City Archives
New Orleans Public Library
TP205h
New Orleans (La.) Police Dept.
Homicide Reports,1893-1947

The New Orleans Police Department's homicide reports for the years 1893-1947 are recorded in bound volumes, one book for each year. Individual reports consist of a standard form and a detailed narrative report usually prepared by the investigating officer.

The form used in 1914, for example, includes the following information (not all of which is actually provided in all cases):

  • Police precinct
  • Date of report
  • Name of person killed
  • Residence (address)
  • Business (address)
  • Name of accused
  • Residence (address)
  • Business (address)
  • Location of homicide
  • Day, date, hour committed
  • By whom reported
  • To whom reported
  • Time reported
  • If arrested, by whom
  • Where arrested
  • If escaped, in what manner
  • Witnesses (names and addresses)
The narrative reports provide, in the officer's own words, a detailed description of the circumstances of the homicide as determined by his investigation. In most cases the victims, accused, and witnesses are identified by race.

Most volumes are indexed by the name of the murdered person. Reports are missing for the years 1894, 1899, 1900, 1904, 1917, 1920, 1932-1934, 1936-1937, 1940, and 1944. The reports are available on microfilm except for the 1908 volume (ask an archivist for access to that item). Reports of homicides for the period 1950-1965 are included in the New Orleans Police Department offense reports.

The homicide reports from 1898 - 1913 (with the exception of those noted above as missing) have been digitized and made available online by the Criminal Justice Research Center of Ohio State University, as part of their Historical Violence Database. To access these records, link here: http://cjrc.osu.edu/researchprojects/hvd/usa/neworleans/.

Also available in the Archives are Statements of witnesses to homicides, 1930-1945.

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9/8/1998--we (rev. 1/27/2006)