The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1920-01-01
SELLING POISON
| CHARGED TO SIX
ARREss MADE IN NEW YORK
DRIVE.
CaptuJ Of Score or More Expected
by Officials Of Gov
ernment.

j J6TSd duu 1NCW CuSFdHu Win polo-
onow substitutes for whiskey, fed
eral Istate and city authorities were
unith tonight in a various pursuit
of tie puryeyers of the poisonous
beveaSes which have caused scores
of deaths and hundreds of cases of
blindntss and illness. The capture Of
at East score or more of the poison
dispensers is expected according to
the federal officials.
b the meantime the, toll of death
and serious illness caused through
drinking wood alcohol and other IL
licit concoctions continued to mount
intNew York and adjacent cities.
During the day four more deaths were
recorded, one each from Newark, Eli
zabeth, Passaic, and one from New
YORK. In addition, two men and a
woman were picked up unconscious
On New York streets and two men in
Passaic in similar condition, all four
being critically i'll tonight from al
coholic poisoning.
] Thoroughly aroused by the ever
growing list of fatalities the authori-
ties sheld several conferences during
the day at which cooperation was
planned between the different federal
and municipal departments. Col.
Daniel L. Porter, supervising revenue
agent for New York, who is at the
head of the campaign for the federal
government, declared tonight that
New York city is the headquarters
for the country in the Illicit liquor in
dustry and that II is impossible as yet
to tell how far the ramifications of
the trade extend.
The two most important arrests
made so Tar, according to the federal
agents are those of John Romanelli,
a Brooklyn, undertaken and Samuel
brooklyn druggist, who
are accused 81 the poison throughout
New England The two men were re-
leased tonight On s25. 900 bail pend
ing further examination.
The remaining four men are Aloph
Panarelli. a fofmer saloon keeper,
Carmine Licenziato, Amendio Delo-
oma and Luigi Puca, Italian grocers.
Panarelli has made statement to the
authorities in regrd to the method
employed for the distribution of the
liquor in New England EalI it was
stated tonight he may ~ witness
for the government.
Two of seven barreE of liquor
which Romanelli is accused of having
sold are said to have been bought by
a Bronx saloon keeper. This man, &C
cording to Colonel Porter; came to
Panarelli after the sale and denounc-
ed him for having charged him $S,-
200 for wood alcohol.
Panarelli, who acted as Romanelli's
agent claims, Colonel Porter said,
that he took sample of the liquor
to druggist who confirmed the sa-
loon keepers word that it>was poison.
He said that he then warned NATHAN
a Hartford, Conn, saloon
keeper over the long distance tele-
phone not to sell any of these barrels
of the liquor he had bought. Saizberg
told him, he Lontinued, that he had
sold barre a dealer in Chicopee,
Mass, and smaller quantities to 9TH
er dealers in Hartford but that he
would try and recover as much Of
the liquor as he could. Later he was
by Saizberg that he had got
back almost all except a half barrel
which had been sold in Chicopee. Af-
ter reading of the deaths from wood
alcohol poisoning in Connecticut and
Panarelli went to a
lawyer and on his advice surrendered
himself to Revenue Agent Dobbs.
A still and 500 gallons of liquor
were seized tonight in raid in the
basement of an apartment house in
the Bronz by city detectives. Three
men were arrested who described
themselves as Louis Dezito, an ice
dealer; Vitele Cello and Joseph Guis-
seppe, laborers.
Another death that of John Smith,
Sc, was added tonight to the toll of
wood alcohol poisoning. He lived in
a Fulton street house where four
others have died from drinking pois-
onous liquor.
Chicopee, Mass, Dec. 29-Five
men held in New Haven in connec-
tion with the sale of whiskey alleged
to have contained wood alcohol and
which it is claimed caused the death
Of nearly 60 persons in the Connec-
ticut valley, were brought to this
city tonight and arrested by Massa-
chusetts authorities on charge of
homicide in causing the death of
Michael Bednarz of this city. They
were all held without bail and will
be arraigned in court here tomorrow.
Chicopee, Mass, Dec. 29-M. Ed
ward Lyons, proprietor of the Had
ley hotel in Hadley, was arrested this
afternoon on three warrants sworn