Evening star., 1939-05-12
Federal Aid Offered
In Tearing Down
Murder Ring
Exhumution Of Two
Additional Bodies
Ordered by Authorities
By the Associated Press.

! By the Associated Press.
PHILADELPHIA, May 12.-The
Federal Governments crime-crush-
ing organization has offered its full
aid In tearing down the East's huge
insurance-murder syndicate, 1t was
said here today.
Working at top speed to clear q
tangle Of fantastic evidence in time
for mass trials starting In 10 days,
the Philadelphia investigators said
they received word the facilities OF
the Federal Bureau of Investigation
would be available on request.
District Attorney Charles F..
Kelley did not Immediately ask
Federal cooperation, but said aid
would be welcome.
If the Department of Justice steps
in. 1t was indicated, its aid primar-
lily would be in tracing down fug-
itives and In making its laboratories
available for analyses of poisons and
other examination.
Already police list more than two
score persons slain and estimate the
toll may have been 100.
Federal agents are interested In
the ring largely because the in
veStigation has shown 1t extended
from an Eastern Pennsylvania head
quarters into New York, New Jer-
sey, Delaware and, detectives said,
possibly throughout the entire East.
Two Bodies Ordered Exhumed.
Meanwhile. right after hearings in
which 13 men and women were held
! for trial or futher hearing, two more
bodies were ordered exhumed for
poison tests.
The bodies were those of Abraham
Sherman and Antonio Giacobbe.
Their widows are among "a persons
held as members, customers and
"dupes" of the ring which police
say may have plotted more than 100
deaths by poison, drowning and
| faxed accidents in the last 10 years.
| Giacobbes' widow, Mrs. Millie Gia-
cobbe, was one of 13 of the prison.
ers herded before police judges yes
terday and held for trial, the grand
| jury, further hearing or eXtradition.
Many had been arraigned previously,
but were called up again on addi-
tional charges. Mrs. Giacobbe was
charged with murder.
Her arraignment and the subse-
quent order for extumation of her
husbands body brought prominently
to the fore the name of man known
to police as a practitioner OF witch
craft and called the rings Beau
Brummel" He is Paul Petrillo,
charged with murder and with being
an accessory to murder.
Accuses Paul Petrillo.
Police Capt. James Kelly said Mrs
Giacobbe had accused Petrillo in a
statement of slowly poisoning her
husband after making love to her.
"Petrillo told her that he would
get rid of her husband and his wife
and then they could marry" Capt.
Kelly said. Paul took out insurance
on Giacobbes' life. naming himself
the beneficiary and describing him.
self as Giacobbe's nephew"
Another investigator said detec-
tives were checking on nine poison
murders in New York City, Brook
| lyn and Jersey City to determine
whether Petrillo possibly was linked
with them. Petrillo, round-shoul-
dered be-spectacled tailor shop op-
orator. is cousin of Herman Petril-
TO- who has been convicted of pois-
oning a w. P. A. worker and now
is facing the electric chair.
The investigator declined to elab-
crate on the nine poiSonings but
declared Petrillo was known to have
held, as beneficiary, at least 30 in
surance policies on the lives of per-
sons either murdered or marked
for murder. In each case. the in
vestigator said, Petrillo described
himself as nephew"
Herman PetrillO COnfesses.
At the same time Herman Petril-
10, who has been aiding police in
an attempt to escape the electric
chair, declared in a new statement
that an itinerant fish peddler had
been lured into death plot against
his wife on the promise he could
then marry beautiful lady" who
was crazy about him. and had
$4,000.
The peddler, Gaetano Peno, died
in a Philadelphia hospital after
mysterious illness, and police have
said they believed he was killed by
the ring ito keep his mouth shut"
Detectives discovered he was dead
when they sought to question him
about the death of his wife, also
believed to be victim of the ring.
He had been semi-conscious in
Salem, N j., hospital for 10 days
before he was brought to the hos
pital here.
Herman Petrillo said in his state
ment that two members of the ring
persuaded Peno to increase insur-
ance on his wife, telling him they
would "fix it up so he could marry
the wealthy lady" When the wife
died the plotters shared the insur-
ance, Petrillo said
Holding Mrs. Maniuk and Mrs.
Romauldo, 81, mother of two, in
the deaths of their husbands, Mag
istrate Nathan Beifel declared:
I'll let the courts decide whether
you were pawn in the hands of
these vicious murderers or whether
you yourselves were to blame"
|Greetino-t0-Ro\