Forty years ago an embittered Black supremacist, Mark James Robert Essex, who had been recently involuntarily discharged from the Navy, terrorized New Orleans and the Nation when he holed up in the Downtown Howard Johnson's for nearly ten hours killing several people while laying waste to much of the 17 story Motor Lodge.

The reign of terror began December 31, 1972 when Essex attacked police headquarters and killed an unarmed police cadet. Not long after shooting up the police station he struck again, and shot a police officer answering a burglar alarm who later died. Then on January 1, 1973, he set fire to a downtown warehouse that turned into a huge blaze that burned for five days. But the worst was yet to come.

Shortly after 10:00 a.m. on January 7, 1973, Essex began his final murderous rampage by shooting a grocer, and confessed to his next victim that he was only out to kill "just honkies." In a stolen car he was chased into the Howard Johnson's parking garage. Essex made his way through the Motor Lodge setting off firecrackers, starting fires with phone books, and shooting innocent people. Among the murdered were four Motor Lodge guests, the general manager of the hotel, the assistant manager, and several police officers. Finally at 9:00 p.m. local law enforcement, with the assistance of the Marines, gunned Essex down with a barrage of more than 200 bullets on the roof of the Howard Johnson's, ending one of the more brutal episodes of terrorism in our Nation's history.