Kentwood banker freed on uxoricide charge
Friday evening, March 22, 1929, Walter B. Burris, a cashier of the Bank of Kentwood, shot and killed his wife. He placed her gently on a couch and kissed her as their daughter looked on. The man kissed both goodbye before walking a mile into Kentwood and surrendering to police, refusing to explain his actions.
Police find something fishy about dead man’s legs
On a Thursday, October 28, 1948, police arrested a 68-year-old plantation straw boss for falsely reporting the death of his son, a Tallulah Bend fisherman. Authorities jailed George E. Dowdy under a 5,000 dollar bond after arresting his “dead” son, 23-year-old James D. Dowdy, at the Louisiana-Texas border.
Tangipahoa Parish’s Tickfaw Axeman revisited
Of all the cases, this column has covered these last five years, the story of the Axeman still prompts regular emails from readers. Although I shared updates on the topic in the first Bayou Justice book, readers still ask for more.
This week, we revisit and update the report with everything I have learned since sharing the original story five years ago.
One hundred years ago, someone claiming to be the Axeman of New Orleans sent a letter to the Times-Picayune newspaper. The letter said the killer would leave the city for good if everyone played jazz music the following Tuesday night ...
New book explores News Orleans’ Dixie Mafia links
In the 1980s, I began interviewing retired police officers and service workers who worked at businesses linked to reputed organized crime families. Over time, I found those most willing to share were retired burlesque dancers and bartenders from mob-connected clubs. That interview project became the Carnal Knowledge book series, and this week, we released the first in that series, Dirty Phenix: Birth of the Dixie Mafia.