The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-11-29
STORIES IN TRUNK
MURDER CONFLICT
Landlady and Employees of
Victim Fail to Agree on
! Whereabouts.
HUNT MISSING HELPER
Romance and Wedding Plans
Revealed as Brother Iden-
i titles Body.

lthlldh -utNSGIiNeS' pupiAS va ehO pa
tiant Petrosino. who Swallowed the
Black Hand all the way to Italy and
was killed there, were out yesterday
while other folks kept holiday. explor-
ing the Mott street-Brooklyn trunk
murder. The trail they were trying to
follow grew murkier instead OF clear
ing. Uncertainty developed as to some
points that were regarded as estab-
lished.
For example, the employees of Joe
Ballard. the murdered man, in the
shop of the United Shoe Repairing
Company, 329 Fulton street. Brooklyn.
swore that their boss did not leave the
shop for q minute all Tuesday after
noon. Yet Mrs. Marion Tharau. house.
keeper OF a furnished room house at
6S Cranberry street, has identified the
body of Ballard as that Of a man who
rented a room from her at p. NJ. on
Tuesday and returned in the evening
with an excited companion whose face
was terribly SCARED.
Ballaro's helpers are positive that
he did not go out on Tuesday, the
uay VI luCs hdNC WIN
the police in detail just what work
he was doing in the shop all day.
Mrs. Tharau, who saw the body at
the Manhattan morgue on Wednesday,
Is equally positive that Ballard was
her roomer. Her belief is supported
by strong evidence. To the man who
engaged q room from her and paid
her So she gave a receipt made out
~ Tnntr Cho1irO hot ha
name he gave and the name on the
marriage certificate he displayed as
proof that the woman he was to
bring to the house was his wife.
That receipt was in one of Joe Bal
laro's pockets when he was found
dead in a trunk in Mott street early
Thursday morning.
Woman Interests Police.
The receipt bore Mrs. Tharau's
name and address. That is how the
police came to know about her and
to get her story. They were told yes
terday that she attended a detective
school at one time. From a profess
sional detectives viewpoint this makes
the woman uncomnionly interesting.
Capt. Carey of the Headquarters do
bcStiNS Jul SSt4u yesterday ne WAS
going to question Mrs. Tharau him.
self to-day and try to ascertain how
Joe BALLARD could be in his shop all
Tuesday afternoon and yet be renting
a room from Mrs. Tharau at her
house at P. NJ.
All of Ballaro's helpers except one
has been thoroughly questioned. They
say that their boss was still in the
shop when they quit work at $3.50 on
Friday night but was washing his
hands and getting ready to close UP.
Mrs. Tharau says 1t was about s
o'clock that "Shaliro," whom she has
identified as Ballard, reappeared at the
Cranberry street rooming house with
the scar faced man. She also says,
according to the detectives, that the
pair went away about o'clock and
that was the last she saw OF either
of them until the SCARED man and a
woman wearing a white beaver hat
called at s o'clock the next morning
and inquiring for "Shaliro" were told
that he had been murdered
The lone BALLARD employee who has
not been questioned is Salvatore Gior-
dino, a bootblack. On Tuesday morn
ing he received a telephone call and
left the shop. He did not return. On
Wednesday morning he stopped in 4
barroom not far from the shop.
Your boss was killed last night"
the barkeeper said. He was found in
trunk over in Manhattan"
The bootblack expressed amazement
and saying that IL that was the case
there was no use in his going TO work.
went away. The detectives are anx-
ious to find Giordino and ask him
about Ballaro's habits and friends
and enemies, il he had any. They
were scouting for him in BROOKLYN
yesterday. He had worked for Ballard
three months. His fellow workers say
they do not know where he lives.
Brother Tells of Romance.
Nicolo Ballard. who is a private at
Camp Upton. identified his brothers
body yesterday. He then went to the
office of the homicide bureau and was
questioned by Capt. Carey. He pic
tured the shoemaker as a bachelor, a
home loving young man of the stead
lest habits who was soon to be mar
ried. This last assertion interested the
police as a wedding ring was found in
the dead mans pocket, and the police
had heard vaguely that Joe Ballard
and another Sicilian had quarrelled
over a girl. The soldier said his
brother was prosperous and usually
carried several hundred dollars about
with him. This was in line with the
statement OF Mrs. Tharau that her
Hitting ledger paid for his room from
a roll of bills that must have contained
about $500. Capt. Carey, while open
minded about it. suspects that BALLARD
was killed for his money. The Italian
detectives shake their heads and say
the motive was far less crude than
robbery. They are deep in the mys-
;eries OF Sicfiian vendetta and per
fectly happy. although temporarily
stumped.
1t is admitted that the best chance
OF solving the puzzle is presented by
the trunk that contained Ballaro's
body. If the detectives can only trace
the trunk TO its manufacturer and
down 10 its owner-presto the Job Is
finished. or nearly so. or the work
being done along this line Capt
Carey will say nothing.
That's one Of the things We alb
solutely cannot talk about-the trunk"
he said.
The identity OF Sarah Ranta, the
name pencilled on the outside OF the
trunk. has not been established. Mrs.
Tharau suggested that the woman
might be Sarah Baldio, a girl she had