When she heard the noon whistles blow in the neighboring factories, she
had gone out on the front sidewalk to get her baby for dinner. The
youngster was sitting on the curbstone and as she stood in the doorway
calling him, a brick, coming from the roof of the tenement, struck the
baby on the head, killing him instantly. She rushed out and—she swore
very solemnly—looked up and saw "the little divil’s red head, jest as
plain as I sees yer honor."
The counsel for the defense was unable to shake her testimony in the
least.
Other witnesses swore that, on hearing Mrs. Casey’s cry for help, they
had rushed up to the roof and had met Mrs. Sippio coming down through
the skylight with her two younger children, Felicia a girl of eight and
Angelo, who was five. When they had asked her where Pietro was she said
she had not seen him. But these witnesses were Irish and sided with
Mrs. Casey. They testified that it was easy to pass from one roof to
another. And it was evidently their theory that Pietro had escaped in
this manner.
A few minutes after the tragedy, Pietro had come whistling up the street
and had walked into the arms of the police, who were just starting out
to search for him.
In his own defense Pietro testified that after quarreling with Mrs.
Casey he had played about in the street for some time and then had gone
down to the river with a crowd of boys for a swim. They had not left
the water until the noon whistles had warned them of dinner time. They
had all hurried into their clothes and gone home. He swore positively
that he had not been on the roof during the morning. He evidently did
not realize the seriousness of his position and was rather swaggeringly
proud of being the center of so much attention.
Two or three other boys testified that Pietro had been swimming with
them and had not left the water until after the whistles blew. This was
an important point as the baby had been killed a very few minutes after
noon. But the district attorney, in a brutal, bullying
cross-examination, succeeded in rattling one of the boys—a youngster of
eleven—until he did not know his right hand from his left. He broke
down entirely, and sobbingly admitted that perhaps Pietro had left
before the whistles blew.
Mrs. Sippio testified that she had not seen Pietro after breakfast. She
had gone upon the roof about half past eleven to beat out some rugs.
She had taken the two younger children with her. But Pietro had not
been on the roof. She was a very timid woman, so frightened that she
forgot most of her scant English. But she seemed to be telling the
truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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