Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 22-(Part 1):New Orleans Trunk Murders:Blood, Betrayal, and Butchery
The forgotten 1927 New Orleans Trunk Murders stand among the most gruesome crimes in the city's history. Sisters Teresa and Leonide had hoped to escape their troubled marriages to brothers Henry and Joseph Moiti, packing their belongings into trunks for a fresh start away from their cramped French Quarter apartment at 715 Ursuline Avenue.
What happened next shocked even veteran crime reporters. When a housekeeper arrived at their apartment on October 27th, she discovered a scene of unimaginable horror - blood splattered everywhere and dismembered body parts packed into the very trunks meant for the women's escape. Most chilling were the severed "lady fingers" and Teresa's wedding ring, viciously jammed into a wound on her back.
The story reveals the desperate circumstances of these young mothers trying to support their five children through sewing jobs while their "shiftless" husbands drank away what little money they had. When the women began seeking comfort elsewhere - particularly Teresa's flirtations with a married real estate agent operating from their building - jealousy and rage festered until it exploded in violence.
Among the victims' belongings, investigators found a haunting manuscript written by Leonide, containing an autobiographical story with an ominous warning to young women about marriage being "a life sentence." This prescient message adds a layer of tragic irony to a case that exemplifies the vulnerability of women in 1920s America.
This macabre tale connects with another dark chapter in New Orleans folklore - the nearby "sausage ghost" legend - creating an unsettling web of stories from the city's past. Join us for this two-part exploration of a crime that time nearly forgot, but whose gruesome details continue to shock modern audiences and illuminate the darker corners of Jazz Age New Orleans.
Looking forward to part two? Subscribe now to discover what happened to the murderous husbands, the fate of the five orphaned children, and how this shocking case connects to other mysterious happenings in the historic French Quarter.