Axe syndicate
The axe murder gang was a group of people believed to have been responsible for a four-year spate of brutal killings which started in November 1919 and ended in October 1923. In most cases, small shop owners, often foreign-born, were the targets. The killers were apparently motivated by robbery, though in a few cases no signs of robbery were found.
Five African Americans were arrested by Birmingham Police on January 6, 1924. They were convicted after confessing to the eight murders, but three members of the gang were presumed to remain at-large. The killings did not continue.
Accounts of the number of crimes committed by the gang vary, as to the lists of people killed or wounded in their attacks. The New York Times reported there had been 24 killed in 44 attacks, while the Birmingham papers counted only 15 dead and 13 wounded.
Numerous arrests were made, but few convictions obtained in the attacks. On December 11, 1923 an African American man, Fred Glover, was arrested on suspicion of attacking Mr & Mrs Edwin Sparks two days earlier. Glover, who had recently served time for burglary and grand larceny, was brought to the hospital and identified by Mrs Glover as her attacker. A search of his home produced a short-handled blood-stained hatchet and a pistol.
Four more arrests followed in January 1924. Glover, Peyton Johnson, John Reed, and O'Delle and Pearl Jackson were given doses of the experimental "truth serum" scopolomine, and collectively confessed to eight of the murders. Those confessions were affirmed after the effects of the drug had worn off.
Investigators described a "syndicate" of murderers who drew straws for the privilege of attacking selected targets. A man named Garfield was alleged to have founded the syndicate, but had died of natural causes during 1922.
Incidents
1919
- November 28: G. T. Ary was robbed and killed.
- December 24: John Belser was robbed and killed.
1921
- December 21: Joseph Mantione and his wife were robbed and killed.
- December 21: Mose Parker was robbed and killed.
1922
- January 11: Clem Crawford and his wife were robbed and killed.
- June 3: One of three members of the Lucia family died following an attack on their shop.
- November 6: Abraham Levine was robbed and killed.
1923
- January 10: Joseph Klein was robbed and killed.
- January 24: Luigi and Josephine Vitellaro were robbed and killed.
- May 28: Charles Graffeo was robbed and killed in his store. It appeared as if the attacker had come in and placed a nickel on the counter to purchase a bottle of oil. Graffeo was found behind the counter with his skull crushed by the blow of an axe. His pockets and the store's register had been rifled.
- October 22: Elizabeth Romeo and her daughter, Juliet Vigilante, were robbed and killed at Bernard Vigilante's shop. The attacker used a meat cleaver and stole $60 from the cash register.
- November 4: W. T. Conway and Jane Jackson, both African American, were attacked in a downtown alley with an axe or hatchet.
- December 9: Edwin Sparks and his wife were attacked with a hatchet. Mrs Sparks identified Fred Glover as her attacker when he was brought to the hospital.
References
- "'Truth Serum' Involves Five in Axe Murders, Clearing Up 44 Crimes in Birmingham, Ala." (January 1924) The New York Times
- "Ax Murders - Alabama" (December 11, 2006) at Serial Killer Central