| Show hand for an hour in a Niagara street shooting gallery found that he was still the wonderful marksman he had been and then vanished “Petto "the Ox” First Victim Giuseppe di Primo is a little man with a thin hard face and a crooked mouth All who know him remember him by his smile which is crooked and cruel As soon asdl Primo was released from Sing Sing Petto the Ox vanished from New York He went to Pennsylvania and was soon living in a shanty near a mining settlement outside Scranton He behaved as if he was in hiding His neighbors spoke of his actions One early morning he heard a voice calling his name Somebody was comHe took up his ing up the hill path heavy revolver and stepped boldly to the door Petto raised his gun and fired He missed The other man sent a’ bullet through Petto’s pistol hand knocking the revolver out of reach and then he planted his bullets the first in the feet the second in the right knee the third In the groin the fourth and last In the heart and Petto the Ox fell dead Girolamo Mondinl was one of the later suspects arrested by McCluskey He had been one of Rafaello band of cabmen In Palermo that had the reputation of a fondness for killing for the fun of it A more desperate set of men than these never The Violent Deaths in Different Ptarts of the World of the Men Accused of Complicity in the Crime of Killing Giuseppe di Primo9 s Bro ' -t- her-in-Law EW YORK— A cablegram from Italy the other day brought the Information that Vito dl Luca “a land owner” had been shot and killed as he was leaving the theater In the little town of Carini near Palermo and that the with one in crime was connected America The news did not seem important but at almost the same time Salvatore Marchione or Marchese was killed here and the coincidence appeared so strange in view of the cabled reference to “a crime in America" that the item found a place in the newspapers It was read by many Italians with a knowing smile and by a few with a black frown For to them it had a One or deep and sinister meaning two of them held up five fingers and whispered five names of which that of Vito di Luca the man killed in Sicily was the fifth Vito di Luca or Laduca for he has been known by both names used to keep a butcher's shop in Stanton street Manhattan in 1903 and subsequently opened two in Brooklyn If you menthen one in Baltimore tion his name at police headquarters the will recall the famous "barrel murder" one of the unsolved mysteries of crime in New York and it is probable they will turn to a picture in the Rogues’ gallery bearing the name of Vito dl Luca alias Vito Laduca They will also show you a portrait of Guiseppe di Primo who they will tell you was the of Benedetto Madonia whose mutilated body was found one April morning in 1903 packed in a barrel at Avenue D and Eleventh street They will add that no one was convicted of that crime but that a strange fatality has pursued the 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 Giuseppe di Primo was in Sing Sing servHe ing a sentence for counterfeiting was the distributer of a large gang of counterfeiters on whose trail Detective Petro8ini (who was killed a few weeks ago in Sicily) had been camping and he was the first fruits of Petroslni’s work After his sentence Benedetto Madonia made frantic ef- - A certain qrts to get him liberated Tomasso Petto known as ‘‘Petto the Ox” viBlted di Primo in prison several times Madonia was living in Buffalo but he made many mysterious trips to this city and Pittsburg The night before his body was found he had been seen by three secret service men in the butcher shop of Giuseppe di Luca in Stanton street in company with several others of the men suspected of counterfeiting Giuseppe di Primo in prison identified a photograph of the murdered man as his of The barrel that in which the body had been packed was similar to those in di Luca’s butcher shop As soon as the murder became known the secret service men who had been on the trail of the counterfeiting gang told Inspector McClusky then in command of the detective bureau all they knew and in a few hours’ time a dozen squads of four powerful and detectives left headquarters and pounced on 16 prisoners in various parts of the city and at once rushed them to headquarters There ensued one of the strangest scenes ever witnessed in No 300 Mulberry street Each squad was stripped to handle Its prisoner The gangsters were brought in slammed on the floor before and the inspector A heap of deadly coltelll searched and pistols and many rosaries were shaken from them Each was in a panic of terror and their cries for mercy mingled with the curses of the officers and bleeding Trembling their clothing torn from them they were lined up and put through the third degree When McClusky was through and the wretches were hustled away to their cells the Inspector said: "Well boys we have got the right men and it is our fault if we don’t put half of them in the chair” Could Not Be Proved Guilty On Petto the Ox were found pawn tickets for the murdered man’s watch and other effects clothing on the dead man’s body was identified as belonging to several members of the feang and they were the persons seen with him two hours before the finding of his mutilated body But none of these men was convicted of murder Petto the Ox was itf’ dieted for murder in the first degree and committed to the Tombs without (bail and seven of his associates werey at first' held as witnesses but as the district attorney was unable to gather enough evidence against them they were released The failure to convict the barrel murder gang for anything more sefious than carrying concealed weapons was one of the most costly miscarriagea of Til American justice on 'record gang was the first fruits of the Blak Hand and if it had been crushed a its rooted connection dug up and de stroyed there might be no Black Hand but the best that Petro-sin- l and the New York police could do was to drive them out of New York The day they were freed Giuseppe di Primo was in a state of wildly excited suspense When he heard the news he 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 the prison walls to keep constant trace of the gang that he wanted to know always where they were At the end of his three years’ term he walked out of the doors of the prison an exultant smile on his crooked mouth took train for Buffelo saw the widow and children of Madonia tried his eye and dano Carmelo that it was the Madonia ON CONNIE MACK’S STAFF vendetta which had overtaken him Slain on Monte Pelegrlno Behind Palermo a grim and desolate mountain rises It Is called Monte Pelegrlno and it has Been