The Washington times., 1923-04-08
VICTIM Of TRAGEDY
WAS MISSING GIRL
Companion In Death of Mrs
BIandinO Identified as
Ethel Phillips.
HAD LEFT BAYoNME HOME
Authorities Run Down Clues to
ButChery of Women on
Staten Island.

NEW YORK, April THE Staten
Island murder case took q new
twist, late today, when four de-
tectives from Bayonne, N. J., iden-
titled the body thought to be that
of Miss Bessie Mcmahon. as that
of Miss Ethel Phillips, seventeen,
who disappeared from her home
in Bayonne, two weeks ago.
The woman who was found dead
with Mrs. Irene Blandino early yes
terday at the side OF q road at
a deserted spot on the Island, while
called Miss Mcmahon" was also
said to have been known around
Jersey City dance halls as Peggy
Phillips"
RECOGNIZED AT MORGUE.
The detectives, accompanied by
Frank Viscone, Bayonne cafe owner,
went to the morgue when report
was published that the girl killed
with Mrs. Blandino was Ethel Phil
lips.
That's Peggy, all right" Captain
O'Neill. one of the detectives, said
as he looked at the body. But
where are her ear-rings?"
He explained that the girl always
wore q cheap pair of coral pen.
dants in her ears Police Captain
Won WAGNER produced pair which
he took from the girls body. All
four men identified them.
Won WAGNER said James Blandino
told him he had been introduced to
his wife's friend and that the name
Mcmahon" was used
O'Neill said the Phillips girl was
he ~
Shepherd in New Jersey, where she
was held as an incorrigible. three
weeks ago when her mother became
i'll and asked that the girl be sent
home to help with the house work.
| Shortly after her return the girl
disappeared and the, mother notified
the police.
The two women have been frs-
uuenting New Jersey road houses
with different men, O'Neill said.
SENSATION PROMISED.
District Attorney Joseph Malay of
Richmond, promised sensational de-
velopments in the case today. They
had not materialized tonight. It was
intimated the search for the butchers
may last several days. Several
theories are yet to be eliminated.
Mrs. Blandino had been telling
friends the name Of the man she sus-
pected of stabbing her former hus-
band to death in a Jersey City saloon
| a year ago. This man may have
provoked the killing of the woman
and her companion to close a danger
Gus mouth.
other theories, not given as much
attention, are that they were killed
by bootleggers on whom Mrs.
- (RF
by a jealous person.
James Blandino, husband OF one
of the dead women. and Rosario Di
Lorenzo, assistant in Blandino's
barber shop, are both held in $780,
900 bail while detectives comb Jer-
sey City for records of their lives.
The two have given little informa-
ton of value, although the hus-
bands stories tend to involve boot.
leggers. Police are taking his story
with enough salt to alter the fla
vor
THEORY OF ORGY.
Another possible motive is that
the women were murdered as the
climax of a wild orgy staged in one
Of the cottages on Staten Island.
Stories of the women being picked
up by comparative strangers for
parties" are still floating into po-
lice headquarters. Investigation Of
that phase of their lives is being
done thoroughly.
An automobile thought to have
blood stains on 1t was found in
Jersey City today. The owner con-
WINGED police 1t was not involved
in the murder.
Dr. l.. M. Mord, medical examiner
of Richmond, shares the theory
that the girls were slain as the re-
suit of an Italian vendetta. After
he had completed an autopsy on
the two bodies he said today:
II do not believe the murderer was
insane. 1 believe 1t was premedi-
tated.
THE condition Of the two bodies
makes me picture the person COM
hitting the crime; makes me see
him become tnfhriated at the first
sight OF blood and start hacking
away brutally at the bodies. It
was the work Of a person without
the least scruples about bloodshed."