New-York tribune., 1921-06-19
Slay
Mother of 2
By Mistake
tcontinaca from page ono,

Street house and arrived there think,
| Just behind Patrclman Calcaterra.
When we reached the second floor
landing / found Cooley there and
Patrolmen Wilson, Miller and Johnson
Cooley told us to keep quiet as the
| man they were after was in hiding on
the floor above. Calcaterra then
stepped to the foot of the stairs and /
told him to say in Italian that we
meant no harm if the man would sur
caterra did this, but ! recall that he
pointed his gun toward the ceiling. We
all had our guns out.
Il at once said to Calcaterra. Don't
tshoot You may hit an innocent per-
son. The next minute he fred. We
had not heard sound and ! do not
believe that Calcaterra saw any one.
He just fired to intimidate anybody
who might be hiding there. We waited
few minutes and then we went up
! stairs. In the front room at the right
we found man bending over the body
OF woman on the floor. When he
looked at us we saw his shirt was
covered with blood.
II asked him where the gun was that
he had killed the woman with. He de-
MED that he had gun and ! put him
under arrest. | did not leave the room
until the ambulance surgeon came and
| saw no one beat the man, who after
wards turned out to be the woman's
husband Riccardello. There was only
one shot fired and as far as / know we
were the first officers in the room"
Foley's testimony on the beating
charge was fatly contradicted by the
second victim of the police officers
c%nty Ha Ia
two-year-old son, John, in his arms
when reporter entered his little fat.
81 was in bed last night" said
Riccardello about 1O:4b l heard
five or six shots in the hallway, fol-
lowed by other shots. l waited until
there was silence and then went out
into the hallway and went downstairs.
There was a crowd in the street, for
things are always peaceable here. Then
Rose Musillo's, where my young wife
was visiting. She was only twenty
enc years old. We sat talking about
the shooting and then my wife got up
and said she was going to the rear
of the hallway. She had hardly got
halfway down the hall when / heard
a shot.
81 at once rushed into the hall and
found my wife lying on the floor be-
tween the banister railing and the wall.
looked. over the railing and saw four
of the stairs on the second landing
One of them told me not to move or he
would kill me, but paid no attention
to him and, STOPPING down, picked up
the body of my wife and carried it into
Mrs. Musillo's. She was dead They
fired three shots at me as l was pick
ing up my wife. l went to the window
and call for help.
-Four or five minutes passed and
when | was there with the body of my
wife four or five policemen came in and
wanted me to give them gun. said,
What do you think, ! shoot my own
wife? You have killed her and now YOU
want me to say that did it.? They did
not answer me, but all of them jumped
on me and began to beat me on the /
mead with their guns and fists.
Il cried aloud in my pain and begged
them to kill me. The people in the
street saw them hitt ng me and began
TO cry out for them to stop, as / was
not the right man that the police were
after, but they only went to the win
dow and pulled down the shade and
continued to beat me up. Then the am
bulance came and l was saved. The
surgeon dressed my wounds as you can
cNS anu A was tdheu 70 JNe station
house, where they kept me until q
o'clock this morning and then they let
me CO."
Riccardello's head was swathed in
bandages, showing that he had been
numerically beaten. Sergeant Foley
denied that he had seen any officer as
sau.t the man, and Patrolman Wilson
corroborated his superior. This left
the matter up to Cooley, Miller, John
son and Calcaterra, who could not be
located. Riccardello has been in this
country fifteen years and speaks Eng
h9h f1uently. He is a coremaker in
the Brooklyn Vault Light Company,
Greerpolnt, L. l., and is above. the av-
erage Italian workman in intelligence.
In addition to the discrepancy be-
tween ISe Ricardello's story and Sergeant
foiey's regarding the attack on the
former, there is also the difference in
statements regarding the number of
shots fired altogether. Ricardello saws
tnat the police fired on him three times |
wh1le ne was picking up his wife's
BODY. Foley says the police did not
fire another shot after Calcaterra dis
charged his gun.
The. police admit that eleven shots
were fired six by Cino, who thew saw
escaped down a fire escape while the |
detectives were waiting for the re-
serves, four by Cooney and Conlev and |
one by Calcaterra.
An inspection of the hallwavs and