The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1921-07-02
SIX ITALIANS TO
HANG FOR MURDER
Men Convicted for Crime at In
dependence, La. Get Death
Penalty.

Tuiane Ave., New Orleans; Joseph
RIM of Chicago; Roy Leona and Jo-
seph Giglio Of Brooklyn: Andre La
mantia Of Chicago; and Joseph Boo
chic of New Orleans, indicted for
the murder of Dallas Gaines, receiv-
ed verdict of guilty as charged"
at Amite, La, after the jury had
been out twenty-nine minutes.
A brief history Of the crime for
which they have been given the
death penalty follows:-
Early in the morning of May Sth,
Mrs. Dallas L. Gaines. wife Of ho-
tel and restaurant proprietor at In
dependence saw through the window
OF the bedroom skulking figure. She
awakened her husband and he ,rush
ed into the alley between his place
OF business and the Farmers and
Merchants Bank.
There were several men in the al
ley. Gaines called on them to halt.
whereupon they open fire. He re-
turned their shots, and fell mortally
wounded on his doorstep. The men
hurried away. Mrs. Gaines dragged
her husband into the house, while a
nephew, L. L. Roy" Gaines, at
tracted by the shots, rushed to the
scene. A few minutes later, young
Gaines, and Rene. brother of the dy-
ing man, Frank Hyde and Tom Can
geotta were speeding westward in an
automobile.
d Near Albany, seven miles away,
they passed another machine, halted
by the side of the road. A man and
boy were in it. Farther along the
highway, the pursuers drew to the
side OF the road and waited. Soon a
car with several men in 1t appeared.
AS the men from Independence
rushed out into the road, shots were
fired at them from the machine. They
returned the fire and several of the
men leaped out of the automobile
and ran off into the woods. A man
and boy left in the car were seized.
They were Pietro Leotto, and his 10
year-old son, Joe. In the car were
guns and a quantity of nitroglycer-
iAe.
Meantime the alarm had been CIV
en- in Independence, and search of
the bandits was under way. Bocehio
was found hiding in the swamps
near the murder car. At about the
same time, Natalie Deamore, proprie-
tor of a garage in Tulane Avenue,
was arrested by Felix Ard, 400 yards
from the scene Of the crime, as he
was walking toward the station.
Piascotto and Giamalra were ar
rested later Sunday in the section of
Tangipahoa where they reside.
Upon. hearing of the murder of
Mr.. Gaines and the attempted rob-
berry of the Independence bank, Ser
geant M. e, Garrison, of the State
Penitentiary farm in Baton Rouge
Parish, hurried to Tangipahoa parish
with four bloodhounds and took ND
the trail. In swamp near Holden
he captured RIM and Lamatia, af-I
ter one of them had fired on him
with a rife. Garrison prevented
lynching by his GOODNESS, declaring
he had taken the men and was de-
termined to turn them over to JUS
tice.
The last two of the men implica-
ted in the crime were arrested at
1901 Tulane avenue Sunday night BY
Detectives Horton and Uhle, of the
New Orleans police department, act
ing on request from Sheriff Bow
den of Tangipahoa parish. They
where Joseph Giglio, employed as a
mechanic by Deamore, and Frank
Leona. The landlady told the po-
lice the men had left there Friday
evening and returned Sunday night.
All the suspects were brought to
New Orleans, and the following
Tuesday, Natalie Deamore, garage
proprietor, broke down and told AS
sistant District Attorney Thomas
Craven he was with the party, and
would point out the other men. In
the office Of Superintendent Of Po-
lice Molony, peamore identified Roy
Leona, Joseph Giglio, Lamantia and
RIM.
The following day 10-year-old Jo-
seph Leotta identified Leona. Laman-
tia, RIM and Deamore, and at the
Charity Hospital pointed out Boo
chic. Pietro Leotto. his father, COM
pleted the Identification by naming
Giglio as one of the six men who had
come up from New Orleans before the
murder.
Indictments against the nine men
on charges OF murder and conspiracy
to rob the bank were returned by
the Tangipahoa grand jury the same
week, and the following Monday the
men were arraignsd and the trial of
six Of them set for June 13.