The Old Capitol Prison

[Steve]

In regards to the 1891 New Orleans mass lynching, the hidden context is often overlooked in most accounts. A biography of one of the lynching victims, Joseph Macheca, Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon is an excellent source of information on its background:

https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Water-Joseph...453732691/

There's an excerpt from the book here about the background from the 1868 - 1872 years relating to Reconstruction and the post-Civil War years:

http://mafiahistory.us/a016/f_nolafeud.html