Miriam C. Davis

“Many aspects of the Crutti, Rissetto, Davi, and Sciambra (and later the Andollina and Maggio) attacks were similar: targeting a successful grocery and bar in an unfashionable, isolated part of the city (the Sciambra grocery was less than a mile from the Crutti place) and breaking in during the dead of night. Robbery was never the motive. The assailant usually targeted the man first, if he attacked the woman at all. Harriet Crutti, Mary Davi, and Anna Andollina escaped relatively unscathed. Only Joseph and Conchetta Rissetto were attacked with equal ferocity. And perhaps Catherine Maggio wouldn’t have died if she hadn’t attempted to defend her husband.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story

“In the late 1870s, Alphonse Bertillon, a clerk with the Sûreté in Paris, developed a system for classifying criminals based on measurements of various body parts. Each person had a unique collection of measurements that could be collected and used for identification. In the 1880s bertillonage, as it came to be called, spread over Europe and the United States.”
― Miriam C. Davis, The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story