Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-04-10
WIVES WALL As
BLACK HAND MEN
ARE SENTENCED
Mrs. Agostino Sarno Runs
Through Corridor Shriekinq
Curses Upon Judge.
SEVEN YEAR SENTENCES
Melted OUT TO FOUR MEN
A~ccomando, Who Was Charged
With Lesser Crime, Gets
Three Years.

Sentences of seven years in States
prison were handed out to Vito Anto-
MO Di P~ascale, Giovennelli %Sorrentino,
Marco Minichino and Agostino Sarno,
While Sabine Accomando will spend
three years in the same prison.
These sentences were melted out by
Judge Thomas A. Davis this morning
to members of the so-called Black
Hand gang of the Fifteenth ward, and
covered Indictments In two Of the seven
indictments found against the men.
The court room vas crowded all
morning long by Italians, and every
constable that be spared from the
other court rooms was on duty in the
court room and adjacent corridors to
prevent any outbreak. Judge Davis de-
layed the sentences of the five men
until he had finished up a long list of
minor cases. When he called the five
prisoners to the bar a tense silence fell
until the prisoners had been led away.
Then the dozen or more Italian
women, wives and relatives Of the sem
fenced men. broke loose into Italian
walls that broke up proceedings In
every room of the Court House.
Mrs. Mary Sarno, wife of Agostino
Sarno, dashed up and down the cor
ridor, cursing the judge and the officers.
In her arms she held her 11-months-
old babe and twice attempted to dash
her own and the .baby's head against
the marble walls of the corridor before
Under Sheriff Reilly and some of his
assistants reached her and held her.
She struggled against the officers. and
beating her body and tearing her hair
was carried to the sheriff's office,
where she was quieted by being told
she could see her husband before he
was taken away.
Judge Does Not Treat Them ss Gang.
In pronouncing sentence, Judge Davis
said: IT am not sentencing you men
because you are said to have been a
part of an organized gang. / am treat
ing your cases the same as any others
that come before me. In the case of
Accomando l think he Is only guilty
of receiving stolen property and will
sentence him to three years in States
prison. The sentence of the others will
be seven years ZACH in States prison"
The crimes for which the men were
sentenced tool place during a reign of
terror that lasted for almost three
years in the Italian section of the FIJI
tenth ward. De Pascale, Sorrentino
and Minichino were convicted last No
vember of drugging and robbing
Domenico Giordano in his bakery at
32;a Cutler street on the night of Oc-
tober IS, 1903. Money and jewelfy to
the value of 1878 was obtained at this
time.
In February of this year Sorrentino,
Minichino, Accomando and Sorno were
convicted Of robbing Raffaele Coteg-
nola of $40 in cash. This robbery Is
alleged to nave taken place in the Cut
Ter street saloon Of Accomando, after
Cotignola had been piled with drugged
liquor. This took place on March q,
1909.
One Trial Results In AcQufttal.
In January a trial of the same men.
together with Vincenzo Pagano, on a
1 charge of breaking and entering the
dry goods store of Di Stefano Brothers,
at Cutler street and Eighth avenue. in
1909, resulted in a verdict of not guilty
being returned by a jury.
The chief witness for the State in all
the cases was Mary Di John, the COM
mon-law wife Of Di Pascale. She was
arrested at the same time as the rest of
the gang. and turned States evidence.
| After the conviction in the Cotignola
case, she was released from the county
Jail, where she had been confined for
over a year as a witness.
Three indictments. one charging
breaking and entering, n W charg-
ing ~dynamiting of buildings, are still
pending against all of the men seu-
fenced today, with the exception of Ac-
commando, but they will in all probability
be nolle prosecuted, as the State is un-
able to find sufficient proof to connect
the men with the charges.