader and wounded two men. Guns blazed again at the Poydras Market at the end of March 1869, when bystander Daniel Clark was killed. With two rival leaders jailed for that killing, Agnello emerged from his home for a stroll through the French Quarter on April 1. A gunman was able to get close to him on Old Levee Street and assassinate the Mafia leader.

The identity of Raffaele Agnello's assassin was a mystery for some time, though the press quickly concluded that the stout gunman was a member of the Messina/Trapani underworld faction. Also unclear was how the killer was able to plan around Agnello's April 1, 1869, movements and get so close to him. Possibly, Agnello did not head out that morning for a shopping trip, as stated in the press, but for a scheduled appointment.

At the coroner's inquest in the afternoon of April 1, Saccaro testified that he and Agnello had just passed Grande's store, but had not yet reached Joseph Macheca's produce store, when he spotted the gunman walking toward them on the banquette. At that moment, the gunman was about twenty steps away. As the man approached, he pulled out “a large brass-mounted blunderbuss” and fired at Agnello's head.

Saccaro said he did not know the man, but he felt certain that he would recognize him if he ever saw him again.

Facing charges of causing the gunshot wound to worker Frank Philips inside the Norman & Reiss bakery, Saccaro stated that he fired four shots from his Sharp's pistol while still out on the street and then pursued the man into the yard behind the bakery, where the gunman fired two shots from a pistol. This story disagreed with other witness statements and did not help free Saccaro of responsibility for Frank Philips' wound.

Saccaro claimed ownership of a sword-cane found at the scene. While the sword tip reportedly had fresh blood on it, there was no mention of the weapon being used.¹