The New York herald., 1922-03-14
Flat Wrecked, but Wife and
Two Children Escape In
jury in Explosion.
VICTIM KNOWN TO POLICE
Eleven Families Turned Out
When Peter PicurO Is Nor
tally Wounded.

Peter Picuro sat in the kitchen OF
his three room fiat at 355 East
Seventy-sixth street at o'clock last
night working at something. Sud-
denly a bomb exploded close to him.
1t blew away both his hands, put out
his eyes and tore the whole front of
his body, so that he died soon after an
ambulance got him to Bellevue Hos
pital.
The bomb also wrecked the fiat,
tearing holes in the ceiling and floor
and spilling an avalanche of plaster
on the tables of restaurant on the
floor below. Picuros wife and two
of his three children who were in the
fiat with him were not hurt
The family had two Gagged canaries.
One could not be found after the ex-
plosion. Policemen found the other
balanced on the leg Of broken chair
and making pretense Of trilling.
Fragments Found Near ny.
Members OF the bomb squad believe
Picuro was making the bomb that killed
him. They think he sat with a piece of
galvanized iron pipe between his knees
bending over as he filled the pipe with
chlorate of potash sulphur and char
| COAL They found fragments of the pipe
and twelve inch length of waxed cord.
often used as fuse. and noted that the
tenement was filled with the odor OF
sulphur. Their mental picture of Picuro
with the pipe between his knees was
drawn when they noted his injuries.
The Picuros lived on the second floor
| OF house near First avenue, in a
neighborhood of mixed Italian, Bohe-
mlan and Slavic population. In the
three rooms back of them lives Marie
Curly. a widow. and her two children.
| Her son Silvio. II. was practicing on
| his violin when the house shook and
| plaster began to fall The mother was
| too frightened to make a sound but the
boy. coughing as the sulphur struck
his throat, ran to the street to get a
policeman. Eleven other families OF the
house were piling into the street at
the same time, dragging their children
and household possessions.
The patrolman who plunged up the
| stairs first Emil Shield. was followed by
| others of the East Sixty seventh street
station and then by In.3ector James
Callahan OF the bomb squad from Head
quarters ana two of his detectives MUIR
ply and Terminello. shield and two
boys. Edward Holstein and Joseph Rtzzo
found Mrs. Picuro screa mig In the back
room of'the wrecked fiat and carried her
and her year and half old baby 10 the
pavement. Another chi'i. boy of 8,
had been playing in the street and thus
had missed the excitement.
often Questioned by Police.
The police recalled that Picuro. who
was rs years old, had once been a
plumber. They also said that they had
him at the station house several times,
thinking he might know something about
automobile stealing or drug peddling,
but never had any facts 20 warrant his
arrest. How he had made living they
did not know. He had never been ac-
cused of blackhanding
! Mrs. Picuro was questioned but the
police got little from her. The kitchen
was the middle room OF the three, with
bedrooms in front and behind. She said
she was In the back room with the baby
when the crash came, and that her hus-
band was in the kitchen, but she had
1
ing a box of sulphur found in one OF
the rooms, she said she had bought Ii
to treat her little boys sore hand.
Detectives Murphy and Terminello OF
the bomb squad searched the apartment
and took bundle of papers to Head
quarters. They said they found many
radical newspapers, books. magazines
and pamphlets but nothing to indicate
that Picuro was engaged in any plot.
They said also that the man was not
known to the police as an active radical.
The detectives learned that many young
men were accustomed to visit him.
| News of the explosion caused photog-
raphers to hurry to Seventy-sixth
street. The pop and flare of their
flashlights as they took pictures OF the
debris aroused the tenements again.
Families that had carried their belong
ings back into their homes began lug
ging them into the street again, but
| were Gained after n time