Record

Case file

1891-03-14

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1891

Consul Corte to Baron Fava, telegram, New Orleans, 14 March 1891 (FRUS 1891, Document 615)

A short telegram, in translation, from the Italian consul at New Orleans to the Italian minister at Washington on the day of the killings: a mob led by members of the 'committee of fifty' took the jail and killed eleven prisoners, three of them Italians and the others naturalized.

Date: 1891-03-14
Kind: case-file
Source: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1891
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: A publication of the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. A United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105; the document dates from 1890-91.

The Italian consul at New Orleans telegraphs the Italian minister on 14 March 1891 (printed in translation): “Mob led by members of committee of fifty took possession of jail; killed eleven prisoners; three Italians, others naturalized.” The consul says he holds the mayor responsible and fears further murders. The consul’s first name is not given in the document.

The telegram is the consul’s account on the day. The count and the nationality of the dead are as he stated them; the newspapers filed here give different counts earlier the same day.

itemMr. Blaine to Governor Nicholls, telegram, 15 March 1891 (FRUS 1891, Document 619)Secretary of State Blaine's telegram to the Louisiana governor the day after the killings: three or more of the victims were subjects of the King of Italy, the treaty guarantees their protection, and the President regrets that a question for the courts was transferred 'to the passionate judgment of a mob.'

clippingThe Evening World (New York), 14 March 1891, Sporting Extra, page 1: Lynched! Eleven Prisoners Shot or Hanged by a New Orleans MobA later edition's front page lists the dead, says two prisoners listed first were later reported not to have been shot in their cells, names the leaders the paper identified, and gives a background section on the Matranga and Provenzano stevedore rivalry and the earlier trial.