At the beginning of 1973, in New Orleans, an unknown Black gunman embarked on a racially motivated killing spree, targeting White people. 23 people were shot, with 9 dying as a result and 14 injured.

At the end of December 1972, WWL-TV, a New Orleans television station, received a strange hand written letter.

“Africa greets you. On Dec 31st 1972 11pm, the Downtown New Orleans Police Dept will be attacked. Reasons – many. But the death of two inocent Brothers will be avenged. And many others.”

The letter threatened an attack on New Orleans Police. The two innocent brothers, seemed to be referring to two Black students who had died during a student demonstration on 16th November 1972, at majority Black, Southern University, Baton Rouge. The protest had been regarding lack of resources available for the Black students[24]. Police had received a call saying the University President was being held hostage. Consequently they went in with riot gear including an armoured personnel carrier and used tear gas on the unarmed students. Students Denver Smith[23] and Leonard Brown died from shot gun injuries. No Police were held to account and the Black community was enraged, with 700 people attending Denver Smith’s funeral.

31st Dec 1972 – The New Year’s Eve attacks

In the last minutes of 1972, new year’s eve at 10:55pm, a White Police cadet,  Bruce Weatherford, was walking up to New Orleans Police building entrance on Perdido Street, to report for duty. He heard a gun shot and ducked out the way, and a shot missed his head. A Black Police officer, Alfred Harrell, 19, had just finished his shift and ran to Weatherford’s aid. Harrell was shot in the chest and becoming the first fatality of what was to become known as the ‘New Orleans Sniper’.[15]

The killer used fire crackers to cause a diversion and escaped, running into the Gert Town part of New Orleans. Shortly after an alarm was triggered at the Burkart Manufacturing Building on the corner of Euphrosine and South Gayoso. Two Police officers with a Police dog were dispatched to the scene. Whilst leaning over to let the Canine out, one of the officers, Edwin Hosli Sr, 30, was shot in the back with a .44 calibre shell, causing a severe internal injuries. He was to die from his injuries 2 months later.[16] The other officer fired back at the attacker. More officers joined the pair but the killer had already left. 

For the next few days the killer evaded Police searches, whilst hiding in various places in the vicinity, including St Mark Baptist Church, 1630 Simon Bolivar Ave where he was spotted hiding there by a Minister. On the 3rd Jan, a Black male in his early 20s, around 5’4″, was observed by Joseph S Perniciaro, the owner of Joe’s Groceries, at at Erato and South Gayoso Streets, with a blood stained hand covered in a bandage as he purchased provisions. 

7th January 1973 – The Downtown Hotel attacks

Around 10am, on the 7th January, the Black male returned to Joseph S Perniciaro’s[1] grocery and shot the White shopkeeper with his .44 carbine rifle. Shortly after this he stole African-American, Marvin Albert’s 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle car, outside his house on 1506 South White Street, shouting: 

“I don’t want to kill Black people today, just honkies. I don’t want to kill you, but I will kill you.””[25]

The car thief made off to Downtown Howard Johnson’s hotel at 330 Loyola Avenue and drove up to the 4th floor of the hotel car park. He then ran up the car park stairwell, searching for open fire doors that would allow illegal access into the Hotel. Finding a door on the 18th floor, propped open with some linen by hotel maids, he entered the hotel. On seeing 3 Black members of the hotel staff he stole the keys off one maid called Carrie and said

“This is a revolution, but don’t worry, sis, we’re only shooting Whites today.”[21]

In the corridor outside Room 1829, the armed man was seen by Dr. Robert V. Steagall, 28 who exclaimed “What are you doing?”[2] and then struggled with the attacker before being shot in the arm and being knocked to the floor where he was then wounded fatally with a shot in the chest. His wife, Elizabeth, 25, came out and screamed “Please don’t kill my husband!” As she cradled her dying husband[3], she was shot her in the base of her skull, killing her instantly[4]. They died locked in each others arms. After dropping a Pan-African flag near their bodies the killer set fire to their room.

A Black hotel maid tried to explain to managers what was happened, and in disbelief Frank Schneider, 62, the assistant manager, went upstairs in the elevator to investigate, along with Walter Collins, the desk clerk and Donald Roberts a porter. Schneider and Roberts got out at the 11th floor and immediately saw Beatrice Greenhouse, a hysterical Black house maid, who attempted to warn them of the danger, just before the Black shooter appeared and shot Schneider in the back of the head, killing him[5]. Roberts, the porter managed to escape and phoned the Police.

