Henry told a tale of a Norwegian sailor who had made him watch while the sailor did the butchering of the woman, but the story quickly fell apart and Henry admitted to what he'd done. "She's a good time girl!" thump!" His early release turned out to be a terrible mistake that nearly cost another young woman her life. We just did the ghost tour with Jonathan, and he was wonderful! Police uncovered two trunks that had been meticulously packed with the carved-up corpses of Theresa and Leonide. The Times-Picayune from October 1927. Listen to the story of The New Orleans Murder Block. HOURS Two days after the murders, Henry found the Gem, a small freight boat running through Bayou Lafourche, but the crew had seen the news, which was nationwide by then, and were suspicious. Our tour guide was amazing when it came to the city's history in general but also knew both personal and commonly known areas where gruesome murders have occurred in New Orleans. Theresa and Leonide also worked, expressing frustration at having to manage their children while taking on sewing jobs to bring in necessary cash. Departure point: Detailed check-in instructions - including the address and parking information if applicable - will be included in your final confirmation email. In 1959, as Jimmie Davis campaigned to regain the governors seat, a reporter asked him why he paroled the man responsible for two horrendous homicides. 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. Superintendent Healy radioed the seven ships sailing out of New Orleans that day to be on the lookout. We had a great time listening to the true crime stories and walking the streets on a cold NOLA night. Two couples had serious marital problems, and a few days before Halloween in 1927, the home became the site of an infamous crime that is still featured on ghost tours today.</p><p>Take a break from serious world with the . You lived on the second floor," I wanted to scream. Extensive archive searches turn up no Mullers, no sausage company, no gristly deaths. He was the poor man who'd been driven to this. Nettie testified that she remembered Henry pulling her aside and whispering not to be scared if Nettie and her family heard the children crying in the early morning. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Did human trafficking gangsters kill Allie Rice. In a Times-Picayune article, parish coroner Dr. George Roelingnoted the killers skill with a knife at trial, saying, The killer who decapitated Mrs. Henry Moity . Dr. George Roeling, the Orleans Parish Coroner, told reporters that the killer or killers bludgeoned the women with a lead Billy club, before using a machete to decapitate them and amputate their arms and legs. 715 Ursulines Avenue was the home of the Moity brothers, their wives, and children. It was great to hear his local perspective on all the stories he shared. The French Quarter of the 1920s was a diverse, working-class neighborhood. Both couples and their young children lived in the small apartment. A great experience and tour all around! The ensuing manhunt led through swamps and shipboards before a bedraggled Henry was pulled from nearby Bayou Lafourche. On this adults-onlymurder tour you will learn of the sordid details behind New Orleans' dark history. He dismembered his wifes body and ground the remains up, making her into sausage and then selling that sausage to his customers. 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. around his boiler vat. From there he caught the Illinois Central Panama Limited en route to Chicago. After his release, the convict moved to Los Angeles, California, where he shot a woman in the chest, puncturing her lung and leaving her to suffocate in a hotel room. On that same page Barbara Brooks, "Editor of Advice to the Lovelorn" says she "Sees Tragedy As Result of Bedraggled and Besmirched Love.". "She'd killed her husband because he said she couldn't go to a party!" It wasnt the departure they had anticipated. 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. (THNOC, gift of Waldemar S. Nelson, 2003.0182.523). The story of the unknown 'Somerton Man,' which included murmurs of espionage, crime, murder, cipher code, and love triangles. As he later recounted to the DA, She didnt say a word or move. The quotes tell you everything you need to know about the feelings about 'modern women.'. She was beautiful. Neighbors confirmed that the two couples often fought loudly over money, infidelity, and drinking. Henry was already suspicious of Theresas infidelity, but her running away with someone pushed him too far. The California court sentenced the Louisiana man to five years in Folsom Prison, unaware of the concurrent life sentences a New Orleans court handed down two decades earlier. The money, the booze, and the passions flowed freely. At a Los Angeles hotel in 1956, Henry shot his girlfriend Alberta Orange in the chest, puncturing her lung. (Photo: Lauren George), Is it possible that the Big Easys version of Sweeney Todd was born of the 1927 trunk murders, altered in retellings to more nightmarish proportions? . From a New Orleans prison cell, Henry smoked, attempted to paint, and received curious visitors. Henry Moity was found guilty and sentenced to concurrent two life terms in prison for the Trunk Murders, but he was given considerable leniency and was able to escape. We would definitely recommend. The mystery of the Tamam Shud case: The body found on Somerton Beach, Australia, in December 1948, was never identified. From the time the Moitys moved in, Theresa and Caruso were pretty thick, Henry claimed in his confession to the District Attorney. . MURDER SUSPECT SEIZED WITH HOSTAGE; Buried Body Discovered . The victims were immediately identified as Theresa and Lonie. Henry began his sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiaryon July 6, 1928. He knew so much fun facts about the history of New Orleans, and his passion to this city is unmatched. In New Orleans of the 1920s, even people of modest means might afford domestic assistance. It also marks the second annual increase in murders in the city after 2019's 50-year low of 120 murders, which one crime analyst points out was still high for a city the size of New Orleans. One night, the owner killed his wife and disposed of her body by grinding it into sausages that he then sold in his shop. "What stoop? (By Daniel S. Leyer; courtesy of the Vieux Carr Survey). Henry was found guilty in both cases and sentenced to two concurrent terms of life in prison. All rights reserved. On Saturday, October 29two days after the womens bodies were discoveredcrewmen of the freighter Gem reported Henry Moity to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff. Once the police arrived, they found the dismembered bodies of Leonide Moity and her sister-in-law, Theresa Moity, stuffed into trunks in the . In 1927 Henry and Theresa lived at 715 Ursulines with his brother Joseph and his wife Leonide, plus their combined five children. This isn't emphasized so much in the New Orleans papers, because, frankly, the city had respectfully declined to participate in Prohibition. In a closet, police found two small traveling trunks packed with the expertly butchered corpses of two young women. This story appears on THNOCs tour Danse Macabre: The Nightmare of History, which explores the darker side of New Orleans history. A bathroom covered in blood. The infamous New Orleans trunk murders The Sausage Ghost Legend 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. The rent was always late, there wasn't enough food, and things were getting dire. There was a travel trunk on the floor and inside were the severed arms, legs, head, and torso of Theresa. 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. Please login and assign a widget area to at least 2 of the 5 search widget columns. 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. Theresa's wedding ring was mashed into a gash in her back. They had even been seen in town walking together and holding hands. An enraged Henry began drinking, interrupting his bender to purchase the murder weapon. The victims of the Trunk Murders were discovered October 27, 1927, at 715 Ursulines Street. It might have been the height of Prohibition, but liquor was never hard to find in New Orleans. It was a great way to walk the French Quarter and hear local stories from the experts. Stop At: Omni Royal Orleans, 621 St Louis St, New Orleans, LA 70130, USA, See where a murderer committed suicide and hear the story behind it, Stop At: Jackson Square, 615 Pere Antoine Alley, New Orleans, LA 70116-3234. Henrys past employment as a butchers assistant was a key point in his two trials. Henry had worked briefly as a butcher, and the Times-Picayune gleefully pointed out that the manner in which the two bodies of the women were mutilated and dismembered indicated a man familiar with this trade. Radio dispatches alerted departing steamer ships to be on the lookout for a stowaway passenger answering to Henrys description: tattooed and, according to the newspaper, singularly hairy., The room which shares a wall adjacent to crime scene. we took the true crime tour in new orleans and our tour guide was awesome. Ironically it is next door to the Moity apartment. <p>There was no place like New Orleans in the Roaring 20s. The perpetrator, dubbed, "The Axeman," busted down the doors of people's homes and, in some cases, slaughtered whole families with his axe. Offer subject to change without notice. (, The victims of the Trunk Murders were discovered October 27, 1927, at 715 Ursulines Street. Stop At: Lalaurie Mansion, 1140 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70116-2706. (New Orleans Item 11/06/1927). He was a free man for 2 years before the police in California found out his true identity and returned him to the Louisiana prison system. At first he maintained that the murders had been the work of a redheaded Norwegian seafarer, whom he had been forced to assist. But Henry was nowhere to be found. Inside, investigators found a blood-soaked mattress in a bedroom, a bathroom cabinet dripping with blood, and among the scattered clothing littering the floor, they found a pair of severed fingers. New Orleans Trunk Murders. The property is shown in this 1960s photograph. Shrieking, he fled from the place.". Clothing tossed from the trunks littered the living room where police found the severed fingers. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. The murders of Theresa and Leonide Moity were hardly typical New Orleans homicides. On Saturday, October 29two days after the womens bodies were discoveredcrewmen of the freighter Gem reported Henry Moity to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff. Allows using the site with your screen-reader. Buried in a deep gash on one of the victims backs, the coroner found a gold wedding band. Before coming to New Orleans, police believed, Henry had worked as a butchers assistant. New Orleans Woman's Brother Accused of Murdering Her Crime New Orleans Woman Found Dead in Car Trunk Was Allegedly Murdered by Her Brother The brother of a missing New Orleans woman. Return Details: 1100 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70116, USA. Writing the Food Memoir: A Workshop With Gina Rae La Cerva. In 1957, he died of a stroke in Californias Folsom Prison, where he is buried. Call Us, Text Us, or Live Chat to speak with a Destination Specialist On Thursday, October 27, 1927, Nettie Compass arrived at the Creole-style home at 715 Ursalines Ave. in New Orleans to do a usual cleaning. 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