The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-04
WIFE SHOT ASSAILANT DEAD.
many IN ARMS, SIZE CHASED HIM
DOWN THREE FLIGHTS.
Put Bullet In His Throat on the sidewalk
lie Had Threat cned TO kill Her with
Pair OF Taiior's Shears--Says II Was
Her Life or His or She Rcpulseti Him

Pair OF Taiior's Shears--Says II Was
Her Life or His After She Rcpulsed Him
For half year Michael Rago. who was a
tailor with wife and five children in Italy
had been making love to Rosa Pietro and
trying to get her to leave her husband
and baby. He made his last plea yesterday
morning, IL was made to deaf ears, as all
the others had been. Then he threatened
to stab the woman with pair OF tailor 3
shears She ordered him from her home.
When he refused to go. che drew a pistol,
pursued him down three flights of stairs,
with her baby in her arms, and killed him.
He fell dead on the pavement in front
of the tenement in which the Pietros live
at 3le East Thirty-fourth street. The
woman looked for a moment at the body,
and then she carried her baby back up
stairs and waited for the police to come
and take her away. Policeman Flanagan
OF the East Thirty-ffth street station walked
into the little fiat, and the woman. seated
by rear window, turned smiling face
toward him and said
"Me? / CO.
why did you do it?" asked Flanagan.
Il no good English. leila Italian
She and the baby were taken to the sta
ton, where Flanagan preferred a charge OF
homicide A little later precinct de-
tective who could speak Italian came in,
and to him the woman told her story.
Il killed Rago," she said, because l
thought it was either his life or mine. He
had been following me about everywhere
for six months He married my husband 8
sister and left her and five children in Italy
several years ago. He wanted me to
leave my husband and baby and 60 away
with him. told him he should be ashamed
to ask me such thing. Besides, love
my husband. He is a good man and a
good father. This morning Rago came
to my door and opened it. l told him to
go away. He only laughed and drew a
big pair OF shears from his coat.
Then he tried to force me into the bed
room, saying if did not go he would stab
me with the shears l made believe to let
him push me into the room. Inside the
bedroom / pushed him away and grabbed
a pistol which was under the bed. He
saw it and tried to wrench IL from me.
Then he ran into the hall. / followed him
and shot him. | know he's dead. He
will not bother me any more. He was a
bad man. He is in hell. II I go to the
chair shall not meet him after. l am a
good woman
Rosa Barbarite married Vincen7o Pietro
five years ago. She was II and he was
81. After awhile they went to live at 3l4
East hirty-fourth street and there their
baby was born. The husband was kind
and industrious and the home was happy.
Six months ago Rago, Piotro's brother
in-law, who worked as a tailor when he felt
like it, asked Pietro to take him in as
boarder Pietro consented.
Two months later Mrs. Pietro com
planned TO her husband OF Rago's atten-
tons. Pietro warned Rago to attend to
his own business and leave Mrs. Pietro
alone Rago only laughed and said his
brother-in-law was silly. Pietro thought
that, maybe, he was, but his wife COM
planned again, this time saying that Rago
had insulted her. So Pietro went over to
the police station to ask the police to get
after his brother in-law He was told that
it was not a case for voluntary police in
reference. pietro went home and said to
his wife:
The police will do nothing, but we can.
Well move"
The wife was delighted, and the next
day, after Rago had gone to work. the
Pietros moved-next door. Rago found
them and wanted to board with them again,
but Pietro would have none Of him; so Rago
took a room on the ground floor, in the
rear Of Morris Weinroths laundry.
Nearly every morning after Pietro left
for work in a plaster mill over in Ravens
wood, Rago would go mp to call on Mrs.
Pietro. At least that is what Pietro said
Yesterday his wife told him. The Pietros
live on the third floor in the rear The
neighbor across the hall said yesterday
that she had never seen any other man
than Pictro go into the fat and that she
had never heard any quarrelling. She
said that Mrs. Pietro was a sweet, well
hammered woman
Rago called last Saturday morning
shortly after o'clock, and tried to open
the door. 1t was locked. Mrs. Pietro, so
she told her husband. told Rago he could
not come in and that II he didn't stop an
moving her he would get into trouble. Rago
laughed and went away.
He never came around on Sundays,
because Pietro was home, but yesterday
morning-the neighbors say it was ten
minutes after 7-Rago came up the stairs
and entered the Pietro fat Mrs. Petro
sat by the cooking stove nursing her baby.
All that is known of what happened in the
fiat is what the woman told the police. A
boy who lives across the hall, however,
saw a man rush out Of the fiat and down
the stairs, with Mrs. Pietro after him.
A minute or two later he heard two shots.
Running to a window Of a fiat in the front Of
the house he saw man lying on the pave
ment, face down, There were witnesses on
the street, however, who saw Rago get his
death wound. The first shot was fired by the
woman in the hall Of the tenement leading
to the street. 1t went wide of its mark
and through the top Of the ground glass
panel in the street door.
Seeing that she had missed the woman
ran out into the street just as Rago was
turning to run into the laundry next door,
where he 10 ged. The woman shrieked
so the laundryman says. Rago turned to-
ward her She was then only n few feet
away from him, and, taking careful aim,
fred. The bullet, the autopsy showed,
pierced Rago's throat and he dropped
dead. When the body was taken away to
the Morgue, the shears with which Mrs.
pietro says the man threatened to stab
her were found Oh the sidewalk where
Rago had fallen.
The woman, with the baby still in her
arms was arraigned before Magistrate