Ernie then told the court that he remembered going to Minotola to "get" Hilda Mazzoli. He testified, "She is my fatherin-law's sister-in-law and she was the one who was spreading all the gossip about me getting drunk, beating up the kids, and running around with other women." As a result, "I decided to go over there and clean them out."
Clean them out. The defendant could be this blunt about shooting Hilda and Frank because he understood that he wasn't going to be prosecuted on those indictments. He would certainly have been instructed to be more prudent in his description of that night's events if the Atlantic County prosecutor's office hadn't already decided not to press charges.
In yet another attempt to secure sympathy for his client, Sahl walked Ernie back through his childhood. According to the attorney, Ernie's mother would take his part whenever his father tried to punish him. When Ernie was punished, which often meant physical discipline in those days, Helen would try to make up for it. As a result, Ernie became a pawn between his parents, the lawyer declared. The defendant remembered that in addition to spending time in the hospital after he fell from the tree, he had also been hit by a car when he lived with his mother in Wildwood (stories that would later change). While he enjoyed playing football, Ernie said he didn't do well in school. Ernie testified that his father was the disciplinarian in the Ingenito family, and he punished his son for his poor schoolwork. He said that his mother would "sometimes come and tell my father not to hit me so much, he might hurt me." When he was admitted to Shallcross, Ernie said, "Teachers asked me to stand up and read. I couldn't. It was my fault I just couldn't read."
Sahl again questioned Ernie about his first marriage. Ernie testified that they fought constantly. There were reports that Ernie kicked and beat his young wife on several occasions. Doris soon returned to live with her parents.
Earning an average of $75 a week as a "grease monkey," the defendant said he gave his mother $24 a week for room and board. After reconciling with Doris, Ernie rented an apartment so they could enjoy a little privacy. But after two months, they had yet another fight, and each returned to their individual family homes. In a bid to escape from his domestic troubles, Ernie transferred to working at the Cape May Canal. Although his new job was only about ten miles away, it was on the opposite coast and Ernie found plenty of reasons not to return to Wildwood. At least, until his first child was born.
While he was employed in Cape May, Doris gave birth to a little girl, who she named Dorothy. By that time, she had moved back in with Ernie's mother, and he relocated to the Atlantic Naval Air Station in Egg Harbor. He continued to perform different jobs as a civilian employee for the military, working for a time on a housing project, then at the Mercer County Naval Air Station in Trenton. By that time, Ernie was earning close to $100 a week, more than enough to support his young family. But Uncle Sam had other plans for him. Ernie arrived at his mother's house in Wildwood one Sunday to find a letter from his draft board waiting for him.
Ernie testified that he and Doris "got along pretty well" as he prepared to leave for basic training. They had a major battle, however, over the baby just two days before he was scheduled to depart.
"Her mother came over," Ernie recalled. "She wanted me locked up and all. She called a cop."
When four police officers showed up to escort him off the premises, Ernie advised them that he was leaving for the Army in two days. The police left shortly afterward, ignoring his mother-in-law's demands that he be sent to jail. Doris, though, was apparently unwilling to forgive and forget after her husband left. Ernie said that he never received any mail from her while he was in the service. The only one who wrote to him was his mother. Ernie told the court that he agreed to a divorce or an annulment after he went home to Wildwood and discovered Doris living with another man. He said, "I fought for custody of my child, but the court couldn't give me it." That experience, coupled with his trials in the Army, undoubtedly persuaded him that settling disagreements in court was not a viable option, as far as he was concerned.
Ernie told the court he met Tessie in December 1946.
"Tessie came over and seen me a few times," he recalled. "Once I went out with her. Then her father and mother came over and raised hell. So I didn't go out with her anymore."
