Radio: The WKGC Spooktacular or an Experiment in Storytelling

This is a scary story told at the WKGC Halloween Spooktacular, the four-hour broadcast the station put on October 31^st. Featuring the voices of radio legends, Steve King and Johnnie Putman of WGN Chicago fame. It was worth every moment spent to time planning and running a show of this nature to get a taste for what exactly goes into an event of this length.

The Axeman of New Orleans

The year is 1919. The city of New Orleans is gripped in fear. For the last ten months there has been a string of savage murders with no leads to the identity of the killer or who he will go after next. The one thing that is consistent is the killers M.O.

The backdoor of the victim’s homes had been broken into with a chisel to pry open a panel near the handle and the tool of violence was a hatchet or axe victim’s own home. Due to this calling card,  the papers of New Orleans dubbed the killer the Axeman.

On March 14, the Times-Picayune newspaper received a letter addressed to the people of New Orleans from none other than the Axeman himself detailing his plans for the next attack:

Hell, March 13, 1919

Esteemed Mortal:

They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman.

When I see fit, I shall come and claim other victims. I alone know whom they shall be. I shall leave no clue except my bloody axe, besmeared with blood and brains of he whom I have sent below to keep me company.

If you wish you may tell the police to be careful not to rile me. Of course, I am a reasonable spirit. I take no offense at the way they have conducted their investigations in the past. In fact, they have been so utterly stupid as to not only amuse me, but His Satanic Majesty, Francis Josef, etc. But tell them to beware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for it was better that they were never born than to incur the wrath of the Axeman. I don’t think there is any need of such a warning, for I feel sure the police will always dodge me, as they have in the past. They are wise and know how to keep away from all harm.

Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. If I wished, I could pay a visit to your city every night. At will, I could slay thousands of your best citizens, for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death.

Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night [March 19, 1919}, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you people. Here it is:

I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.

Well, as I am cold and crave the warmth of my native Tartarus, and it is about time I leave your earthly home, I will cease my discourse. Hoping that thou wilt publish this, that it may go well with thee, I have been, am and will be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or realm of fancy.

The Axeman

This warning gave the city five days to book every musician, professional to amateur, to play jazz on that Tuesday night. New Orleans took this threat seriously. Dance halls were stuffed to the gills and parties were hosted in hundreds of houses just to make sure that they weren’t outside of earshot of the music.

As the city came to life with jazz throughout the night, it was just as the Axeman had promised: There were no murders that night.

Surprise and excitement abound as the Axeman was silent for several weeks after March 19^th, but unfortunately this story doesn’t have a happy ending. Another four people were attacked in the same manner as before with three surviving their encounter with the ghoul and the last slaying occurring on October 27, 1919.

After seventeen months terrorizing the city; taking the lives of 6 people and trying for 6 more, the Axeman of New Orleans vanished. Never caught, never heard from again.

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