New-York tribune., 1922-03-26
Manager of Third Avenue
Store Shot Down While
Crowds Pass by Door;
Clerk Only Eyewitness
Assassin and Pal
Escape i'm Auto
Victim, Arms Filled With
Fruit, Tardy in Obcying
GLANDS Up Command

Richard J. O'Shca was killed By 3
hold-up man about o'clock last night
IN store of the Atlantic and Pacific
lea Company on Third Avenue, nS-l
For'y-fith Street of which he wa
manager There were two Of the rob
bers and they escaped in 81 automo.
bile. They took no money.
The tiny store is generally crowded
Saturday nights, but there was a lull
about o'clock. People were passing
constantly, but none entered. Samuel
Goldcnbcrg, the clerk, was at the far
end of the counter, packing eggs
OShca was near the door, selecting
grapefruit from case under the
counter and putting them in n box
tilted against the wall
Goldenberg, engrossed in his eggs, did
not hear the door open nor see the two
men who entered until he heard the
command; Throw up your hands and
keep en- up!" He turned as he obcyed
expected to rocur in his dreams as
long as he lives.
The Saturday night traffic stream
was pouring past the door Two women
with child clasping hand of each
and each with market bag in the
other hand walked slowly past. Beyond
them he caught glimpses OF indefinite
hurryng figures and the flashing of
automobiles and surface cars.
Arms Filled With Grapefruit
Just inside the door stood the two
robbers. One was almost six feet in
height The other, light Completed
man, had a revolver which he was
pointing at O'Shca. The store man
ager, his arms filled with grape
fruit, was backing slowly away from
them. He had not yet raised his hands.
1T looked to Goldenberg as though he
was groping for a place to deposit his
burden before doing so.
Even as the scene impressed itself
on Goldenberg's retina, it was shifted.
There was deafening detonation, a
burst Of pungent smoke and the
mingled slamming and thumpings of a
suddenly shut door, falling body and
dropping grapefruit.
Stumbling and slipping because Of
the rolling grapefruit which numbered
the floor and stepping wide across the
body Of O'Shea, Goldenberg ran to the
street. There nothing was changed.
nv bAll VI passing cIPVdCpQ tram
had drowned the shot, The two women
and the child were lettering at fruit
stand at Forty y-sixth Street Men and
women walked briskly past without a
glance toward the grocery store A
newly started motor car, enveloped in
Its own haze, was pushing recklessly
northward and careened east into
Forty-sixth Street as Goldenberg
reached the door.
Reserves Clear Way
Police! Murderl' shrilled the
aproned, white-faced clerk.
Everything stopped. Men and women
pressed about him and strove with
one another for glance into the store.
Chauffcurs headed for the curb. A
Third Avenue car, stalled by the sud
den shift in the traffic, disgorged its
passengers, Patrolman Boedecker came
on the run and held the door against
the throng.
1t took the reserves from the East
Fifty first Street police station to clear
way for the ambulance O'Shea was
taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he
died within an hour. He had been shot
through the head, He was forty-iive
years old, lived with his wife at 355
East Fifty-seyenth Street, and had been
employed by the Atlantic and Pacific
Lea Company for six years.
There were $18 in bills and some sill
yer IN the cash register.
John Delucia was held up at 10
o'clock last night in his laund ry at 81
Macdougal Street. The robber took
$50 from him at the muzzle of a revolv-
er and ran up Macdougal Street with
Dolucia in hot pursuit, yelling for help.
Patrolman Thoas McCann, of the
Charles Street police station, gave
chase and took a couple of shots at
the fugitive. One hit him and he
stopped running. An ambulance was
cal ed, but the call was Cancelled when
a druggist who treated the prisoners
wound with courtplaster said he would
be al right in few days if he would
avoid sitting down.
At Headquarters the prisoner said
he was Peter Cocaro, of 22G Thompson
Street. Neither revolver nor money
was found on him.