100 years ago today, one of the bloodiest murders to ever happen on Monroe’s Southside happened right behind Riverview Cemetery.
Peter Palma, his wife Josephine and their son Peter, Jr. lived a happy, quiet life in their home at 4002 Lee Avenue. Peter ran a small grocery store next door, so he was always within shouting distance of his wife and son. Tragedy struck when Josephine developed stomach cancer. Peter took his wife to the best doctors in New Orleans, but there was nothing they could do. Josephine died at their family home in Monroe on October 2, 1926, a week before her 48th birthday. She was lovingly buried in St. Matthew Cemetery.
Unfortunately, Peter began to spiral. Friends say he was broody and melancholy over the death of his wife. He had even told his friend Frank Varino that several people were out to kill him. He asked Frank to take care of Peter, Jr. if anything happened to him.
Peter had three employees of the store with him that crisp fall morning of October 30, 1926. One of them, a weekend employee, was sent to deliver some pork chops to a customer. He told the man, “Stay there until the meat is cooked before you come back.” The man obeyed. The other two were left behind processing meat. They were 25 year old Henry Woods and 50 year old Willie Goins. After sending his employee away, Peter turned to his 14 year old son Peter, Jr. and told him to go to Joe Varino’s house on South Grand and get a haircut. The father told him to then stay at the Varino’s house until he was sent for.
Outside the store was a small boy named P.J. Baumgardner. Peter told the boy to run out to a distant mailbox to get the mail. The boy dutifully ran off. The plan was set in motion.
At 10 am, Mrs. J. Norris, a neighbor who lived across the street, heard a single shot, then two shots more. It sent her running to the store to investigate. Sitting at the Lee Avenue streetcar terminal nearby were 12 year old Len Stewart and 16 year old William Wells who also heard the shots and came running. All three peered into the door of the store and saw three bodies lying on the floor in pools of blood.
Mrs. Norris called the police at 10:07 am and a swarm of police came to the store, along with Coroner C.P. Gray. The scene was gruesome. Both employees lay face up around a butcher’s block, each with a single .38 wound to the head. Nearby laying in a doorway was Peter, also with a bullet wound to the head, but this one was self inflicted, above the right ear.
The coroner determined it was Palma who killed his two employees and then turned the gun on himself. It was decided that he was so distraught over the death of his wife that it drove him to take his life. Why he took the two other men with him is unknown.
Peter’s grave site is unknown. No headstone can be found. The best guess is that he was buried beside his wife Josephine in St. Matthew.
Leave a Reply