New-York tribune., 1922-08-17
Slain Italian
Believed Shot
To Still Tongue
Ferraro, Brooklyr, Grocer.
Was TO Haye Been Wit
ness In Boston To-day at
Trial Of Six for Murder
jealousy Motive Denied
Woman in Party Says Hus-
hard Had No Cause FOR
Act; Bullets Crazed Her

A motive for the killing Of Camelie
Ferraro, the Italian who was shot from
ambush in the summer garden Of his
grocery store, I56 Degraw Street,
Brooklyn, yesterday. was later estab-
lished in the fact that Ferraro was to
have testified to-day at the trial in
Boston of six Italians for the murder
OF Michael Scarpone last January. The
police believe that he was the victim
Of Black Hand gunmen, who sought to
block his evidence in the case.
According to advices from Boston,
Searpone was killed after he ignored
q demand for $500. Ferraro received
letter demanding an equal sum at
about the same time, it was said, but
after turning the letter over to the
police he left for New York. This sec.
ond letter figured closely in the case
and the Boston authorities planned to
bring Ferraro there TO testify.
Shot Grazed Woman
This information bears out the story
told to the police here by Mrs. Caro-
line Palmasono Immediately after Fer
raro fell dead at the table where he
was talking and eating with seven
companions. She was sitting at Fer
raxoss left and one of the buckshot
In the discharge which killed him
grazed her head.
The woman declared she planned to
leave yesterday with Ferraro for Bos-
ton to testify for the defence in the
murder case. She told the police, they
said, that she was friendly with Fer
raro, but that though her husband
lived in the neighborhood, jealously
on his part could not have been the
cause of the crime.
Ferraro was shot from behind a tall
sunfower hedge, which divides the gar
den he had planted in the rear of his
shop after the fashion of the old coun-
try. There were five men and two
women In the little party given quietly
as q farewell and in celebration of the
Feast of the Virgin of the Assumption.
Where the gunman hid was only few
feet from the groce y n.an and the
latter received the full force Of the
powerful discharge in his left breast.
The gunmar, who escaped over a back
feace, was scarcely seen by the panic
stricken witnesses of the tragedy.
Did Not See Slayer
The seven witnesses were questioned
by Assistant District Attorney Nicho-
las Selvagi and Acting Captain John
Sullivan, but none could testify to
seeing the shot fired. Besides Mrs.
Palmasono the others were Thomas
Tloto, 222 Myrtle Avenue; Joseph De-
cresto and Aniello Deeresto, of 226
Myrtle Avenue; Vito Cardello, 81
Amity Street; Erasmo Gambino, 1ks
Degraw Street. and Jenny Mollica, 3i3
Union Street, ali of Brooklyn.
The tragedy is the second to visit
the itttle grocery store in two years.
Wien it was owned by Frank Iodice,
Lorenza Caserta. a stevedore, was
killed during hold-up in the place
on October 10, 1921, Caserto resisted
end wounded one of the robbers, who
is serving twenty-year sentence for
his part in che crime.
patrolman Butler, who was one OF
the first to reach the scene of the Fer
raro shooting, found the gun used by
the murderer in the unoccupied side
Of the garden. The police have started
q roundup OF questionable Italian
characters