A few months ago me and my boy were discussing what went on in the movie Phone Booth, Which is about a Serial Sniper who watches your every move and Kills you at Some point. While we were sitting there talking about the Sniper Character He asked his mom "What would she do if there was a Sniper on Canal Street While You're Walking around....."
From there she told him that there was a sniper here in New Orleans who killed about 16 people Down Town at a hotel Near Canal Street back in the 70's .. She couldnt remember his name, so I asked My Mom and dad.
They Said that He was a Black Panther by the name of Mark Essex. My Dad was in the Air Force With His Brother durring thie time. They said that He Stood on the Howard Johnson Hotel (which is now N.O's City Hall *if im correct* ) .. as he made his way into the hotel, He killed a some folks & Set the building on fire Later He Made it to the top and started Shooting White people Killing a Firefighter and a police officer and everything .. My mom said that it came on the news & They blocked the streets off so that no one would pass his way.
the stand-off ended with a shot to the head from a helicopter.
I Looked it up durring that time and i found Pictures if him on the hotel Dead, The Wall that he Hid Behind had Markings on it with Hate graffiti
Its wild because a "What If" Turned out to be Truth.
Its more to it than i was told
Type in "Mark Essex Into the Google Search Box and read on it There are pics of his dead body on top of the Hotel and everything There are books on this guy..
New Orleans Black History
3 comments:
There is a book written about it, A Terrible Thunder, its worth checking out. You can buy it or go to Tulane's Jones Library or Loyola's library to read it. The Old HoJo is now the Holiday Inn on Loyola downtown (the one with the clarinet painted on the side). Read the book, it'll help you to make your post more accurate. Im glad you know about this huge event in NOLA history, you should see if you can understand where he was coming from, or see if you totally disagree. Mark Essex lived a good life that turned bad.
Yeah, when I was researching that Information last year i saw the book posted on a site similar to amazon. yeah, At First I thought it was the city hall building from what i was told. and when i thought about the Height and location i said that it's gotta be the Holiday Inn. later on that year i wrote this, while passing up the that area I'd look up and everywhere else just to get a feel of how this all went down.
since history is always written by the conquerors, we may never in our time know if mark essex will be remembered as a martyr or a hero. but one thing is fa sho, he put it on everybody's mind at that time that sometimes, people buck back.
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