The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-11
BUTCHERED In WATER TUNNEL
NINE STAB WOUNDS IN ITALIANS
BREAST AND STOMACH.

He Had Been showing 400 and Asking How
to Send II to the Old COuntry-Nilss-
ang Since, TIL They Found Him Life
less I'm q Jerome Reservoir Culvert.
Felipe Vintemiglia, son OF Italy and
laborer, is dead, with nine stab wounds in
his stomach and chest. They found his
body yesterday In the middle Of long
tunnel which Is to be part OF the city's new
waterworks plant some day.
Fifty feet away from the body was a
cheap hunting knife of a sort which the
weapon-carrying Italian likes to have
with him and grind down to a fine and
murderous edge in his moments Of leis-
| ure.
The late Felipe lived at 23S Villa avenue
| in Bedford Park He was last employed
on the Subway-just where, the police had
not learned last night Before that be
worked on the Jerome Park reservoir.
! He was last seen about three weeks ago.
He came back to the boarding house with
his pay and showed his TO DOMINATE $50 in
bills. Felipe said he was going to send
the $50 home to his mother in Italy, but
that he didn't know how.
The roommate, whose name the
police would not make public
last night, said that he knew
Would no show Felipe? All, no.. for it
| was necessary to go far down into the city
to the Post Office and there buy money
order and get some stranger to do much
writing and this would take almost the
whole Of a working day.
But the roommate offered to under
take the commission IL Felipe would pay
him for the days time that would be lost
in the process. Felipe declined-he said
he would get some more generous and
| obliging person to show him how to send
the money home.
If the solemn asserverations Of all the
Villa avenue lodging houses are true, no
ono from that neighborhood has seen Felipe
alive since.
If his disappearance created any stir
1t was not enough Of stir to leave police
record behindi it.
Felipe did not come home; very well.
he must have found some other place to
live. even though he left his valise, con-
tanning all his earthly goods not carried
on his back, in his room.
Yesterday morning Foreman Fortunet OF
one of the gangs OF the jerome Park la
borers went into the new pipeline tunnel
to inspect it before putting gang OF men
at work inside. This tunnel when in use,
will carry water from the middle OF the
reservoir to point near the Mosholu Park
way ana IIle NuIlllll Wllclc Will
join the present aqueduct.
The tunnel il now partly above ground
and party underground. There is tenn
porary entrance to the tunnel at the edge
of the new reservoir, which If, OF course,
still dry, and another out in the middle of
the reservoir, through which the water is
to flow when the work is completed.
Foreman Fortunet entered from the
temporary opening. When he had gone
some distance into the tunnel he became
aware that something was dead in there
He went on and found body lying in
pool Of water. The body had plainly been
there some time.
Fortunet called several Italians belong
ing to his gang, and also Policeman Mc(irury
Of the Kingsbridge station. McGrury
stayed on watch near the body and sent
for Coroner O'Gorman and Acting Captain
Schlottman of the Kingsbridge station.
The acting captain made ctrsory search
of the body and found in one OF the pockets
lone tive-dollsr bill, tightly W added.
He distinguished nine different stab wounds
In the abdomen and chest. The C lothlng
upon the body was that of the typical
Italian subway laborer on holiday.
Two men Of Fortunet's gang said they
and his general features-the body was
so much decomposed that his features
were almost mrecognizable-wer those of
Felipe Vintemiglia Their names we're
francesca Fisceo and Giuseppe Armeli,
and they lived in Villa avenue, near the
house where Felipe had boarded. They
took the police to the house.
When Coroner OGorman came ne
brought with him Policeman Brady. They
had hardly reached the body when Brady
found horn-handled hunting knife marked
Granite Cutlery Company, Sheffield"
fresh rust stains. The knife had been
ground a great many times since it WAS
sold
About an eighth OF an inch Of the point
Of the blade was broken of. The Coroner
thought it had been broken in hacking at
Felipe's hand when the hand was lifted
in self-defense One Of the fingers OF the
right hand was split open and scratched,
The Coroner gave orders for the sending
of the body to Fordham Morgue and then,
with the acting captain, went to Delgiza's
flats in Bedford Park, where Felipe had
lived. They took with them the measure
ments Of footprints which were found in
the mud when the water in which Felipe's
body Law had been drained OFF.
AT Felipes boarding house they found
his roommate, whose name they forgot to
ask. In the room was the dead mans
valise. There was also a pair of shoes;
which, according to the Coroner, measured
exactly the same as the footprints in the
mud.
The roommate Of Felipe told with great
volubility the story Of the way Felipe
wanted help in making out the sixty-dolla
money order. There was a suggestion that
he be arrested, but the Coroner thought 1t
better to quietly keep him under sur
Vigilance.
The police and the Coroner agreed that
some one to whom Felipe went in his con-
fiding way for help in making out the
money order got him somewhere near the
tunnel and then, with the aid Of woman
accomplish, lured him in there and muir
dered him for the money. The fve-dollar
bill ia explained as a separate part OF
Feipe's money of which the murderer
knew nothing.