New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-28
Hunted Terror
OF Little Italy
Slain i'm Street
VIM. Spadetio, With Many
Foes and Sought by Po-
lice, Shot Down at Door
way OF Mott St. Home
Bullets Fly Among Crowd
Bodyguard Believed to Have
Replied to Fusillade;
Assailanis Make Escape

William Spadetto, who had made so
many enemies in Little Italy that the
police are bewildored by the number of
those who might have cause to ambush
him, was shot and killed about o'clock
last night as he entered his home at 70
Mott Street.
He or his bodyguard found oppor-
tunity to reply to the shots that were
fired at him, and in the dozen or so
shots that were exchanged two women
and q man were wounded. Mrs. Caro-
lima Lasala. of 70 Mott Street. and Mrs.
Agate Ciccone, of 67oo Fourteenth Ave
nue.. Brooklyn, were found on the side
walk in front of the house wounded.
Wounded Man Held
They were sent to Volunteer Hospi-
tai Mrs. Lasaia was shot through the
calf OF ner left leg and Mrs. Ciccone
was shot in the left thigh. Soon after
they had been admitted to the hospi-
tai Frank Caratano, of 1874 Third
Street, drove I'D to the institution in
a taxicab and asked to have a bullet
wound in his chest attended to.
He said that he was strolling along
Canal Street near Mott, when bullets
began to fly and before he could get
out of the way he had been struck.
Mostly because of his Italian name and
his admitted presence at the battle, the
police decided to detain him as wit
ness and had him transferred to
Bellevue Hospital to be put under
guard.
So far as they know, Caratano is
not one Of the numerous residents of
the Italian colony with a grievance
against Spadetto. Detective Sergeant
Michael Fiaschetti said that he had
been looking for Sperduti for long
time.
Spadetto, the Italian detective said,
was wanted in connection with a hold
up in a saloon on Mott Street, in which
100000 was taken from craps shooters;
in connection with the robbing and
shooting of Edward Manfredo, of 1914
Broome Street, at Atlantic Garden; in
connection with the theft of $500 worth
of jewelry from a woman, and in con-
nectlon with the hold-up of saloon
on the West Side. For six months, he
said, the police had been hunting Sper-
duti.
The feudists were more successful.
Somewhere along the crowded lower
reaches of Mott Street they Law in
wait. and when Spadetto turned into
the hallway of his home they opened
fire, needless of the women gossiping
from stoop to stoop, of the children
playing in the street, and the push
cart men disposing of their final wilted
wares.
1t is believed that one of the first
shots ended the career of Spadetto.
for he fell across his own threshold
with bullet at the base of his brain,
which must have killed him outright.
Nevertheless, shots were fired in re-
turn, at least dozen of them in all.
This return of the bushwhackers'
fire and the fact that no revolver was
found on the dead man is thought to
indicate that he was accompanied by
an armed bodyguard, as are many Of
the bad men of Little Italy.
boy handed Patrolman Martin. the
first policeman to reach the scene, a
revolver he had picked up en- the side
walk. All its cartridges had been dis
charged. That and the dead and
wounded were the only evidence of the
battle the police have obtained so far.
Although the street was crowded when
1t began 1t was empty, save for the two
injured women, when Martin got
there, nor would any one in the neigh
borhood admit knowing who shot
Spadetto.