The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-09-11
Crushed Skull and Blood
Stained Hammer Tell
Story of Crime.
SHOEMAKER is
UNDER ARREST
Little Italy" Stirred to It's
Depths by Wanton Killing in
Washington - Suspect De-
mics Guilt, but Blood Spots
Are Found on His
Clothing.


charred and unrecognizable body of
hoy about thirteen or fourteen years
old. afterwards Identified as Herrp
Smith. was found by fremen In the de.
bris of shoemaker's shop which wa,
set on fire early to-day. Though his
features were horribly burned there
were plain evidences OF heavy blowa
dealt with blunt instrument and a
shoemaker's hammer, blood stained.
was found in the pyre
Tony Melano, who called himself "a
shoemaker by trade" was the proprte-
tor of the cobbler's shop, which was
located at Fourth and H Streets, N.
w, three blocks west of the Govern.
ment Printing Office.
SIN plain clothesmen co-operated
with the uniformed police in inyes-
tigating the crime. The net result
OF their york was the arrest of Tony
Melano As he stepped out of the rear
OF his home, 18 Schotts Alley, he faced
revolver held by Detective Fred
Cornwell,
Blood Spots on Clothes.
| Melano. though a shoemaker and
denizen of Schotts Alley is no ordinary.
laboring italian. For an hour or more
this morning he fenced with the de-
| tectives who sought an admission from
him that he committed the deed. They
obtained no such admission. Dark
spots on his clothes, which the officers
say are blood spots, however, havs
caused the police to hold him.
No motive has been established as
| yet. but the police have found wit.
ness-Mrs. Frances Hooper, wife of
| Earl Hooper. who lives across the
street from the shop where the muir
der was committed. She says that at
o'clock yesterday afternoon she saw
man in Melano's shop strike at a
boy with hammer. Her testimony
may fasten the crime on the shoe
maker
These are the big facts in what
promises to DC the greatest murder
! sensation Washington has had in
many months, Little italy is agog The
dead boy may be one of its own chill
dren. Little Italy Is used to violent
deaths among It's men. but not SO used
to child-murder. Therefore there is
much speculation over the chianti cups
to-day. Some of them mutter La Mano
Neri-the Black Hand. Others favor
the theory that brute OF fiendish
cruelty has come among them All
say they are sorry for Melano.
The house of death is a big rlckety
| tenement, the frame walls OF which
are between Massachusetts, Avenue and
II Street. where they merge together
at Fourth Street. Northwest. There
are few Cinnamon and many Italians
in the rooms upstairs. There was
never much trouble there, however,
and the police have not kept much
of an eye on the place.
At 2:+5 o'clock this morning Police-
man Larry O'Dea, with prisoner. pass,
ed the tenement. All was quiet. TWEEN
ty minutes later. Policeman p T.. Bur
ton was near there. He heard a match
scratched, he says. Then he heard
nothing more until about $40. when
an italian, Nick Loeti, who lives IN
the next apartment to the. shoeshop.
rushed out in his night clothes cry-
ing. Fire
Found Mass OF Flames.
Burton. kicked open the door OF the
shoemaker's shop. Inside was a mass
OF flames which had eaten through the
thin partition from the back room.
While the occupants of the tenement
poured out in tneii night clothes the
tiremen eXtinguished the blaze.
When the blaze was extinguisbed
ii was found that th~ little work
bench had been burning. It had been
set afire by the use of coal OIL In the
back room a pile of debris law
smouldering behind the door. in the
southwest corner of the room The
! fremen began pulling it apart. In the
I top was cheap lounge, badly burned
, Then came some charred newspapers.
heavy quilt in which the fire was
not yet out, and lastly n long some
thing from which the fire-fghters re-
coiled. II looked like the body of
woman. They thought so until Coroner
hewitt and the detectives arrived and
found 1t to he the mute evidence of
murder, the murder of a boy.
The police, who, after arrestins Me-
iano found loaded revolver on
table in an upper room of his homo,
sweated" the italian, Melano Is
strange man TO be a shoemaker He
y handsome and shows military train
ing Once when Detective Oriano ask.
ed him II he had served in the Carbi.
neri. he straightened and smiled. Mos.
he said. artileri--the artillery OF
ltaly Is higher in rank than the Car
hineri." He smiled again.
He declared that he loaned the key
of his shop to : mana good friend
OF his, an American, He gave che
mans name. He said that the man
had troubles at home and wanted to
sleep on the couch in the shop.
lie chung to this story when De-
tective Weldon asked him why ne had
choked boy in the shop at o'clock
yesterday afternoon. why he had fsent
hts six-Searold daughter out of the
shop yesterday afternoon to prrcnuse
a gallon bottle OF coal oil. and sug-
gested that the hoy was killed with a
hammei like shoemakers dse
There were dark spots ON mis- trous-
crs, which they declared to be blood
al 81 m ST hio
derHear
Myrtle Smith. tMan two years old .