The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-06-27
KIDNAPPED BOY FOUND
SLAIN IN A SWAMP
BODY OF WALTER LAMANA, OF
NEW ORLEANS, RECOVERED.
SUSPECT TELLS OF CRIME
Says Italians Who Stole Lad Became
frightened and Stransled Him
Threats Of Lynchlng
Heard.


in the interior of big swamp near
this city the headless body of Walter
Lamana, an Italian child between
seven and eight years old who was
kidnapped and held for $4,000 ransom
two weeks ago, was found by police
and vigilants Just before daybreak
Sunday. He had been strangled to
death, according to the confession of
one of several Italians held by the
police.
The boys neck Is supposed to have
been broken when he was strangled
causing the head TO BECOME separated
from the body when decomposition
set in. The head was found a short
distance from the body.
Police Protect Prisoners.
Five Italians, two OF them women,
are under arrest charged with being
accomplices to the murder, and extra
details OF police and deputies are
maintaining order in the excited
Italian quarter of the city. All day
long small crowds have been dis.
persed promptly by the police, de
spite whose precautions report has
gotten out summoning a mass meet.
ing at Elk place. Seventy armed dep.
uties have been placed on guard at
the Orleans parish prison, the strong
est in the state, where three of the
prisoners are held, and some appre.
hension has been felt for the safety
of two other prisoners who were taken
to an adjoining parish.
Seldom since the Malta lynchings
16 years ago has New Orleans been
SO stirred with threats of violence and
some of these threats are made by
those who participated in the disor.
dars at that time. The law and order
element is much stronger than it has
been heretofore, large number OF
leading citizens having pledged them
selves to prevent violence.
Italian Tells Of the Crime.
The murdered boy was found near
St. Rose, about 20 miles from New
Orleans. A sweating process wrung
a confession from one of the Italian
suspects who was taken from his
home in st. Rose about midnight Sat.
urday night and carried into the
woods by a combined. force of of.
ficials and vigilants who had the
search in charge. This man, Ignazio
Campigciano, was kept in the woods
an hour, when he confessed, charging
four Italians with the murder. He
z..l 4IoG obo,,t = fiyyon Nf
meeting in New Orleans more than a
week ago, held for the purpose of
prosecuting search for the body, these
men, who were in vacant house in
st. Rose, became frightened and con-
suited about what to do with the
child.
The boy was crying, begging to be
taken home to his parents, said Camp
igciano, and one of the quartette Of
the kidnapers grabbed the child and
strangled him to death to stop his
noise. Later two of the kidnapers, he
said, came to him, carrying the body
in a blanket, and after threatening
him with death if he told, took the
body into a swamp.
-.. Leads Police to Body.
Campigciano, after relating this
story, led the police through two
miles of swamp where the searchers
sometimes waded in water nearly
waist deep and at others erawled un-
der tangles of briars. In the shallow
pool at the end of this search the
body was found in the blanket In a
clump of cane. ap.J ,"rf
Returning to the city, the police ar.
rested Nicolina Gebbia, an Italian
woman, who is alleged to have con-
fessed that she knew of the kidnapping
plot from the first from one of the
four kidnapers whom she expected to
marry. Campigciano said that these
four were Stefano Monfre, Tony Cen
dusa- Angelo Cacatari, and an Italian
named Incanterra The police said
they expected to capture these men
within two or three days. The other
prisoners directly implicated by the
confession are Campigciano's wife,
Frank Gendusa and Leonardo Gebvia.
The dead boys funeral was held
Sunday afternoon. BY six o'clock in
the morning the entire Italian colony
appeared to have learned the details
of the murder and the police feared
| the crowds which would gather at the
| funeral IL il was delayed.