A fire was started on the 11th floor and the killer descended to the 10th floor, encountering the General Manager, Walter Sherwood Collins, 56, who was attempting to warn guests about the fires. Collins was shot and was to die from his injuries a few weeks later.[6]

At 11am two Police officers, Burl and Childress, arrived to investigate reports of an armed intruder. After talking to a house maid they ascended the elevator to which, due to the fires, automatically stopped near the 18th floor, trapping the men inside the lift for hours.

Around the same time, 43 year old broadcasting executive Robert Beamish was attempting to flee the building, having realised there was a fire. As he walked across the 8th floor swimming pool plaza, a Black male jumped out and aimed a gun at him. He was shot in the stomach with a .44 round, knocking him into the pool. The bullet missed vital organs and Beamish was able to play dead for hours, floating in the pool, his raincoat acting to keep him buoyant. 

At 11.20am the Police officers arrived en-masse at the Hotel and established a command post on the ground floor. Superintendent Giarrusso deployed marksmen around the hotel before starting a room to room search. Fire fighters had also arrived and were attempting to rescue guests stranded by the many fires started from their balconies.

One fireman, 29-year-old Timothy Ursin, had climbed about 8 floors up on a ladder with fire fighting equipment and was attempting to rescue guests from a balcony. Below him on the ladder, were 2 Police officers, Bill Trapagnier and Jack Uhle[25], attempting to enter the hotel to counter attack the killer. Ursin heard a gunshot and a bullet ripped through his shoulder from a lower position to where he was standing. Looking down he was aware of blood pouring from his left sleeve. Trapagnier fired a volley of shots at the sniper. Ursin was to survive his injury, but after months of reconstructive surgery would have his left arm amputated. [22] As paramedics placed him in an ambulance, the ambulance driver, 20-year-old Christopher Caton, was shot in his back and injured.

The Police Sharpshooters, next came under fire. Charles Arnold was in an office complex across the street and on opening the window a bullet passed through his jaw sending him sprawling onto a desk. He managed to walk to the nearby Charity Hospital and survived his injury.

A 33 year old sheriff’s deputy named David Munch was on the 8th floor of the nearby Rault Center and was shot in the leg and neck as he attempted to take aim. He said he was shot with a man in a black top who had a person who might have female with him wearing a light brown overcoat.

At 11.55am patrolmen Kenneth Solis and David McCann attempted to dispel a crowd of spectators from a plaza north of the hotel.

As the two walked from beneath a canopy of trees to reach a crowd of onlookers, Solis was shot in the right shoulder, with the bullet exiting beneath his lower rib cage. As Solis fell, a 43-year-old Police officer named Emanuel Palmisano ran to his aid, only to be shot in his arm and back.

A 26-year-old patrolman named Phillip Coleman—responding to Palmisano’s cries for help—drove his patrol car onto the plaza. As Coleman rolled out of the driver’s seat and opened the rear door in order that Palmisano and Solis could be transported to Charity Hospital[9], he was shot fatally in the head.[7]

As guests streamed down the stairs to escape the fires, a Police officer, Michael Burl, and Police mechanic, Bobby Childress, volunteered to go through the hotel to help them. One holding the door open with his foot, the other checking the hallways, they rode the elevator to the 16th floor. There, a woman they later described as “a little old lady” was patiently waiting for the elevator. She got on, went to the back of the car and faced the rear, riding down to the lobby without uttering a word.

On the 4th floor car park, whilst possibly attempting to escape in the stolen car, the shooter fired at 2 Police officers standing guard, missing them.

Shortly after traffic officer, Paul Persigo, 33 was outside the hotel, attempting to move onlookers out of the field of fire to safety. He was shot from the 16th floor in the mouth with a .44 rifle round, causing him to stagger several feet before collapsing on the sidewalk. He was pronounced DOA at Charity Hospital.[8]

Shortly after 12pm, Deputy Superintendent Louis Sirgo organized a rescue party of himself and three men, to free patrolmen Burl and Childress, believed to still be trapped inside an elevator shaft close to the 18th floor. At 1:07 p.m., while approaching the 16th floor, Sirgo and his colleagues heard what they believed to be a Police whistle sourcing from this floor. Believing this whistling sound to source from the two trapped patrolmen, the four officers ascended further. As Sirgo turned the final corner of the staircase, he was shot at almost point-blank range through the chest, knocking out a section of his spine, causing Sirgo to fall backwards onto his colleagues. The shooter immediately turned and ran in the direction of the hotel roof. Sirgo would be pronounced dead on arrival at Charity Hospital.