enough bloodshed for every rock to bear a stain The people of the city speak of a man going "the 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 as a fruit vender who went about with a tray of melons figs or oranges on his head He left Palermo hastily after the disclosure in the marvelous murder case and joined the barrel gang here The re homeward turning tide of Italians bound for Christmas a year ago took him back with a clean police record He had been hauled in as a suspect One night last fall he was merely drinking in a little wine 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 The next morning his body was found on Monte Pelegrlno The fourth of the barrel murder sus pects was wiped out L Luca whosd murder in Sicily has Eddie Plank Is one of the veteran just been announced makes the fifth It may be that some of the unidentipitchers of the Philadelphia Athletics He is a southpaw with good control fied Sicilians who have been found in and the end of each season finds his name in the list of leading slabmen of the league HOW THE TEAMS WERE : NICKNAMED The following are the reasons for the nicknames of the big league clubs Naps? — That’s the short of Lajoie’a first name Napoleon Highlanders? — Tie park is on a bill Senators? — That’s all for right Washington that’s where they hiber nate Athletics? — Merely a ’handing down of the old name of the Philadelphia team Browns? — Another handing down from the days of Von der Ahe Tigers? — Detroit’s colors and disposition form the cause hite Sox? — They wear them Red Sox? — Similar reason Giants? — Once they were really giants in stature Quakers? — They come from the land of Penn Cardinals? — Robison is partial to the color Cubs? — Once the vets were kicked out for kids and the name stuck Superbas and Trolley Dodgers?— Brooklyn dislikes to be known as a suburb and the fans get much prac tice doing the dodge act wore Pirates? — Once Pittsburg black uniforms Doves? — Drop the final letter from Dovey’s name Reds? — Always wear bright red trimmings and stockings ) lived It is on record that a billiard hall proprietor offered one of these men fifteen lire ($3) one night to stick a stiletto in the leg of a perfect stranger who had created a dis turbance in the billiard hall The cabman took the money followed the man and an hour later drove up in front of the billiard hall lifted out of his cab the stranger’s corpse with a row of 15 stiletto wounds in the chest laid the grisly thing on the pavement tossed the fifteen lire into the door and drove away Second Man Lured to Death Mondini and Petto were close friends and the former did the lat ter’s letter writing He was not in di Luca’s butcher shop the night Madonia was murdered On November 14 1906 just a month after Petto’s death Mondini received a message purporting to be from a friend calling him to No 305 East He One Hundred and Sixth street went but instead of his friend he met a man at sight of whom he turned to run but a bullet dropped him before he had taken two steps The second of the suspects in the barrel murder case had met his fate Ignazio Lupo “the wolf” was the business man of the gang His saloon in Prince street was a favorite renHe was dezvous of the counterfeiters slightly deformed and had a very cunning mind When the trouble was all over he changed his name to De Loup and was in business in the Bronx colony uptown About the time of di Primo’s release he disappeared and no one knew where he was until one night he was found near the railroad tracks In Niagara Falls with a bullet hole In his head and before he died j In the Sisters’ hospital he told Gior- - various parts of the world in the last two years bearing the signs of having been murdered were members of this gang If so the Nemesis that follows the gang has caught more than five However only five are positively known now to have perished That leaves about seven for of the 16 who were arrested only 12 were suspected of actual participation in the murder Di Primo Man of Mystery And Giuseppe di Primo who swore the dreadful oath of the vendetta when he heard of his murder “ov’e?" as the Sicilians say— where is he? Where has he been in these last two years? He was in Buffalo last New Year’s day but his goings and comings are sudden silent When he is- seen his unexplained face always bears that cold cruel crooked smile and the Sicilians of Mulberry street — the 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 Giuseppe di 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 the 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 Mqrchese or Marchlonl had some connection with that of di Luca but it will probably be found that their terminations — one in Sicily one in America — were simultaneous merely by chance Both however were of the same class of the lowest order of the Mafia but Mar chese is not known to have had any thing to do with that “barrel gang” “Tip" for Club Owners In announcing two decisions on cases of “free agents” the national baseball commission warns the clubs under the national agreement that they should protect their interests by making all playe’rs sign contracts Jersey City Bent Arthur Degroff to Wilkesbarre Jersey City wanted the player back but Degroff claimed a free agent The player has proved his case but the commission says that clubs in the future should put no player on the pay roll without making him sign a contract Degroff had none with either clubW B Kay who was turned adrift by the Washsome club time also ington ago put in a claim that he was a free agent The commission however refused to allow his claim Kay is ordered to report to the Washington club at once Lives in Mexico The American association cannot boast of having a real Mexican player in its fold but it can lay claim to having a player who is a resident of the republic Jimmy Murray clever little outfielder of the St Paul club has been a resident of the City of Mexico for some time and that is where he goes every winter to live With his mother and sister who make their home there Jimmy was unfortunate this spring in having his leg broken in one of the first games played Manager Mike Kelly of the St Paul club did not release Jimmy but placed him in the hospital at Jommy O’Rourke who received a t with the Yanks last fall is making good with Columbus where he is playing second base’ In the same league with Jimmy is Sox Seybold the former Athletics’ star Sox is hitting the ball for Toledo in the style that (made him famous in the big show Fromme who was given to Cincinnati without a murmur is Bhowing grand ability Many critics that this Reuben was a star if he had decent luck behind him |
