The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-08

almost time now"
The murder to which Saint Peter
Malone confessed TO was the killing
Of cashier employed by q Utica
stone quarry, several months ago. .
deed for which young Italian labor
organiser was railroaded to prison
and sentenced to be executed this
night.
LIE was christened Durante Gabriel
IL Seeato by Jealous godfather In
Sicily, and twenty-three years later
was known to the Italians Of Utica as
Dante. Traits what his friends cali
ed him, just Dante. They knew him
for a pleasant, wen-mannered youth
"a poet, singing the songs OF unrest,
and liked him for Il.
Dante was tall and siim Of dark ex-
traction. Sucked into the economic
maelstroM at an early age, he emers-
ed at $wentythree, = hardened cru
sader IN the ranks Of labor. His com
rades looked up to him as their lead
er. He worked as a stone cutter, one
of several hundred men employed by
the Wilton Stone Works. The hours
of toll were tediously long, and to
alleviate the great suppression that
surged in his blood, his lips would
hum revolutionary songs as he pound
ed at his chisel, carving out the in
scriptions we read upon the tomb
stones of the dead.
After work, the laborers, mostly
Italians would meet in the woods to
discuss plans for a coming strike.
They were all underpaid, dissatisfied,
and for most part emaciated looking
men splitting continuously the consump-
tive dust of the stones they we're
forced to inhale. He addressed them
one memorable evening in the tongue
they understood and the following
week, strike was declared. For six
weeks the strike, punctuated by fire.
queRt clashes between police and the
strikers dragged on uneventfully, un-
til one morning a cyclonic event blew
in with the dawn of a cool October
morning, which was later destined to
echo in every corner of the globe.
Extra! Extra! Big Murder! cash
Ter for the Wilton Company shot
from behind by a masked bandit who
escaped with the payroll, by running
thru the woods. Detectives, working
on case, arrest momentarily expected.
Gossip-and wagging tongues soon
had all of Utica seething with excite
ment
The following morning, Dante SEGA
to was taken from his home by two
deputy sheriffs and held without bail
as the killer. Circumstantial evil
dence convicted him of murder in the
first degree. He was heard to say the
day previous that unless he could
raise some money the strike was
doomed. That counted heavily against
him in the hurried trial. Besides, he
was seen in the woods at the time of
the murder. Also, a button, supposed
to have been missing from his coat
was found in the office. A girl, an
eyewitness, swore that his was the
coat the bandit wore, tho she only
had a glimpse of him.
1t was in the unforgettable wave of
reaction that swept thru this country
In the Palmer red-baiting period, that
Secato was caught in. The same
tempestuous winds that blew down
the unprotected barriers of Justice"
and swept in its wake, such unfortu-
mates as Billings, Sacco, Vanzetti,
Mooney and others.
The local newspapers made capital
of the affair. Labor agitator muir.
ders cashier to raise money for
strike. Red conspiracy seen In kill
ing OF cashier" read some of the
headlines. 1t was whispered about at
the trial that the indicted was Com
munist and an alien; therefore an I'M
desirable citizen-a destroyer of
American ideals, a free lover; no
doubt--a breaker of homes, a social
leper-deport him-hang him, rang
the cry-only separate him from the