Around 2pm one of the killers was hiding in a concrete cubicle on the South East of the roof of the building. A CH46 Marine helicopter had been commandeered by Lt. Colonel Charles Pitman, who had taken the aircraft to the scene of his own accord, before gaining Air Traffic Control permission. Pitman landed near the hotel to allow 5 sharpshooters to board. And then performed several strafing runs hovering 25ft above he roof while the riflemen fired. As the helicopter moved off to allow the snipers to reload, the shooter would return fire. At this point visibility was restricted with the many fires still raging.

After several hours Superintendent Giarrusso got a Black officer to attempt to get Essex to surrender with a loudspeaker for several minutes.

“What do you say, brother? Why not save yourself? Give up before it’s too late. If you’re wounded, we can get you medical help.” 

“Power to the people!” shouted back the gunman.

“Come on down, man. Don’t die. Don’t make us kill you”, the gunman refused to speak any other words.

Around 9pm, after 7 hours cowering in the cubicle on the roof, the gunman charged into the open shouting “Come and get me!” whilst running in a zigzag pattern. He was almost immediately shot by sharpshooters in overlooking buildings. The CH46 helicopter started another approached at that moment and also reigned down fire. The force of the shots knocked the man back several feet and he fell onto his back 20 feet from the cubicle. He was fired on for about 4 minutes before a ceasefire, and was later found to have more than 200 rounds in his shattered body. With only 2 rounds left, this was an act of suicide.

The New Orleans Sniper 

The man shot on the roof was discovered to be a young Black male called Mark “Jimmy” Essex. He had grown up in during the 1950s and 60s, in the racially harmonious, small American town of Emporia, Kansas, where he was accepted and liked in the, majority White, community. He went to Church, played Saxophone in the school band and was from a stable middle-class, close-knit, African-American family.

After school he moved to California, San Diego, in 1969, to start a career in the Navy. After the basic training he was encouraged to specialise in naval dentistry and starting an apprenticeship as a Dental technician, where he formed a bond with his supportive White supervisor,  Lieutenant Robert Hatcher.

Despite this good start in life Essex was to become dramatically racially radicalised in response to perceived slights and prejudice from White Naval colleagues. At the time the Navy was majority White with small numbers of Black Seamen, many in menial roles due to low educational abilities. He became increasingly isolated and through another Black navy colleague, Rodney Frank, discovered the Marxist Black Panther movement and began reading their literature. In 1970 Essex punched a White enlistee after he had made a racially insensitive comment. This resulted in Essex going AWOL and, after only a year there, being discharged from the US Navy, following a disciplinary.

Essex next moved to New York and connected with the Harlem Black Panthers Chapter, where he started to learn techniques of Guerrilla warfare for violent uprising against Whites that the group agitated for. He brought a hunting rifle and revolver and gained practice using them.

By the end of 1972 he had been living in New Orleans and was by day studying to become a vending machine repair engineer. However outside of that he was depressed and increasingly militant. His flat was later discovered to be covered in writing on the walls with slogans calling for the murder of Whites and violent African supremacist slogans:

“My destiny lies in the bloody death of racist pigs.”
“Hate White People beast of the earth – Kill – Kill”
Kill the devil

When the two Black students were shot and killed by Police during the Baton Rouge protest on 16th November 1972, his yearning for violent justice against the hated White people as they had become was activated in earnest. Writing to his mother said

“I have now decided that the white man is my enemy. I will fight to gain my manhood or die trying.”

It interesting to note that the African-American who had friendships with many White people and benefited from living in a safe and harmonious White community growing up, had been triggered to murderous, warlike state of pure racial hatred for Whites after receiving what amounted to a few verbal insults aimed at his race, from White people in the navy. The deaths of the student protestors seemed to be used as something to legitimise the violence he sought to commit against the White race he had come to despise.

The mystery of the other Black Panther Killers

Although Mark Essex was dead at 9pm Sunday, the shooting was observed as continuing after his death, witnessed by many credible Police and News reporter witnesses through to the early hours of Monday. It was only on Monday afternoon, after storming the roof at 1.45pm that the hotel siege was declared over. Multiple attackers were observed by a variety of eye witnesses during the siege. Now decades later, the other attackers seem to have been forgotten. Did the other Black Panther killers give the authorities the slip during the 28 hours of chaos?

