The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-14
FIVE MURDERS BY A FIREBUG.
KEROSENE USED TO BURN A
FLIMSY ITALIAN TENEMENT.

Four Children and . Man Who Tried to
6ave One Of Them the Victims--Other
Fatal Harlem Fires Due to Care.
lessness. but This One Due to Malice.
A small four-story brick tenement house
at 947 East 1l3th street, in which four Italian
families. numbering thirty persons, were
huddled, was set on fire early yesterday
morning and Ave persons, four Of them
children lost their lives as the blaze
ate up the flimsy building
In all the incendiary is likely to be
chargeable with six murders. for ten-year
old girl rescued from the place was 80 badly
covered with burns that her recovery is
deemed impossible. Fire Marshal Freel
and all Of his assistants, together with the
police of the East lO4th street station, are
unanimous in declaring that the fire was
incendiary. OF all the eo-called incendiary
fires that have occurred lately in Harlem
the fire marshal declared that this one alone
bore unmstakable traces of incendiarsm.
The persons who lost their lives in the fire
yesterday morning were Camille De Cleo.
aged 81 Alfredo De Cleo, aged 8 months,
and Teresa De Cleo aged years, the chill
dren Of Lilo De Cleo. who lived on the third
Giuseppe Cipriano, aged "a. The latter, a
laborer, in endeavoring to save the De
Stefano girl, was so badly burned that he
died
The building is owned by retired barber
named Cent?, who lives there.
He went to bed at IN O'Clock, after locking
the front door and putting, out the lights.
into he yard The De Cleo family were
up taking care Of Teresa, who was ill. AT
8 clock in the morning they SIN, He'd
smoke, and the father, opening the door,
saw that the halls were all ablaze. In the
middle room the mother and little Camille
were asleep and in the front room were
Alfredo and Lilo, aged g. The father, with
the sick child in his arms, awakened the
then filled with smoke, and called the two
children sleeping there. Lilo crawled out
on his hands and knees. As they ran
through the smoke filled rooms the mother
De Cleo went back for her and got her and
Lilo out on the fire escape; Then ne went
back to find the other children, but by that
time the rooms were ablaze and even the
fire escape was threatened From the fire
escape the mother, father and the one
child they had saved were helped down
by Policeman Sheehan, who had climbed
over to it from the cornice Of the adjoining
house.
Policemen Sheehan and Pabst went up
the fire escape to rescue the other children.
but the flames burst out above them and
they were unable to get to the second floor
Pabet helped out Ginto, the owner, and his
family.
had run up to the floor to save his relatives.
the De Stefanos. They had all got out by
the roof, except two children, Floriana, aged
10, and Francesca, aged s. He carried the
elder girl up the ladder to the roof and then
returned for the younger As he started
up the ladder with her the ladder broke.
and he and the child fell into the blazing
room. Firemen Moth and Summerhayes
Of Truck IA dived into the flames and found
Cipriano lying over the child trying to
know that the child was dead. The fire.
men discovered that when they dragged
both out. Capri no was taken to the Har-
lem Hospital, where he died half an hour
later. Floriana De Stefano and Mrs. De
Cleo were taken to the hospital. The girl
The firemen found the bodies Of the
three De Cleo children in the front room
and Teresa in the middle room. where the
mother had dropped her. The flames had
nothing but a shell was left of the building
The first flremen to arrive found in the
hall on the ground floor the remains. Of
what had been large bundle OF oil-soaked
rags They we're on partly burned chair
In the rear OF the hall few feet from the
door to the yard. The rag. were pieces OF
sacking and canvas. The fire had started
Enthusiastically from the chair and had run
upward through the house, getting good
draught from the back door, which was
wide open.
Philip Cent?, said that he had used the
chair to sit on, out on the front stoop ana
that every night he brought it in and put II
where it was found. Cent said that he did
this at 10 O'Clock last night and that at that
time every one was in the house. He locked
the door leading to, the street and went ,
through the hall, and there was no bundle
of rags there then.
Fire Marshal Freel said that so far, he
had learned Ginti had no enemy and had
not elected any tenant All the people
in the place were related, and Cent? had
son diving from consumption and unable
to move. Marshal Freel said further.
This was unquestionably an incendiary
fire. though others which have been called
such were not. The fire in West l35th
street, where four persons lost their lives
last month, was due to carelessness on the
part of man who is now in the alcoholic
ward in Bellevue. A fire in West ll6th
street we traced to carelessness OF the
fires mentioned as being the work. OF So
called firebug, with this exception"
The bodies of the victims Of the fire
we're laid side by side in an undertaker's
shop two doors from the burned building,
and all dav long Little Italy filed past the
Italians Yesterday YVES the feast Of ST.
Anthony, which is always celebrated in
Little Italy, and past the house and the
place where the bodies lay moved the
usual festal parade headed by a banner on
which the Italians pinned dollar bills as
offerings. AS the parade passed the burned
house women knelt in front of it and
prayed.
DISCIPLINE AT COLUMBIA.