The Washington times., 1918-02-28
TORT, THE WEASEL,
NETWORK GUNMAN,
Ill AND DEGRADED

NEW YORK, Feb. 2s.-Torti the
Weasel lies abed in ST. Eincents
Hospital. Paralysis is creeping over
him. Even II he lives he will be
sent back to Mulberry street help
less cripple. His career as q gun
man is over and done with. He Is
disgraced in the eyes of the Sinking.
rateyed youths who haunt Chatham
square, Chinatown and the old Five
Points quarter. He never can face
them again.
Armed and in full strength he let
a policeman smaller than himself
take his pistol away from him yes
terday morning. When he tried to
run the policeman fired a bullet into
the small OF his back. 1t was an in
glorious. humiliating anti-climaX to
violent record. This Torti had dared
the vengeance of Big Jack Zelig when
Zelig was In the full flush OF gang
ster power. He was one OF the few
who ever summoned the nerve TO
draw a gun on Zellg and pull the
trigger. Yet q policeman, a little
policeman, bent him backward over
a fence yesterday morning, took his
gun away from him and shot him
with his own weapon
Charley Kane, jiu jitsu and bag
punching expert OF the police depart
ment, 145 pounds OF whalebone and
nerve, was walking in Mulberry street
early yesterday morning with his pal,
Detective Brennan. They were net
advertising for the police depart
ment. Night birds who knew them
not would have taken them for dere-
licts OF the Quarter-homeless men
on the prowl. They were dressed
shabbily. sweaters and battered caps
adding the correct atmosphere. De-
tectives resort to disguises outside
detective stories.
Hear GrunbIInE Dispute.
Strolling along with wary glances
into the shadows they came to the very
spot where the Paper Box Kid, Ores
ties Shilletoni, murdered John Rizzo
and two policemen, William Heaney
and Charles J. Teare, on May 3, 1913.
1t Is a, spot stained with blood and
where the superstitious OF Neapoii-
tan origin never stand without a
silent invocation OF their special
saints. At this place Orestes Shille-
toni's brother John keeps a restau-
rant, at 226 Mulberry street, and IL
was toward this cafe that Kane and
Brennan leaned their ears. They
heard a grumbling dispute, one OF
those gruff settos that sometimes pre-
cCde a flash and report and the cry
OF a dying man. The detectives, bid
den in the shadows OF the doorway at
eli, waited a minute or two, both
tense in the darkness. Kane called
out:
What going on there?"
4 voice with a sneer splicing it re-
piled instantly:
shoot through the window. Here
am"
Kane stepped out Of the shadows
and walked across Mulberry street in
the full light OF the street lamps.
I'm a policeman" he said. not too
loudly. whats the trouble here?"
Three men ran from the street from
Shillettoni's restaurant. One OF them,
Charles Torti, the Weasel, breasted up
to Kane and jammed the point OF a
pistol squarely against the detectives
stomach. Kane kept his hands at his
side and grinned at the italian, whose
eyes blaZed with fury. Brennan dared
not move at the moment. For two or
three seconds this tableau endured.
Then Brennan, quick witted, shouted
suddenly:
Good work, Jim, grab him from
behind"
The Weasel. thinking that another
policeman had crept up behind him
and was about to seize him. whIrled
from Kane, and at that instant Kane
grabbed the gunman's wrist. twisted
it cruelty, backed Tort against a
railing and then jiu-jitsued him back
ward until he screamed with pain.
Almost simultaneously he wrested the
gun from Tortrs grasp.
Weasel Starts to Run.
The Wessers companions leaped at
| Kane and broke his hold on Torti,
who started to run along Mulberry
street. Kane ordered him to stop.
Torti yelled defiance and kept go
ing. Then Kane shot. just once, but
the Weasel collapsed to the side
walk. A bullet from the heavy pis-
toll had entered the small OF his back.
While this was happening Brennan
arrested Torti's companions, Private
Antonio Agnello, Company D, 30Sth
Infantry, on leave from Camp Upton
and back among evil companions, and
Emilio Mignogna of ia Mulberry