The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-15
KIDNAPPED TO SCARE OTHERS?
THAT rs THE Police THEORY
ABOUT TIE BRUCATO BOY.
No Trace OF the Missing LAd-Belief That
He was stolen 60 Mako the We'll co DO
Italians Pay IN when They Receive
Threatenlnk Hack Hand Letters.

He was stolen to Mako the We'll TO DO
Italians Pay IN when Ihey Receive
Threatening Black Hand Letters.
The kidnapping OF four-year-old George
Brucato from the tenement at 80 Stanton
street on Thursday afternoon struck such
fear into the heart Of the whole neighbor-
hood hat every mother in the crowded
double deckers guarded her children yes
terday as she would her own life. Scarcely
a child was seen on the streets.
The neighborhood said yesterday, and
the detectives from Police Headquarters
echoed it. that the men who stole the child
from poverty stricken George Brucato
on Thursday did not expect to get 81 900
for the boys return. They aimed at others
who live on or about Stanton street, persons
with little boys who also have money and
who would pay to redeem their children
should they be spirited away. George
Brucato, the gossips said yesterday. was
being made the scapegoat for the COM
munity.
There is Pietro Realmento; Just across
the street from the tenement where the
Brucato family lives. He has money and
he has been threatened before. Several
months ago he received letters saying
that il he did not pay up large sums some
Of his children would be stolen or his place
Of business would be wrecked by dynamite.
Pietro paid no attention to the letters.
On the morning Of November II a bomb
was exploded in front Of Pietro's macaroni
factory. 1t broke all the glass in front Of
the shop and tore up the sidewalk, but still
Pietro, being a brave man, did not pay.
The police came then and asked Pietro a
lot Of questions. Then they went away
again, and that is the last tho macaroni
manufacturer heard of the blackmailers.
Yesterday Pietro Realmepto kept his
children homo from school, n he sat in
the front Of his shop near the new window
he has put in and kept a sharp lookout
up and down the street.
Further down, around the corner on
Division street, there are other men who
have received Black Hand letters OF late.
Tony Lazaretto, who runs a grocery store
on Division street near Stanton, said yes
terday that his three children had been
threatened within the last two weeks and
hat he would not send them TO school
henceforth unless he could get a man TO
take them there. Others in the vicinity
declared that their children would have 10
quit school altogether unless the policemen
should come around every morning and
escort them there and back each day.
Up on the top floor Of the tenement at
IS Stanton street, where the Bruoato family
of six live in two mean rooms, yesterday
was a trying day. The father, who is out
of work, sat around and smoked. The
mother did no work. The girl Marguerite
stayed home from school and translated
the queries OF the police and the reporters
TO her father and mother. Only Paula and
Francis, the two older girls, who work 10
| support the family when the father is out
of work, were away from home.
The Brucatos sat with folded hands,
awaiting what the day would bring, after
the manner of their kind. They said that
they had received no further letters. They
had no idea who could have stolen their
child, the baby of the family. There were
no enemies; no. no.: it was just a trick and
maybe little George would come back again
or maybe they would find him In Jersey
City or Brooklyn in two three days.
Detective Petrosino. who had all the men
of the Italian squad Of detectives in Head
quarters out on the case yesterday, said
he believed that the Brucato kidnapping
was no more than preliminary TO projected
raids on the families of people who have
money 70 pay for kidnapped children. He
did not believe that the Brucato boy would
be missing very long but that he would
turn up on the streets somewhere within
a few days, as Willie lie Barbara and Tony
N4onnsA Al aavaraI raaEa aun