Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-10-05
PRETTY GIRL, IS,
IS ACCUSED AS
'F|REBUGS' QUEEN
Tries to Leap from
Window . When
Arrested.
COLLECTED INSURANCE AT
DOZEN FIRES, is CHARGE
Rented Flats Under Assumed
Names With Different Men,
Police Assert.

A slender, bright-eyed girl of
eighteen, pretty as the china dolls
she used to make in the Chilen g.
Company's toy factory in Harrison,
is locked up in the Bergen county
Jail at Hackensack as Queen of
Firebugs"
A dozen times. they say, this fresh
checked. refined-appearing girl with
one of the forty male accomplices
with whom she is said to have
worked has rented flats and houses
under assumed names, set fire to
them and collected the insurance on
the furnishings.
The girl, Leona Delmarko. was ar
rested yesterday as she worked at a
machine in the Harrison factory. De-
tective Louis Buonocore. of the Office
of Prosecutor Wendell Wright. of
Bergen county, tapped the girl on
the shoulder as she leaned over her
machine and when she turned showed
her his shield and said
You're under arrest
Tried to Leap from window.
With wild shrek the girl rushed
across the room, threw up window
and would have hurled herself out
were ii not for several of her cowork-
ers, Detective Buonocore and the
manager OF the shop. These seized
| the girl, drew her back into the room
and held her until she had recovered
| from an attack of hysteria, Then
she was taken before Justice Of the
Peace Addison B. White. in Harrison,
| for arraignment.
The specific charge against the girl
is setting fire to a house in Lodi, Ber-
gen county, on the night of Thursday,
| September 26. But there are several
| other stories told of the girls alleged
swindling operations Some of these
took place in West Hudson and others
In this city
According to the story told Justice
| white, the Delnarko girl rented a
| house in Lodi, about two months
! ago She gave her name as Mrs.
Joseph Viccola, and said the man who
accompanied her was her uncle, Mic
olo Lombardo. Only a few pieces of
furniture were installed in the
place, it is said but the girl, saying
| she intended furnishing the place
| completely, secured a $1,000 fire in
surance policy AS the Lodi fire en-
| gines were clattering to the girls
| home in Division street, after the fire
was discovered, the girl is said to
have been seen to board trolley car
with two male companions and to
| ride away.
Find discriminating Letters.
Prosecutor Wrights men traced
the girl to this city, then to Harrison.
Plainclothesman Brex. of the Third
precinct, this city, was very active
securing evidence against her and her
alleged accomplices. A number of
| letters that passed between the girl
and her men pals are said to have
been found by Brex in her room at
! % Reynolds avenue. East Newark,
and these, ii is said, contain much
| that may be used in incriminating
| her.
Ferdinand C. Wheiland, of this city,
and Joseph A. Riordan and Joseph di
Sabato, of Harrison fire insurance
adjusters, identified the girl as hav-
| ing swindled insurance companies on
previous occasions. The girl in fiery
! ldh6 QelllGu lnet1 dcCuSH llOnS,
and Di Sabato's identification came to
an abrupt end when the girl turned
to him and drew her finger across her
throat with a significant wag of the
| head.
As Mrs. James Rondo the Delmarko
girl is said to have collected $500 in
surance after a fire in North Airing
ton, and as Mrs. Nocoloz Lombardo
she is declared to have received 5000
insurance on house in Eagle street,
this city. The girl was identified in
Justice Whites court under several
other aliases, but she denied ever
having used any of the names mem
| toned
The real name of the girl is said
to be Mrs Antonio Lavato. She is
said to have been forced into a mar
riage with a man of that name at
Newburg, N. Y, by her grandparents
when she was only 1S years old