But then, Ernie was in love. In order to be close to Tessie and to prove himself to her parents, he took a job plowing and planting on the Mazzoli farm around late March 1947. He was paid $20 a week plus his board and slept on the sofa in the sitting room. Ernie told the court he had saved around $360 when they married, while Tessie had about $1,500 in the bank. After their marriage, Ernie and Tessie shared the small second bedroom behind the dining room, but he no longer received a weekly salary. He felt that Pearl had persuaded Mike not to pay him anymore. Right after he was married, Ernie said, "I seen who was boss and I knew the agreement with my father-in-law was no good." He testified that he would have to "raise hell" or he would never get any money from the Mazzolis.
"My wife thought this was fair," he said, in a tone of disbelief.
During the trial, Sahl tried to prove Pearl's interference in her daughter's marriage by telling the court that the Mazzolis, accompanied by Jino and Marion Pioppi, followed Ernie and Tessie to Atlantic City for their honeymoon. Not surprisingly, the defense counsel failed to mention that after Ernie and Tessie were married before William Bowers in a civil ceremony in Franklinville, her hardworking family probably used the occasion as an excuse for a rare outing to the resort town. Perhaps, in this instance, Tessie's mother did go too far. Perhaps she was too reluctant to let go of her daughter. It is also possible that Pearl's insistence on seeing their hotel room at the Ambassador was nothing more than curiosity. Built in 1919, the Ambassador was considered a showplace. The largest of Atlantic City's hotels on the Boardwalk, it provided guests with the choice of more than seven hundred rooms, an indoor swimming pool, and other amenities such as horseback riding on the beach. Ernie apparently saw Pearl's request to see their room as yet another example of her controlling temperament.
After the Mazzolis and the Pioppis left, the newlyweds spent two more days in Atlantic City, enjoying the sunshine and the sights. They strolled on the Boardwalk and Ernie mugged for the camera while they lounged on the beach.
When they returned home to Piney Hollow Road, Tessie worked in the fields with the rest of the family until their first child, Michael, was born on May 1, 1948. Following the birth of his son, Ernie said that Tessie's parents wanted to take her to a doctor in Minotola who would make sure "she could have no more children." But they were already too late. Ernie Jr. was born sixteen months later on October 4, 1949. The tension in the household grew thicker after that. Ernie claimed that he would try to spend time with his wife, inviting her out so that the two of them could be alone for a while, but Tessie was not interested. She continued to take regular shopping trips to Philadelphia with her mother, but she would not make time for him. Ernie seemed jealous of the close bond between his wife and her mother.
During his testimony, Ernie expressed resentment of the fact that his mother-in-law often bought his clothes. He told Sahl that Pearl had purchased him two flannel shirts, two pairs of dungarees, one pair of shoes, a blue shirt, and an overcoat. He apparently failed to realize that Pearl would simply have seen buying clothes as her responsibility. Although Vineland, the largest town, was only about ten miles away, shopping was not a casual recreational activity in those days for most people. Although her son-in-law seemed to have expensive tastes where clothing was concerned, what Pearl provided would have been considered an adequate wardrobe for a working man at the time.
Their relationship grew so strained that Ernie left his bride at one point, but he returned the following day. On the stand, Ernie admitted that he and Tessie had a few disagreements after they married-his mother-in-law didn't want the newlyweds to go anywhere without her and Mike. The cracks in the Ingenitos' relationship grew even larger as Tessie heard more gossip about her allegedly wander
ing husband. It's possible that she chose to believe others over Ernie, because she was simply tired of being married. Or, perhaps she was fearful of his temper and realized, after three years, that she had made a mistake. Unfortunately, if Tessie was being abused, no one admitted it to anyone outside of the immediate family. Like so many other women, she would have suffered in silence rather than embarrass her family, probably even thinking that the situation was her fault.
