New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-24
SECOND SKELETON
ON MURDER FARM
Laborers Dig Up Bones OF
Victim Slain Like
the First.
PAPERS IN BARREL
BEAR 1914 DATES
Bank Check Is CleW in
the Canarsie Dis
cOVery.

There is an excavation at foweH
Street and Hageman Avenue, Canarsie'
During the day workmen toll IN us
depths. as small boys roost on It's
edges and watch the diGgers with girls
ly anticipation
But after dusk there is no one at
Powell Street and Hageman Avenue
The excavation stays there all by IT.
self. sinister. gaping hole that not
oven the stoutest hearted in Canarsie
would venture rast. For the skeletons
OF TWO murdered men have been taken
from the dggngs, and no one knows
how many others the soil covers ever
so thinly.
On September y the picks of the
worknen first barred the skeleton VEIN
IN the excavation. The scattered bones
~ = small man with the skull battered
in were taken to The 9TH Branch De-
teetive Bureau. They have remained
mystery. No theory that the police
could advance explained their presence.
Man Murdered at Scene.
Where the excavation now gapes
once stood the house OF one Joseph
Verdone, who ceased to care about his
truck farm in 1912. when the woman
who lived with him filled his lungs
with shotgun slugs. For time the
police believed this skeleton was plant
ed By Verdone in his own vegetable
garden. Yesterday another was found
under circumstances which refuted
this idea.
Along toward twilight Meyer Plum
and Samuel Block glanced uneasily
about them and decided TO dig one
more wheelbarrow full of earth and
call il a day. 1t was getting dark and
the thought Of skeletons was painful
20 them.
The next stroke OF Pfum's pick hit
something that gave forth hollow
sound
Skeleton In Barrel.
With sinking hearts the two men
ca ltiously dug away some more earth,
until they could see that their md
was only a barrel.
But when they had unearthed the
barrel and taken one look inside, both
came out of the excavation stimuli
tancously and at high speed. win
one accord they started toward the
police station. They bumped INTO
patrolman and explained heir haste.
Cautiously the policeman climbed
down into the eight-foot deep hole and
peered into the barrel Then he went
TO report 10 his captain, for ne had
seen. in the fading light, skull within
six inches of his face.
Captain Daniel Cary took the barrel
TO the eth Branch Detective Bureau
and unpacked IT. II was then that the
theory Of the presence of the former
skeleton was destroyed for IN the bar
rel were found several m0uldy news
papers, bearing dates in August. 1914.
Vcrdone, the supposed murderer was
slain In lJl2.
Baby's Shoes with Bones.
There were other things in the bar
rel besides the bones fragments OF
blue serge suit, an undecipherable MEM
orardum book, a dollar watch and two
tiny baby's shoes.
On the side Of the skull, where the
first skeleton recovered showed
ragged hole. a similar opening gaped.
The man was murdered, the police say.
probably with an axe. A slip OF paper
extracted from the memorandum book,
turned out 20 be check. dated No
venber 10, 1914, and drawn against the
Granite Trust Company Of Quincy,
Mass. by Arnoldo de Loctolo, in favor
Of Rosario Passerelli.
rhe building whore Verdone had
lived burned in September, 1914. No
structure has stood on the property
since.