New-York tribune., 1921-12-26
20 Fight, Four
Seriously Hurt,
AT Yule Party
One Man Believed Dying
as Result of Knife and
Gun Battle of Italians
in Brooklyn Tenement
Neighborhood in a Panic
Reserves Force Way to
Scene; Witnesses Refuse
to Tell Cause of Outbreak

More than O score of Italians fought
with knives and revoIvers last night
on the stairs Of tenement at 225
North Eighth Street, Brooklyn, appar-
emily in aomc obscure fcud which
blazed up anew at Christmas party
being held in the house. Four men
were found wounded on the stairs after
the rest of the combatants had fed.
Thomas Monteforto, Of 81 Powers
Street, Brooklyn, has two bullets
one in his hip. His wounds probably
will prove fatal. He is in Williams
burg Hospital, as is James Cauci, Of
225 North Eighth Street, who was shot
in the right arm. Salvatore Coletta,
who also lives at tho same address, was
shot in the left side and Is at Green
peint Hospital. Peter Gaimaro, Of Sc
Havameyer Street, also was taken to
Greenpoint Hospital. He has @ bullet
wound in the face.
More than fifty shots are said to
have been fired. The neighborhood was
thrown into panic. So great was the
opposite the house that the two or
three patrolmen from nearby posts who
came on the run could not force their
way through to the door.
They called the reserves Of the Bed
ford Avenue police station. AS the
patrol wagons clangor sounded at the
corner there was sudden eddying in
the crowd about the door. Those near
est the house pressed back upon their
neigh bors in fear as men began to pour
out of the hallway.
The faces of some were bleeding
from slashes or from a bullets crease.
Others limped or ran with one hand
pressed painfully to body or limb. All
Of them, according to those in the
crowd, carried weapons in plain sight,
some Of them knives and some Of them
pistols.
When the reserves had made their
way into the tenement the stairways
wounded men. Splintered balustrades,
bullet-gouged walls, red stains on plas-
ter and stairs and the smoke which
hung in the Railways added their silent
testimony to the ferocity Of the battle
TO the groans Of the wounded.
OF the gunmcn and the knifemen no
other trace remained. No weapon was
found on any of the wounded men.
The half-hysterical mob which had been
outside the house melted magically
away.
Nv OliO ~ dS W NC lOQItG OuLSlQC OF
inside the house who could give any
coherent account of what had occurred
or who would venture guess as to the
cause Of the fight.
Some of Captain Daniel J. Carey's
detectives rounded up man whom they
suspected OF knowing more about the
fight than he was willing to tell, and
took him to the police station for fur
ther questioning. He was taken also
to williamsburg Hospital where, the
police said, Monteforto recognized him.
Neither Monteforto nor any Of the
other wounded men would give any ex-
planation of the affair to the police,
however, nor make any accusation
against any one. They are under arrest
at the hospitals.
Two brothers. James, fifteen years old
and Louis Cauci, nineteen, who live at
225 North Eighth Street, were later ar
rested by the police. Both were locked
up on charge OF felonious assault.
According to the police of the Bed
ford Avenue station, when Louis Cauci
was taken to the hospital, Monteforte,
who is no+ expected to live, pointed at
him and said:
That Is vie man who shot me-"
The police say that Monteforte, who
is the owner Of garage at North
Eighth and Roebling streets, ran into
the hallway when the trouble occurred
and was shot.