A Christmas Ogre : He Deserts His Family and Takes a Young Bride

What a guy!  This story is about a rather Scrooge-like scumbag.  He was the father of twelve children.  He left his family, yes, at Christmastime.  Why?  No, he was not depressed.  No, he was not penniless, unable to deliver a wonderful, light-hearted holiday to his family.  He just left them all, without a note.  You see, he found a young 16-year old to take as his bride.

free images Scrooge

 Michael Boland lived in St. Louis, Missouri.  Married, father of a large brood, and according to some, a nice neighbor, was missing from his family in late December of 1889.  He was found in Arkansas on December 27th, celebrating a honeymoon with his new, under-aged bride.

Boland, a laborer by trade, left St. Louis in October of 1889 to work on the levee in Bright Star, Arkansas.  Mrs. Boland reported that she ceased to receive any letters from him after he had been gone about 10 days.  She had received a letter from someone claiming to be a "Sheriff Brown".  The letter told of an incident where Mr. Boland had gotten himself into a skirmish with others while on the Arkansas River, and he died from his wounds.  Mr. Boland did have a life insurance policy, with a value of $150.00.  His wife placed a claim for death benefits, as she had a house full of children to feed and care for.

Here is where the story gets good.  The Prudential Insurance Company proceeded to investigate the death of Mr. Boland when they had received the claim from the Mrs.  Another letter was found, once again written by someone claiming to be "Sheriff Brown".  It stated that Mr. Boland was on a skiff on the river, when he was knocked into the river, floating downstream until he was picked up by a steamboat crew, who then transported him to New Orleans.  According to the letter, he was last seen laying in a hospital there.

Following the trail, the insurance investigators contacted the New Orleans officials, who reviewed their maritime records, and found that no such person was transported on a steamboat, and no injured passenger was taken to a hospital there.

Mrs. Boland, needing some closure and some money for support, asked the St. Louis Police Department for some help in locating her husband and finding out what happened to him.
Upon arriving in Bright Star, Arkansas, the police detectives found Mr. Boland, alive and well.  He had never left Bright Star, and had never been involved in a skirmish, nor was he ever tossed off a skiff on the river.

Mr. Boland was found snuggling with his new, much younger bride.  Well, HO HO HO.  Mrs. Boland was notified of what the police had uncovered....her husband was a rat fink.  She proceeded to sue for divorce, and the courts prepared charges against Mr. Boland for bigamy.

I guess we can assume he got coal in his stocking that year!

The Black Hand Gets It's Man

www.newspapers.com, image from St. Louis Post Dispatch, 28 February 1908

16 August 1906.....well-off grocer, Damiano Capuano, receives the first of several letters....

"We know you.   We know what money you have.  And you know us.", the note began.  It went on to give directions to place $1000 in a basket and leave it behind a garden fence in an area known as Baden, in the city of St. Louis.  It ended with a warning, if these instructions were not followed, Capuano would be killed. The message was ignored.

20 August 1906...another note is delivered. It contained the same demand. But, this time the note was marked with a red cross, and the sign of the Black Hand (a zig zag mark) with a skull and crossbones.  Again, Capuano ignored the demand.

During the following week, several similar notes were sent, each one becoming more threatening.  Capuano started to become uneasy. He did not contact the police....until a message on the final note read "Capuano will be marked for the knife".  That got his attention.

He reported the incidents to the Carr Street police station, and Sgt. Adreveno was assigned to the case by Captain Johnson. Federal authorities took possession of the threatening notes.

Words overheard late at night by patrolman Tomasso lead to the arrest of five men.  He was tipped off by an anonymous neighbor, who noticed that a group of men were meeting in the back room of a nearby building.  Tomasso listened as the men spoke Italian, and heard a conversation that most certainly had to do with the notes left for Capuano in the previous weeks. They also made several denouncing comments about the government in America.