In September 1950, Ernie made an appointment to see Vineland attorney Howard E. English after he learned of Tessie's plans to divorce him. As a corporate attorney, English explained he was not the right person to take Ernie's case. The defendant said he reached out to different lawyers, all of whom declined to help him for different reasons, until he finally hired Woodbury attorney Fred A. Gravino to represent him. Gravino sent a letter to Tessie's lawyer, Philip J. Lipman, who responded in writing on October 20, 1950. "I Represent Mrs. Ingenito.... She does not want to go back to her husband."
Although Lipman was sympathetic to Ernie's plight, the Mazzolis apparently remained unmoved by their son-in-law's continued requests to meet with them. When Ernie's pleas turned to demands, they referred him back to their lawyer. Lip man attempted to arrange a meeting at his office one day in an effort to bring the parties together, but after Ernie arrived, the attorney told him, "You might as well go. They don't want to see you." Refusing to give up, Ernie was introduced by phone to Bridgeton attorney William Gallner a little before six o'clock on the night of November 17. It was only about three hours before the shootings. After Ernie explained his situation, Gallner said that he would be willing to meet with Ernie at 10:45 the next morning at his office.
"Don't you worry about it," Gallner said. "I'm sure we'll do something for you."
Gallner's encouragement undoubtedly improved Ernie's frame of mind-until he sat across the street from Clevenger's store and saw his mother-in-law and the Pioppis inside. At that moment, Ernie's anger was certainly fueled in part by his resentment of the closeness of the Mazzoli family. He had been shuttled back and forth both physically and emotionally between his parents for many years, and it is traumatic for children when their home life disintegrates. When Ernie weighed the love and attention Tessie received against his own past, he jealously lashed out at the nearest target, just as he had always done. But to admit this would mean taking responsibility for his actions, something Ernie always seemed unable to do.
Ernie continued to cite examples of his alleged mistreatment at the hands of the Mazzolis during his testimony. In an effort to appease his mother-in-law, Ernie said he bought a clothes dryer that Pearl never used. When it had sat idle for months, Ernie offered to sell it for her, and Pearl agreed. After a buyer gave him $150 for the machine, he testified that he gave $100 to his mother-in-law and kept the rest of the money for himself. At one point, Ernie told the court that he thought he got along fairly well with the Mazzolis and the Pioppis. He noted, "Only difficulties I had were with my mother-in-law. I didn't hate her. But I didn't love her."
Questioning of the defendant on the afternoon of January 16 was interrupted by Sahl, who put five local attorneys on the stand to explain their roles in Ernie's efforts to obtain visitation rights. Among them were former Cumberland County judge Solve Tuso, attorneys Howard E. English and Philip L. Lipman of Vineland, attorney Fred A. Gravino of Woodbury, and William Gallner, the lawyer from Bridgeton. English testified that Ernie came to him with marital troubles on September 16, two days after installing a refrigerator at the attorney's home on South Main Road. English said he gave Ernie the names of other attorneys since he had no time to handle the case.
Tuso said he advised Ernie to call a Gloucester County lawyer, since he lived in that county. The former judge, in fact, called Lipman, Tessie's attorney, on Ernie's behalf. When he reached Lipman, the attorney said that the Mazzolis and their daughter were then at his office. Tuso then asked him if Ernie could see the kids. Lipman conferred with the family and said this was not agreeable to them. The Mazzolis did not want his support for the boys; they wanted to make sure he had no right to see them. According to Tuso, Lipman said that Ernie later asked for his help, but he told Ernie that it would be a conflict of interest since he already represented the younger man's estranged wife.
"Tessie told me she did not want to live with Ernest," Tuso quoted Lipman as saying.
When he took the stand, Gravino testified that when he saw Ernie on November 9, his client seemed very anxious to reconcile with Tessie. A letter from Lipman, dated that same day, stated that Tessie was "not interested in having any meeting with him." She apparently did not want "any parts of him." Lipman advised Gravino that "matters will just have to take their course." What he thought would end in divorce ended instead in bloodshed. Ernie went to see Gravino on November 15 to discuss going to court and getting an order that would allow him to see his children. He quickly lost patience as his lawyer explained the time-consuming procedure involved in presenting his case.
