Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-09
BOMB MANGLES JUDGE
Express Package ExpIodes, In
fIicting Fatal Wounds.
LIFE HAD BEEN THREATENED
Official Had Incurred Enmity Of
Criminal Band.
FOUND BOX IN HIS OFFICE
Victim Buried Under Debris in Wreck
Of Room-Son, Who Was Stand
ing Beside Him, Injured.

NEW YORK, February '9.-Robert Cor
tese, a justice of the peace of Paterson, N.
j., was SO badly injured last evening in his
office by the explosion of a bomb sent him
by express that he died at a hospital at
midnight His seventeen-year-old son. Rob
ert, who was standing beside MIN when he
opened the deadly machine, was injured
seriously.
The explosion tore a hole five feet deep
and ten feet in circumference through the
floor of Cortese's office. The room was
shattered and buildings for two blocks
around were shaken as by an earthquake.
Cortese, as he lay dying in st. Joseph 9
Hospital, furnished the Paterson police with
clews as to the identity of the possible
sender of the bomb. The justice of late had
been the recipient of many threatening let
tiers.
His relations with the police officials have
always been the closest, and so valuable
were his services In the ferreting out of
Offenders among his Italian countrymen
that 1t was planned to make him a member
of the police in a little while, with the rank
of detective sergeant.
Box Came From Newark.
1t was about $50 o'clock yesterday even
, ing when Cortese and his son entered the
Justices office at No. % Passaic street.
They found, lying on desk wooden box
about foot square. 1t was addressed to
the Justice and had been passed through the
hands of the American and Wells Fargo
Express companies. The American Express
Company's label showed that it had re-
ceived the box at Newark, but as 1t has
no office at Paterson it made delivery
through Wells, Fargo and Company, its
agent
Il guess this must be a present from
80 -
boy. and his son pressed him to open it at
once and see what the present might be.
Cortese pried open the cover of the box
with his pocket knife and found inside 3
belt was buckled. He seized the, strap and
gave 1t a yank. There was flash of fire
and roar. The wallis OF the room toppled
in on father and son. The floor opened
door and two windows with their castings
went through the front of the building into
the street, and the whole structure rocked
and drew apart in every Joint.
Policeman William Fitzpatrick was the
first person to reach the scene of the explo-
sion He knew Cortese well.
Buried Under Debris.
What has happened to you, judge?
Where are your cried the patrolman.
"Here-buried in here answered Cor
tese, weakly, from under a pile of debris.
please get me OUT
Fitzpatrick tore the wreckage off Cor
tese, but working as hard as he could he
did not succeed in uncovering the man for
nearly five minutes Cortese's left leg was
hanging out of it's socket The right one
was crushed. In his neck was deep cash,
and his face bore only a remote semblance
to the features Of human being.
Suffering as he was, the Justices first
inquiry after release was for his son. FitZ-
patrick found the boy unconscious in an
other corner of the office, his face deeply
lacerated and one of his arms fractured.
Father and son were taken with all speed
to st. Josephs Hospital. Cortese realized
fully when he reached there that he could
not live through the night, and he asked
that a stenographer be provided by the
police, so that he might make an ante
norton statement. Soon after finishing the
statement, which was guarded jealousy by
the police, Cortese became unconscious, and
at midnight he died.
Cortese was one of Paterson's best known
men. and was considered a type of all that
a citizen should be. Among his countrymen
only the criminal element had not good
word for him. He was fearless in his office
Not long ago gang Of his countrymen
robbed Corteses father of 81 800. He went
after them with such relentlessness that
one of the criminals is now in the state q
prison under five-year sentence.
Cortese leaves wife and eight children.