| Show SETTING THEM ONE DY ONE The Violent Deaths in Different Parts of the World of the Men Accused of Complicity in the Crime of Killing Giuseppe di Primos Bro therinLaw EW YOnKA cablegram cable-gram from Italy tlio other day brought tho NEW that Vito dl Luca a land owner own-er had been shot and killed as ho was leaving leav-ing tho thdator In tho little town of Canal near Palermo and that the crime was connected with ono In America Tho news did not seem Important Im-portant but at almost the same time Salvatoro Marchlone or Marchese was killed hero and the coincidence appeared so strange In view of tho cabled reference to a crime In America Amer-ica that the Item found n place In the newspapers It was read by many Italians with a knowing smllo and by n few with n black frown For to them It had a deep and sinister meaning Ono or two of them hold up live fingers and whispered flvo names of which that of VIto dl Liica thoman killed In Sicily was the fifth Vila dt Luca or Laduca for ho has been known by both names used to keep a butchers shop In Stanton street Manhattan in 1903 and subsequently sub-sequently opened two In Brooklyn then ono in Baltimore If you mention men-tion his name at police headquarters tho will recall tho famous barrel murder ono of tho unsolved mysteries mys-teries of crlmo In New York and It is probable they will turn to n picture In the Rogues gallery bearing the name of Vito dl Luca alias Vito La duca They will also show you a portrait por-trait of Quiscppo dl Primo who they will tell you was tho brotherinlaw of Benedetto Madonla whose mutilated mutilat-ed body was found ono April morning In 1903 packed In a barrel at Avenue D and Eleventh street They will add that no ono was convicted of that crime but that a strange fatality has pursued tho men who were arrested on suspicion but who escaped with no punishment save a fine for carrying concealed weapons DI Primo Then In Sing Sing At the time of that murder Glut seppe dl Prime was In Sing Sing serving serv-ing a sentence for counterfeiting lIe was tho distributor of a largo gang of counterfeiters on whoso trail Detective Detec-tive Petroslnl who was killed a few weeks ago In Sicily had been camping camp-Ing and ho was tho first fruits of Potroslnls work After his sentence Benedetto Madonla made frantic efforts ef-forts to got him liberated A certain Tomasso Petto known as Petto tho Ox visited dl Prime In prison sev oral times Madonla was living In Buffalo but ho made many mysterious mysteri-ous trips to this city and PIttsburg The night before his body was found he had been seen by three secret service serv-ice men In tho butcher shop of Giu seppe dl Luca in Stanton street in company with several others of the men suspected of counterfeiting Giuseppe dl Primo In prison Identified a photograph of tho murdered man as that of his brotherinlaw Tho barrel In which tho body had been packed was similar to those In dl Lucas butcher shop As soon as tho murder became known tto secret service men who had were brought In slammed on the flour before tho Inspector and searched A heap of deadly coltclll and pistols and many rosaries were shaken from them Each was In a I panic of terror and tholr cries for I mercy mingled with the curses of tho officers Trembling and bleeding their clothing torn from them they were lined up and put through tho third degree When McClusky was through and tho wretches were hustled away to their cells the Inspector said Well boys we have got the right men and It Is our fault If wo dont put half of them In tho chair Could Not Be Proved Guilty On Petto the Ox were found pawn tickets for the murdered mans watch and other effects clothing on tho dead mans body was Identified as belonging belong-ing to several members of tho gangland gangl-and they wero tho persons seen with i him two hours before the finding of I his mutilated body But none of these men was convicted convict-ed of murder Potto the Ox was Indicted In-dicted for murder In tho first decree and committed to tho Tombs without ball and seven of his associates were at first held as witnesses but as the district attorney was unable to gather enough evidence against them they wero released Pettos friends engaged en-gaged tho best of counsel and after a year In prison tho district attorney consented to his liberation on his own recognizance on the ground that ho had Insufficient evidence to convict himTho Tho failure to convict the barrel murder gang for anything more serious than carrying concealed weapons was one of the most costly miscarriages of American justice on record That gang wns the first fruits of the Black Hand and If it had been crushed and Its rooted connection dug up and destroyed de-stroyed there might bo no Black Hand today but tho best that Petro slnl and the Now York police could do was to drive them out of New York The day they were freed Giuseppe dl Prlmo was In a state of wildly excited ex-cited suspense When ho heard the news ho raved but suddenly grew quiet and kneeling with his rosary in his hands he swore the great oath of vendetta Then he waited sending word to his friends outside tho prison walls to keep constant trace of tho gang that he wanted to know always where they were At the end of his three years term he walked out of tho doors of tho prison an exultant smllo on his crooked mouth took VITO NIGOLA DI Leta t tT NeIZA w r bIR01An0 PeTjo tlonomm LUDe WTNel1 Cm 7 WAIF been on tho trull of tho counterfeiting gang told Inspector McClusUy then In command of the detective bureau all they knew and In a few hours tlmo a dozen squads of four powerful and ticuvilynrmed detectives loft headquarters head-quarters and pounced on 16 prisoners In various parts of the city and at once rushed them to headquarters fbero ensued ono of the strangest scenes over witnessed In No 300 Mulberry Mul-berry street Each squad was stripped o handle Its prisoner The gangsters train ror uurcoio saw the widow and children of Mndonla tried