He keeps track of the
slayings on what he calls the "murder board," a plastic
board that hangs outside his church. He started listing murder victims
earlier this year to humanize the headlines.
At first, the names
were neatly typed by a printer. But as the killings continued at a
rampant pace, he says, he resorted to adding victims' names by hand
with permanent marker.
"Numbers are
very easy to deal with emotionally. When it becomes a human being,
then we start to personalize and it's harder to deal with. I want
people to squirm. I want people to feel uncomfortable about the
murders going on in the city," Father Bill told CNN.
In the first 28 days
of this month alone, the city witnessed 26 killings, according to the
New Orleans Police Department. So far in 2007, police say 136 people
have been killed. That puts the city on pace for roughly 200 slayings
this year. 
See how the killings have affected New Orleans
»
Last year, New
Orleans had 161 murders,
which translates into a murder rate of roughly 70 homicides per
100,000 people, the highest in the country, according to FBI crime
statistics and population data. Gary, Indiana, was the next most
deadly city, with 48 murders per 100,000 people.
By comparison, New
York City's murder rate in 2006 was 7.3 per 100,000 people, according
to FBI statistics.
"You have these
cities you assume to be violent, and New Orleans is two or three times
worse," said Peter Scharf, director of the Center for Society,
Law and Justice at the University of New Orleans.
Scharf said the
widespread notion that Hurricane Katrina somehow caused the murder
rate to spike in New Orleans is not the full story. "Before the
hurricane, the murder rate was ascending. The wheels were coming off
at that point," he said.
Like many cities
across the United States, New Orleans' murder rate peaked in the late
1980s and early 1990s. It hit a low in 1999, but since then, the
murder rate has more than doubled, according to Scharf.
Every week, Father
Bill updates the "murder board": date, name, age, gender and
manner of death. "Murder Victims, 2007," it says at the top,
along with a quote from Psalm 46: "God is our hope and strength,
a very present help in trouble." 
Watch as Father Bill writes another name on the
board »
The church sits in a
neighborhood called Treme on the edge of the French Quarter; it's a
highly visible location that is heavily trafficked by pedestrians and
cars. Father Bill said the board makes a strong impression on those
who pass by it.
"There's a
moment of silence; there's a sense of awe; there's almost an epiphany
experience for most people that see it. They look at the 'murder
board' and you can see crystallizing ... the realization that these
are human beings and that we are literally in a holocaust, we are
slaughtering human beings. It's very transforming," he said.
Father Bill hopes his
message reaches the city's leaders, too. Every Monday, Father Bill has
red roses delivered to Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Chief Warren Riley
-- a single rose for each death that weekend.
"He sends those
roses I guess as a reminder," Riley said. "Certainly I can
appreciate him doing that, but I'm more aware of our crime problem
than anyone in the city."
Riley said he
believes you can't police your way out of crime. The city's youth need
to get out of the mindset that violence is the only way to solve a
dispute, he said. Back in January, Nagin promised to make lowering the
murder rate a top priority. In the face of ongoing violence, Nagin
told CNN recently he is doing all he can.
"Everything is
being done, from more resources, more dollars, more manpower, more
police officers. We've got the federal government involved," he
said.
Despite these
efforts, violence in New Orleans shows no sign of slowing down. Scharf,
the criminologist, believes city leaders should shoulder some blame
for not stopping violent crimes.
"It's the
capacity of the police and the district attorney and the courts. They
are not in the mainstream of their professions. Even worse, they don't
work together. They pee on each other's legs," he said.
Although the city has
witnessed hundreds of murders over the two years since Katrina, the
district attorney's office has won just three murder convictions since
January of 2006. This is partly because murder convictions in New
Orleans take two years on average, according to the DA's office.
"I am not going
to take the blame for all the sins of the criminal justice
system," District Attorney Eddie Jordan told CNN last month.
"Certainly we have our shortcomings, but we're working on our
shortcomings."
Before Father Bill
became a minister, he worked in the insurance industry. But 10 years
ago, he suffered an unbearable loss that forced him to take stock of
his life. His 18-year-old daughter, Tonya, committed suicide. She had
been diagnosed bipolar but was not taking medication. A neighbor
called to tell him Tonya had shot herself.
"Because of the
loss of my daughter, there is an affinity for loss, especially for
younger people. As a parent, I grieve with parents who lost their
children," he says.
One unanticipated
outcome of the "murder board" is that Father Bill now finds
himself counseling the parents of those who've been killed. One
mother, he says, called him to thank him for remembering her son. She
told him she thought nobody cared.
"This was a
particularly humbling experience," he says. "For someone to
trust you enough to say you remembered my son is daunting at the very
least. ... It's by the grace of God that we just have
conversation."
Father Bill doesn't
have any faith the killing will end anytime soon. He is already making
plans to hang another "murder board" next year.