Gravino read an exchange of correspondence with Lipman regarding a conference between Ernie, his wife, and his inlaws, proposed with the aim of "patching things up." The final letter from Lipman's office, dated November 9, read in part, "Mrs. Ingenito is not interested in having a meeting with her husband. She wants no part of him. Matters will have to take their natural course." Gravino said Ernie again came to his office in Woodbury on November 15. The attorney said he discussed with Ernie the question of starting court proceedings to see the children. Ernie expressed his willingness to pay support. The letters sent by Gravino to Lipman asking for a conference were admitted into evidence.
Gallner said he had a ten-minute phone conversation with Ernie at 5:45 P.M. on November 17. When Ernie said his wife had secured a court order refusing him the right to see the children, Gallner said, "That can't be so. No court would make such an order." Gallner agreed to see Ernie the next day at his office in Bridgeton between 10:30 and 10:45 A.M. Gallner also told Ernie, "There is no law which can make your wife live with you, but I might help you to procure the right of visitation with your children."
When Ernie was recalled to the witness stand the following day, the discussion turned to his sons. He again testified that after Michael was born, "The child was received in the home fairly good, but my mother-in-law wanted me to take my wife to the hospital or to Minotola so she could have no more chil dren. I wouldn't consent to it and we had an argument and we didn't talk for about two weeks. Later on, when my mother-inlaw found out my wife was going to have the second child, she said to take my wife to Doctor Marchione in Vineland and have shots so she would not have the child. I would not consent to that, and then later my wife said she had better go, so I took her three times to get shots. Then Doctor Marchione said nothing could be done for her so she had the child."
Ernie claimed that to appease his in-laws, he would regularly bring home gifts for the household from D'Augustine's appliance store. He bought an automatic defroster for the icebox and a huge fan that would both cool and heat the house, in addition to the automatic dryer. The defendant again testified about Pearl's lack of interest in the dryer and his subsequent selling of it.
To emphasize how allegedly unappreciated his client was, Sahl asked, "Ernest, did you ever ask you wife Tessie to go out with you at night and she refused?"
"On several occasions, I asked my wife to go out with me at night, and she said she didn't want to go out," Ernie said. "On some occasions in the daytime, Wednesday, or sometimes Sunday, before I started working steady, I would ask her to go out and she was busy around the house and couldn't go out. Some nights I would ask her to go out and she refused to go.
"On occasions I asked her to go out and she said she didn't feel like going out but her mother would ask her to go out and she would go," Ernie continued. "I used to go to Philadelphia around once or twice a week to pick up things, parts and sometimes refrigerators and things, and I would stop home and ask my wife to ride up with me but she never would
. Her mother used to go to Philadelphia around once a week and every time her mother asked her to go she would go, and sometimes I would go home and she wouldn't be there."
Ernie testified that he had asked Tessie on several occasions to stay with him during the day at the appliance store. The only time Tessie did show up, she left their son Michael with him and returned home.
"Ernest, did you ever have any argument or discussion in the house as the result of you leaving when you left?" Sahl asked.
"Well, I left once before for around one or two days. I asked my wife to leave, and she wouldn't leave, so I figured by leaving, maybe, she would come and stay with me," Ernie said. "I called up and told my wife to come away with me. I seen at the time she would not come so I went back home."
He left around 11:00 A.M. on October 8, 1950, because, Ernie claimed, "My mother-in-law had been talking to me for about a month this last time and I had been trying to get my wife to go away all the time. We were having difficulty when I came home; she wouldn't do too much for me. She would sit and watch the television. There wasn't any conversation between her, her mother and myself. Even though in talking she would sit across the table in the room I was in, I would understand so we had a little discussion and this here night my wife wanted me to go out."
Rain of Bullets: The True Story of Ernest Ingenito's Bloody Family Massacre Page 13