The Barrel MysteryFlynn, William J. (William James)
General
The Barrel Mystery
Flynn, William J. (William James)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
Michele Guarino Zangara, living in the next apartment to Morello, who
noticed when the "Black-Hander" arrived home and overheard the
conversation that followed between Morello and his mother, was also
murdered. He was thrown off a bridge one night while on his way home.
He was found the next morning under the bridge dead. This man Zangara
had gone to the accused man's house, three or four days after the
Chief of the Sylvan Guards was murdered, and told the family of the
man unjustly arrested for the crime that he (Guarino) had overheard
Mrs. Morello say to her son:
"Peppe, what have you done? Now they will come and arrest you," and in
response to this Morello said, "Shut up, mother, they have gone on the
wrong scent."
Zangara, being a man with a large family, feared to tell what he knew
because he felt sure that Morello would murder him just as he had
slain the Di Puma woman. However, when the accused man, Francesco
Ortonello, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, Zangara
came to the front, declaring that his conscience troubled him to see
an innocent man sent away for the murder of Vella. He went to the
authorities and told them that he was willing to risk his life and
tell the truth for Ortonello. The authorities told Zangara that it
would have been better had he told it during the trial. Now it was too
late.
A few days after this the murder of Zangara took place.
Morello was on his way to America at this time, but the "Black-Hander"
had many powerful friends still watchful for his interests, and some
of these attended to Zangara.
Pietro Milone, a police officer who tried hard to clear Ortonello, was
murdered one night on his way home. The one who slew the officer was
never punished.
Biaggia Milone lived across the way from the spot where Morello and
his companion were seen hiding, and this woman subsequently admitted
she saw the shooting and that Morello did it.
This woman is now in New York, and is the cousin of Domenico Milone,
who conducted the grocery store at No. 235 East Ninety-seventh Street,
which was the headquarters and distributing plant for the Lupo-Morello
counterfeit money. The Milone woman has even stated publicly that she
would not testify to what she knows in behalf of Ortonello in an
effort to get the old man out of prison where, she says, she knows he
is unjustly kept!
Ortonello's father, who tried to have his son freed, was threatened
with death several times, and several shots were actually fired at him
while the old man sat in his own doorway. The marksmanship was not
good and the old man escaped the bullets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account