Stiletto the sharp point to inflict severe internal damage not readily apparent when examining the entrance wound. The stiletto followed the first wave of Italian diaspora to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana during the mid-19th century, where the knife became a popular weapon of gamblers, gang members, and assorted assassins. The stiletto was involved in so many stabbings and murders in New Orleans that the city passed an ordinance in 1879 outlawing the sale or exhibition for sale of any stiletto within the city limits. Italian immigrants to America frequently purchased or made such knives for self-defense, and the stiletto
USS Stiletto (1885) sea trials held subsequently were disappointing, and the experiment was not repeated. "Stiletto" was struck from the Navy list on 27 January 1911 and sold on 18 July 1911 at Newport to James F. Nolan of East Boston, Massachusetts for scrapping. USS Stiletto (1885) USS Stiletto, a wooden torpedo boat, was launched in 1885 at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, Rhode Island, as a private speculation. She was purchased for the United States Navy under an Act of Congress dated 3 March 1887, and entered service in July 1887, attached to the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport Rhode Island. "Stiletto"