After their arrest, it was determined that these men were imitators of the Black Hand Society.  All were questioned....in Italian....because they claimed that they did not know how to speak English.  Handwriting samples were taken of each man, and it was certain that at least one of them closely resembled the writing on most of the notes left for Capuano.

The front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on the initial findings of the police department. It had not been determined that any of these men actually wrote the notes.

In the following few years, many others had received similar notes, referring to the Black Hand, and demanding amounts of money from $500 to $1000 each.  This kept the new "Black Hand Squad" in the St. Louis police department very busy.

Unfortunately, late on the evening of 24 December 1910, Damiano Capuano was shot and killed by three bullets as he was walking home.  He had just finished visiting the homes of several colleagues.  Shots rang out in the night and police were summoned into the dark streets of the city.  Capuano was found deceased, bleeding from his wounds.  The Black Hand finally got their man.

The Dead Can't Testify : Nightclub Owner Goes Free

In the St. Louis Municipal Courts Building, a scuffle broke out in the crowded hallway.  Tony Sansone, Jr. and two others were arrested under general peace disturbance charges.

Mr. Sansone, a Deputy Constable and owner of the La Vida nightclub, located at 521 Washington Avenue, carried a pistol into the court building....I guess there were no metal detectors at the courthouse doors in January of 1935.  Sansone was at the court building to answer to illegal liquor sales charges.   Sansone had failed to obtain the proper licenses for selling liquor. He stated that as he stood at the Police Court entrance, two men known as James Capasso and Tony Busalacki, approached him and began to beat him.  They had unfinished business from a quarrel that they had the evening before.

In an effort to defend himself, Sansone withdrew his pistol from under his coat and hit Busalacki over the head with it.  The crowded corridor was soon emptied as the persons there began to swarm to the doors in order to get out of the way of swinging fists. Sansone was treated for bruises at the nearby hospital, while Busalacki suffered a laceration on his scalp.

The case of Tony Sansone had two continuances, before both parties were fined $200, and appealed.  The court case was carried on the docket eight times before sustaining the fine. On June 27, 1935, a new trial was granted.

Fast forward to August 1935, on the fifteenth court setting for this case, the general peace disturbance charges against Sansone are dropped.  Tony Busalacki, the witness expected to testify again Sansone was no longer alive.  How fortunate for Sansone.  In July, Busalacki was killed in the neighboring county of St. Charles. He had been shot by a member of his own extortion gang....by accident.  OOPS!

 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 13 Jul 1935, Sat, Main Edition, www.newspapers.com

Busalacki and his extortion chumps were trying to collect a large amount of money from a fellow who had a farm in St. Charles County, just across the river from St. Louis.  While running away from the sheriff, one of the gang mistook Busalacki for a county deputy, and he was shot dead.

http://www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts

Judge Schmitt realized that the chief witness against Tony Sansone, Jr. was Tony Busalacki.  The prosecutors could not make a case against Sansone without the testimony of the dead man. Sansone was released from the court as a free man, thankful for the death of his adversary.

The Card Game With an Abrupt Ending

A masked executioner entered the cafe around the midnight hour, He was carrying a shotgun by his side.  Quickly, and with such precision, he raised his weapon and aimed.

Four men were sitting around a table, playing card games, drinking and enjoying their late evening out.  They had no idea that within seconds, two of them would lay dead. Two would be wounded.

Four loud shots were discharged from the sawed off shotgun. The blasts was heard by the deputies at the Springfield police station, just around the corner from the cafe.  By the time they had arrived at the scene, the gunman was whisked away by a Cadillac touring automobile, dark in color and tagged with Missouri state license plates.

The slain men were identified as members of a widely known bootlegging gang, with a territory that stretched from St. Louis to Chicago and places in between.  Robert  Aiello, age 23, and his younger brother, Frank, 20, were the victims.  The seriously  wounded men were identified at Vito Wallace, alias LaPacolo,28, and Lee Meachum, 26.

