A
jazz piece assembled for an early
20th-century serial killer operating in
New Orleans, called, not surprisingly, the
Axeman of New Orleans. The
Axeman's deal was he used to throw on his
slouch hat and then
chisel panels out of his
victims' front doors. He'd then
unlock the door, run in, and
hack at them with an axe.
Anyway, he was notoriously difficult to catch, and this one particular evening, he wrote a letter to a newspaper, and said that on such-and-such evening he would be walking the streets, and if he passed a house or apartment that wasn't blaring jazz on a record player, he would give those people the axe.
Axeman's Jazz was a piece written, I believe, after this particular evening.
Although the identity of the Axeman of New Orleans was never confirmed, the murderer of one Jack Mumfre claimed that Mumfre was the Axeman, and she was taking revenge for her husband, whom Mumfre killed. Whether or not this is true remains unknown.