The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-07-29
Children at Play Shot Doom
in Street by Gangster Guns
One Killed and Four Wounded
Bullets Spray Sidewalk as
Thugs Stage MurderouS
Attack on Rivals in NJ. Y.
Beer War.
By United Press

~ united Press
NEW YORK, July 2e.-One child
lay dead today and four "shot full
of bullets" victims of a cynical dis
regard Of life by machine gunner
gangSters, as Edward P. Mulrooney,
police commissioner, ordered fifty
detectives to bring Vincent Colo,
dead or alive" to headquarters.
Colo is the head of a liquor ring
which, according to the underworld,
has been attempting to muscle in"
on Harlem's beer racket. BY in
ference, it may have been Collo's
mob that swept suddenly into East
One hundred and seventh street on
Tuesday night, pouring a deadly
shower of bullets into a group of
children at play, in their reckless
endeavor to get" one of their enc
mics.
When the gunner left the scene,
five children were screaming in
agony on the sidewalks, the section
an Italian quarter-waS in a par
oxysm of hysteria, and their in
tended victim, whoever he was, was
unscathed.
Child of 5 Dies
Michael Vengali, 5, who was. shot
in the groin, as he was playing on a
doorstep, died today in Beth David
hospital.
Two others were critically wound
al Thoxy" a1o CO 1yyoEnr VYn,a~a1i n
brother of the child who was killed,
and Michael Belivacqui, 3 years old,
shot twice in the back while his sis
ter was wheeling him in a baby car
riage along the line of fire.
Two more were less seriously
wounded and were able to go home
after hospital treatment. They are
Florence D'Amellio, IL, shot in the
shoulder, and Samuel Delfno, 6,
wounded in the leg.
Florence D'Amellio was the
heroine throughout the display of
barbarism which had shocked Lit
tie Italy" into a vast silence-Of
fear-today. With the first outburst
of firing, she leaned over the little
carriage in which her little brother
was sleeping, and attempted to lift
him out, to carry him to safety.
Before she could struggle to a
doorway, n bullet had struck her
on the shoulder and two more had
imbedded themselves in the body
of the other child.
RuSheS Him Into Store
Despite the wounds, Florence
chung to her brother and rushed
with him into a nearby store, be-
Seeching aid for him.
The shocking savagery of the at
tack is believed to be the outcome
of a war between the Colo gang
and the gangs headed by Joe Rao
and Dutch" Schultz. Collo's mob
recently carried the war into Greene
county, but their intentions were
frustrated when eight members of
the gang were surrounded and
captured in a farmhouse outside of
CatSkill - in the territory recently
made famous by Jack Oegs)
Diamond.
Tuesday nights attack is believed
to have been in repriSal for a tip
off" given the police as to the pur-
poses of Colo'S Green county raid.
The shooting was the most ruth
less in the history of New York gang
warfare. Scores of children, trying
to catch an occasional breeze and
avoid the sitting heat of tenement
rooms, were playing on the side
walks when an open automobile
some said it was green and some
said it was black-poked its way
down the street.
Drop to Sidewalk
A man standing in front of the
Helmar Club, a social" club with
some gangSter associations, dropped
to the sidewalk in alarm, for ma
chine guns were poking their muz-
zles over the sides of the car.
There was a roar of gunf1re; chill
dren shrieked; the murder car swept
down the street and disappeared
The man who had dropped in his
tracks rose and rushed away.
Hysterical mothers ran to pick up
the moaning victims. Screams and
curses filled the street.
But nobody in Little Italy" today
could describe the automobile or its
occupants. Nobody claimed to
know who did it. The fifty detec-
tives who labored through the hot
night questioning the frightened
residents of the street learned moth
ing.
oh" said a 5%-year-old y%oungster,
calmly pursuing his games after the
shooting Was over cit was inst one