Robert Aiello, slumped forward in his chair, died immediately.  Frank died on the way to the hospital.  The two other men's wounds were treated and they were released from the hospital. They were questioned by the Deputy Coroner, Robert Stubbs, and said they knew of no motive for the attack.

Several women patrons were bystanders, but they could not identify the masked slayer, and were too upset to even notice that he left in an automobile, driven by a companion that had been waiting for him just outside of the cafe. Helen, owner of the cafe, and her sister, Mildred Joinella, were shaken, but reported that the gunman companion had also entered the cafe, but did not shoot. They also said that a third Aiello brother, Salvatore Aiello, left the cafe just before the gunman appeared. (Oh, really?  Did they try to find him?  Was he was involved in the demise of his brothers?) Others who peered from their nearby windows described the two offenders as "short, fat Italian types", although after being questioned about their statements, they admitted that they really could not identify the ethnicity of the men. But, they did say that they appeared to look just like the "hoodlums" they would hear about on radio news broadcasts.

The Aiello brothers were related to Charles Palmisano, who had been assassinated the night before, on November 10, in St. Louis.  It was reported that a car with Illinois license plates was used in the Palmisano slaying.  The Aiello brothers deaths could have been a reprisal, suggested a Springfield deputy. Mr. Palmisano was a wealthy wholesale fruit merchant.  He was killed as he stood in the doorway of his business.

Jasper Aiello, nephew of the slain men, was killed in front of his home in St. Louis in 1926. Tony Aiello, brother of the victims, was being held in St. Louis in connection with the murder of Alfonso Palazzolo in the previous year. Tony was a brother-in-law of William Russo, leader of a large Italian faction in St. Louis.  Russo was mentioned to be a nephew of the slain Charles Palmisano, although his widow, Mrs. Palmisano, denied they were related. (Are you beginning to see a pattern here????)

Police from St. Louis and Springfield had been collaborating their detective work and came to these conclusions for the slayings:

   Factional differences between Italian gangs

   Whiskey deals gone bad

   Black Hand threats

   Refusal to sign bail bonds

This story was reported in various newspapers across the nation, most dated 11 November 1927.
Among my sources were : The St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Sedalia Democrat, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois), Journal Gazette (Mattoon, Illinois), The Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, Illinois)

As always, if you know further information about this case, please share it in the comments section.  We need to share our knowledge with each other to fully understand each story.

Who Killed Gus Rizzo?

A young man, Gus C. Rizzo, was interred in 1924 in the St. Louis Archdiocese Cemetery of Calvary, Section 12, Lot 1657.

archstl.org/app/cemeteries/burial_search

He is laid to rest with his parents, Charles and Rose (Quattrocchi), siblings Anthony and
Charles, and grandparents,  Frances and Michael Quattrocchi.

Gus was wounded in the stomach with a bullet during a very mysterious affray.  He was taken to City Hospital and passed at 3:40 a.m. on April 19.  He never mentioned how or why he became a victim, nor did he reveal who might have committed this crime.

The image of his death certificate can be found on the Missouri Digital Heritage site :

www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts

Young Gus was only 16 years old.  Such a shame.  He was questioned by doctors and police about the incident.  He told them of three "unknown" men who had driven by him in an automobile.  But, he seemed to change his story, making conflicting statements.

His cousin, James Russo, was the person who had taken him to the hospital.  James also reported another story which did not  match any information that young Gus had relayed.  The police went to the site of the shooting where they found a large pool of blood, in addition to two caps and two bullet holes in a nearby fence.  The location was by the home of James Russo.

James Russo was the brother of "Shorty" Russo, a black hand mobster believed to have murdered a man just three days prior to the death of young Gus.  An accomplice of his was Vincent Spicuzza, also believed to have been dabbling in the black hand business.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered the story in a short three paragraph article on April 19, 1924.

As of yet, I have not found the names of the men who slayed young Gus Rizzo.  If you have any further information on this case, please add it to the comments section.