Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10

INSIDE the world OF reporters
you hear lot about scoops
and clean beats'-but you
~ don't hear so much about
them among the reporters
themselves, says Dorothy Dix
Every reporter knows that luck
has lot to do with Ii when news
paper man or woman gets real beat.
] rmember only three that was
lucky enough to get In all my years
of newspaper reporting. One was the
Josephine Terranova case in New
York, in which that little Italian girl
murdered her aunt and uncle with a
knife. One was the story of woman
] called The Prisoner of Love up at
q little town called Monticello, y. y.
And one was a murder in Virginia, OF
which the only name / can recall was
the name of the mistress of the nus
band who murdered his wife-that
was Beaulah Binney.
And luck was an element in all
three Of those stories on which | was
lucky enough to get clean beat.
Horrible murdeEs. two OF them. An
astounding case vfor psychologist,
that of the Prisoner of Love-" And
If those are the three scoops of
Dorothy Dix. she picked three classics.
Begin with the amazing story of
Josephine Terranova. just as Dorothy
Dix told 1t.
There was young Italian attorney
who used to do occasional legal work
for my first editor. One day he came
TO the editor and asked him to have
me sent down TO interview a little
Italian girl he was defending on a
charge Of murder The case hadn't
come to trial yet The girl was in
cell in the Tombs. She didn't speak
word of English There had been just
a story from police headquarters on
how she had murdered her aunt and
uncle with a knife in some kind of
family quarrel She wouldn't tell the
details. The story was dropped after
the first day. 1t looked like just one
more killing.
so ! was assigned to go down and
interview Josephine. The little Italian
LAWYER went along as interpreter At
first he kept shutting Josephine off
when she started to talk. All he in
ferpreted was routine prosaic stuff.
Then l got mad. See here said. If
I'm to help this girl. you've got to let
me ask all the questions I want and
you've got TO interpret fully every
thing the both of US say At first he
refused. At last he assentsd. And,
= x X
g TOSEPHINES uncle and aunt were
childless. The uncle was baker
employing 40 men, and by the padrone
system all 40 ate their meals at his
home over the bakery. The uncle was
getting rich. He wrote to Josephine's
father and mother in Italy. telling
them he had no child, and il they
would send Josephine TO America, he
and his wife would treat her as their
own daughter. 1t looked like a fine
chance for the girl. The parents sent
her TO New York.
She was beautiful child-rare
Italian beauty-eyes like Madonna
wonderful hair and a marvellous com.
plexion. And her uncle and aunt
made a scullion out of her They
made her scrub and cook and serve the
meals for those 40 bakers. They made
her wash clothes. She was working
from daybreak to dark Even the
workmen she served got to talking
about it. But the child knew no bet
ter. She was too young, and women
worked in the village from which she
came. Apparently her only consola
ton or amusement was going to
church. She was a devout Catholic
Then. when she was 16. knew no
word of English and never left the
house without her aunt guarding her"
Dorothy Dix went on, that unspeak-
able aunt handed her over to that I'M
speakable uncle Of hers as his mistress
and they made her keep on with all
her household drudgery. When
Josephine fed weeping to her aunt.
that woman consoled her with: You
know, men are like that. It's all
right But after that they didn't even
let Josephine go to church. They were
afraid she might tell the priest.
The neighborhood was gossiping
about the way they were working the
child TO death, but no word of the scan
dial ever got out. Josephine was under
her aunt's or her uncle's eye all the
time. Then young Italian appeared
on the scene, attracted by Josephine's
beauty and the stories of drudgery. He
was plasterer, young and clean and
ambitious and hard working. He pro