The story went that Charlie and his brother Harry, originally named Abraham and Isadore Sapio, moved to New Orleans from New York and opened up the 101 Ranch Cabaret. They ended up selling 101 to a man named Billy Phillips who changed the name to 102 Ranch. The Parkers then proceeded to open up a mix of a saloon and a dance hall right across the street from their old cabaret that they named the Tuxedo. It was noted across many articles that, despite the Tuxedo having more finery, Phillip’s business was more popular and successful. The Parkers ended up hiring a Russian immigrant who also was from New York’s Lower East Side named Charles Harrison- the infamous “Gyp the Blood” to work as a waiter. (The nickname was ironic because Charles Harrison wasn’t the only “Gyp the Blood” ever, Harry Horowitz gunned down a gambler on 42nd street in New York City in 1912, it was an event that happened only a year before Charles would take on the moniker.) All of that wasn’t to say that the Tuxedo was something to turn someone’s nose at, they had the Tuxedo Brass Band which was highly regarded during its time, and they even had Louis Armstrong playing for them at one point.
Rivalry led to extremely high tensions because 102 Ranch was doing so much better than the Tuxedo; brawls were reported to have happened between Phillips and his waiters fighting the gangsters hired to work at the Tuxedo, but everything really blew up and out of proportion on Easter morning of 1913. Some people were said to have been lingering and drinking at the bar, but it was technically closed. Phillips barged into the bar, allegedly throwing insults about how the Parkers were Jewish, threatened them, and then left only to return a few minutes later with his waiters. He supposedly offered to “buy the house a drink”. Harrison then walked behind Phillips and shot him twice in the back. Phillips fell to the ground, but managed to pull himself up to run out on Franklin Street outside. This led to a shootout where Harry Parker was killed, one of the employees was injured, Gyp was shot in the spine but miraculously lived and even momentarily ran through the alley in an escape attempt. By the time people arrived to help, Phillips was dead.
After everything happened, Harrison was deemed fit to stand trail, but there were two mistrials. Supposedly, after giving up on trying to conduct a third trial, Harrison moved back to New York where not much of anything was reported on him afterwards. It was difficult to find any information on the trials, what happened, any verdicts, or what specifically caused the mistrials themselves.