Los Angeles herald., 1890-10-27


order, the penalty is death.
AS many as three letters are often sent
if the victim proves recalcitrant, when
some overt act is committed that con-
vinces him that the society is no mere
joke. He finds suspicious looking men
lurking around his dwelling. They fol-
low him home at night, track him
wherever he goes, evidently waiting for
favorable opportunity to strike the
blow, and they make his life so utterly
miserable that he finally surrenders and
gives the money.
Thousands of dollars have been OBJ
tanned by the assassins in this way, and
scarcely a prominent Italian but has
been plundered by these malefactors.
AS a general thing, they have kept
silent under these prosecutions, believ-
ing that the interference of the police,
instead of benefiting them, would result
only in something worse. One of them,
however. Mr.. Ben. Onorato, one of the
wealthiest Italian residents of New Or
leans, complained to Mayor Shake
speare. He said that he had been plum
dered of thousands of dollars by these
criminals, and that his life had been
made miserable by their threats. He
was promised all the aid of the police to
became alarmed and refused to furnish
the authorities with the papers which
might have helped to track the black
mailers.
This mode of brigandage is attributed
to Esposito, who, during his long resi-
dence in New Orleans, reorganized his
old gang on this new basis, which was
found so much more satisfactory than
the Sicilian plan of carrying Off the VIC
tim and demanding ransom.
Ii this brigandage or blackmailing is
more or less concealed it is impossible
Tor the Stopagherra to conceal its muir
ders, for there are the bodies to show for
them. These number thirty in all in
the past sixteen years. Nearly all the
crimes were committed in the same way
and dunder the same circumstances, show
ing if any evidence to that effect was
needed that they were committed by the
same gang of men. The gang chosen
for murder generally numbers five or
six "greenhorns," that is, newly ar
rived immigrants, who, it is reported,
are paid from $25 to 500 cash for their
work. The men are perfect strangers
to their victim. He is pointed out to
them, and they are told that they must
kill him. There is no hurry or impa-
tience. The work is done carefully and
deliberately, with every precaution
taken to prevent detection, and the as
sassins may wait month for favorable
opportunity. They want dark, rainy
night, just such night as Hennessy was
killed on. They completely surround
their victim, men being stationed at
every corner so that there will be no
chance for him to escape or for assistance
to come to him.
The Italian assassin of New Orleans
has long since abandoned the stietto.
Occasionally the banana knife, more
effective weapon, is used; but the blum
derbuss or sawed-off musket is the fav-
orite. 1t is Objectionable in this, that
it makes noise and alarms the police,
but it has the merit that it never fails.
In the long list of men thus attacked,
there is only one instance of the victim
escaping alive, and in this, the Matranga
case, both Matranga and Caruso were
riddled with balls and under ordinary
circumstances would have lost their
lives, but instead only lost their legs.
The sawed-off or folding musket is an
old double -barreled shotgun, the barrel
of which is filed off to the length of
about fifteen inches. The stock is also
removed, and another fitted to it with
hinge The weapon, therefore, is like
clasp-knife, three feet or more in length,
but when closed only fifteen inches.
The Italian using it can easily conceal
the gun in his coat or pants, effectually
hiding it. When it is ready for use, he
opens it and has double-barreled mus
ket, which will shoot further and better
than revolver. This is loaded to the
muzzle with rough slugs, which scatter
in firing, and which tear the victim
badly. Nearly all of the men killed by
the Stopagherra have been found with
from six to ten fatal wounds.
In twenty of these assassinations of
late years in New Orleans, the police
have made no arrests, and there was no
evidence of any kind attainable as to the
cause of death or identity OF the mur-
derers. In number of cases, the iden-
tity of the murdered man was also not
established beyond the fact that he was
an Italian. These police reports say
briefly:
can unknown Dago was found killed
on st. Philip street; eight or ten
wounds murderers unknown supposed
to be a vendetta"
They found one of these men cut to
pieces on the Pontchartrain shell road,
so mutilated as to be incapable of iden-
tification and the body covered with
brushwood. In the case of Giuseppe
Milano, the man after being murdered
had been mutilated, and coal oil poured
over his head and oody, and burned so
as to prevent Identification, in which,
however, the murderers failed, for he
was recognized by friends.
The capture of the brigand Esposito
by Hennessy in 1881, and his surrender
to the Italian government, resulted in
several killings. The Stopagherra de-
termined to avenge the betrayal of their
comrade. Within few days of the cap
ture of the brigand, Antonio Lobruso,
the man who had pointed him out, was
waylaid and assassinated on Exchange
alley. The murder was identical with
that of Hennessy. Labruso was killed
about midnight on dark night, and the
weapons used were the same folding
muskets employed in dispatching "the
chief" one of them being found in the
gutter. Three men assisted in dispatch
ing Labruso.
The great dread in which men who are
supposed to belong to the Stopagherra
are held by the italian population of
New Orleans was well shown in the case
of Vincente RuffO, who was killed here
four years ago.