his eye and hand for an hour In a Niagara street shooting gallery found that ho was still the wonderful marksman he had been and then vanished Petto the Ox First Victim Giuseppe dl Prime Is a little man with a thin hard taco and a crooked mouth All who know him remember him by his smile whlph Is crooked and cruel As soon as di Prime was released from Sing Sing Petto the Ox vanished from Now York Ho went to Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania and was soon living in a shanty near a mining settlement outside out-side Scranton He behaved as If ho was In hiding His neighbors spoke of his strangelyguarded actions Ono early morning he heard a volco calling his name Somebody was coming com-ing up thoN hill path y Ho took up his heavy revolver and stopped boldly to tho door Petto raised his gun and tired Ho missed The other man sent a bullet through Pettos pistol 1 hand knocking the revolver out of reach and n i i m < Mi burl lets the first In the feet tho second in tho right knee the third In the groin the fourth and last In tho heart and Petto tho Ox fell dead GIrolamo Mondint was ono of the later suspects arrested by McCluskey Ho had been ono of Rnfaello Pallz zolos band of cabmen In Palermo that had tho reputation of a fondness for killing for the fun of It A more desperate des-perate set of men than these never lived It Is on record that ft billiard hall proprietor offered ono of these men fifteen lire 3 ono night to stick n stiletto in tho leg of a perfect per-fect stranger who had created a disturbance dis-turbance In tho billiard hall Tho cabman took the money followed the man and an hour later drove up In front of tho billiard hall lifted out I I of his cab the strangers corpse with a 1 row of 15 stiletto wounds in the chest laid the grisly thing on the pavement tossed tho fifteen lire Into the door and drove away Second Man Lured to Death Mondlnl and Petto were close friends and tho former did tho lat ters letter writing Ho was not In i dl Loons butcher shbp the night Madonla was murdered On November 14 1906 just a month after Pettos death Mondlnl received a message purporting to be from a friend calling him to No 305 East One Hundred and Sixth street Ho went but Instead of his friend he meta met-a man at sight of whom he turned to J J ii I tiI 1ii 9 1 1 I 7 I I I i r f run but a bullet dropped him before ho had taken two steps The second of the suspects In the barrel murder case had met his fate Ignazlo Lupo tho wolf was the business man of the gang His saloon In Prince street was a favorite rendezvous ren-dezvous of the counterfeiters He was slightly deformed and had a very cunning cun-ning mind When the trouble was allover all-over ho changed his name to De Loup and was in business in the Bronx colony uptown About the time of dl PrImos release ho disappeared and no one knew where ho was until ono night ho was found near the railroad tracks In Niagara Falls with a bullet hole In his head and before ho died In the Sisters hospital ho told Glor dano Carmelo that It was the Madonla vendetta which had overtaken him Slain on Monte Pelegrlno Behind Palermo n grim and desolate mountain rises It Is called Monte Pelegrlno and it has seen enough bloodshed for ever rock to bear a stain Tho peoplo of tho city speak of u man going tho way of Pelegrlno which means with them the way of death at the hands of the Mafia In the old city Nicola Nera was known before he came to America merely asa as-a fruit vender who went about with n tray of melons figs or oranges on his head Ho left Palermo hastily after the disclosure In the marvelous nicardlGavonne murder case and Joined tho barrel gang here Tho returning re-turning tldo of Italians homeward bound for Christmas a year ngo took him back with a clean police record Ho had been hauled in as a suspect merely I One night last fall ho was drinking In a little wino shop when a little emaciated man with a crooked smile came in tapped him on the shoulder and said something In his ear Nicola Nera began to tremble violently but rose and followed the stranger out Tho next morning his body was found on Monte Pelegrlno The fourth of tho barrel murder suspects sus-pects was wiped out L Loon whoso murder In Sicily has just been announced makes the fifth It may bo that sere of the unidentified unidenti-fied Sicilians who have been found In various parts of the world In tho last two years bearing tho signs of having been murdered were members of this i I n i NVris that follows the gang has caught more than five However only five arc positively known now to hnvo perished That leaves about seven for of tho 16 who were arrested only 12 were suspected of actual participation In tho murder DI Primo Man of Mystery 1 And Glusoppe dl Primo who swore the dreadful oath of the vendetta when ho heard of his brotherinlaws murder ovoT ns tho Sicilians say where Is h07 Where has ho been In these last two years He was In Buffalo Buf-falo last Now Years day but his goings go-ings and comings are sudden silent unexplained When ho is seen his face always boars that cold cruel crooked smile and the Sicilians of Mulberry street tho vast respectable majority who mind their own business and have nothing to do with gangs or criminal secret societies hint that on the dates of those five murders Gin seppe dl Primo might have been found not many miles away from the scene of each These men also predict that within two years every man of the gang that was suspected of tho barrel murder will have been overtaken by a cold cruel crooked smile and a bullet or a dagger There are those who believe that the murder of Salvatore Marchese or Marchloul had some connection with that of dl hues but it will probably be found that their terminations one in Sicily one In Americawere simultaneous simul-taneous merely by chance Both how 1yryyJ over were of tho same class of the lowest order of the Mafia but Mar cheso is not known to have had anything any-thing to do with that barrel gang |