Shots fired at police – after Essex was dead

There were a number of witnesses who reported gunfire targeting Police, after Essex was dead. This included the helicopter crew who received gun fire – after he had been killed.[19] This was supported by a United Press International reporter, Joe Manguno, who was on the 17th floor of the Rault Center. He said shortly after Essex was killed he saw a man stick a rifle out of one of the concrete cubicles and shout “power to the people” then fire twice at the helicopter.[21] John McMillan of The New Orleans Times‐Picayune said that at about 1:40 A.M. on Monday, Jan. 8, while on the 15th floor of the Rault Center at about the same level as the roof, he heard a voice shout, “you honky pigs…why don’t you [obscenities] come on the roof like a Black man.”[21] Some Police at the scene reported that they heard conversation between a man and a woman on the roof after Essex’s death.[21] At dawn at 4am on Monday, 7 hours after Essex had been shot dead, three Police officers crouching in a stairwell leading to the roof had been wounded as someone opened the door from the roof and shot down at them.[19]

Sightings of two other attackers

There were multiple sightings of two other attackers present with Mark Essex, wearing different clothing and with different physical attributes to Essex. For this reason the Police and press reports on the day, describe multiple attackers being present.

Robert Beamish saw his attacker when he jumped out and took aim and then watched from a distance for hours, whilst pretending to be dead in the pool. He describes a man about 5’8” who was lighter skinned than Essex with a light tan jacket and brown trousers. “The man they shot on the roof is not the same man who shot me, I would say this man was taller than 5 foot 4. He was slender and fairly light‐colored and about the same height I am, 5 foot 8.” 

The unnamed witness working in the Rault Center, supported Beamish’s observations. He said he saw a shooter with light skin, about 5’9” tall with an Afro haircut crouched in the bushes on the swimming‐pool patio holding a rifle in his right hand and motioning with his left hand for a companion to stay inside a room. “The one in the room was short and skinny and had dark skin,” the witness said. “He was the one who got killed.” Essex was only 5’4” was skinny with dark brown skin so matches this description. This supports what Beamish observed.[21]

David Munch in the Rault Centre said he was shot by a man that matches Essex appearance, with a black top and green camouflage trousers. However, next to him was a person who looked like a female with him wearing a long, light brown overcoat and with long hair.[21] “This woman could have been a man. It could have been a stud with long hair, you just can’t tell these days, but it looked, just looked, like a woman.” 

When Mark Essex had spoken to the Black maids he had said “we’re only shooting Whites today”, the use of “we’re” could have been referring to the other killers in his group.

don’t worry, sis, we’re only shooting Whites today.

Reports of a suspicious group taking rooms before the attack 

A Police source said there were reports of a group of people the Police were interested in, checking into the Downtown Hotel that weekend, taking a room or rooms.[21] This would have allowed the group to stash weapons and ammunition in the hotel in advance. When Essex stole the vehicle before driving to the Downtown, the victim noted he wasn’t carrying a large amount of ammunition.

Multiple shooters witnessed 

The observers who were under fire described hearing and observing shots coming simultaneously from multiple positions, which would not be possible with a single shooter.

Escaping during the chaos could have been possible

Firstly the attackers had had time to plan an escape and to learn the details of the layout of the building. In the Canberra Times it was described that the Police only discovered a hidden stairway between the 18th floor and the rooftop in the early hours of Monday morning. So it is likely the attackers knew of this and had used it to pass undetected amongst the Police.[21]

In all the chaos it is possible the attackers might have made their way to a lower level and then pretended to be fleeing guests, or to have donned emergency services uniforms to blend in with large numbers of personnel on the scene which included 600 Police from multiple different Police departments. At around 5am Monday morning, the Police radio reported a store owner had seen a Black man drop a Police‐type jacket near Melpomene and Clairborne – might this have been a killer jettisoning their a disguise?  Just after noon, Monday, the Police radio put out a bulletin to intercept a green Torino, reported stolen. The occupants, a black man and woman, were said to have just bought 20 rounds of .223 ammunition. 

Another escape route would have been for the killers to have posed as injured guests. In one News footage clip, from the day, we see a Black male being wheeled away by an ambulance crew, with an appearance matching that of one of the attackers – brown trousers, jacket and facial hair. 

By the time the Police finally made it up onto the barricaded rooftop at 1.45pm Monday afternoon, there was no sign of the other attackers. Searches of the hotel’s false ceilings, air-conditioning tunnels and nooks and crannies also showed no results. The attackers had vanished.