He continued, "She said Jino and Marion had to go with us. I said all right. She said she would call on the phone. She called on the phone and she came in the room and told me to get dressed and I told her all right. I got dressed and went out, made a phone call and she came back in the room, got undressed and said she didn't feel like going out. I said all right. I talked about going away and she said she wouldn't go. I said, `All right, tomorrow I am leaving and taking Michael with me.' She said, `You can't take Michael with you.' In the morning, I told her she was going with me. She wouldn't go with me, so I left. I was going to take Michael but I knew I couldn't take care of him by myself, so I left him home, figuring my wife would come to me, that we had two children, and that she would come to live with me."
When Sahl asked, "Did you or did you not at any time ever intend to shoot anybody in the Mazzoli, Pioppi, or any other home?" Ernie replied, "I never intended to shoot no one. I had no reason. I told them all along when I was questioned, I went there-the only reason I went there was to see my children. The only reason I took them guns, I wanted the right to see my children, and took them guns because I wanted to scare the people. I didn't go there to shoot no one."
Ernie continued, "I don't remember shooting nobody. If I wanted to shoot anybody, when I walked in the door I could have just shot them, if I wanted to shoot them." Ernie testified again that he had "no differences" with any of his victims, except for Pearl. "The only difference I had was with my mother-in-law, but I didn't hate her. I mean, I didn't love her."
Ernie claimed that he didn't know why he took so many guns with him that night. But then, during the course of his testimony, he also claimed he was not in the Pioppi home and could not remember going to Frank and Hilda Mazzoli's house in Minotola. When his lawyer asked him if he knew what had happened on November 17, Ernie said, "I know what happened, yes. It is hard for me to believe it."
Ernie told the court that he had continued to work on the Mazzoli farm following his marriage to Tessie. Not long after their marriage, the defendant said he received word from Miami that his mother was ill and not expected to live. Helen had obtained a long-distance divorce from Ernest Sr. in 1943, sending the papers to him from Miami to Philadelphia. When Helen died in 1947, Ernie said Pearl loaned him the money for the trip after he threatened to hitchhike. Tessie, who reportedly expressed no concern about Ernie's mother's death, didn't accompany her husband to Florida. After the funeral, Ernie returned to Piney Hollow Road, laden with painful memories and a growing resentment of his in-laws.
According to Ernie, that was when he quarreled and fought with his father, who sided with Mike and Pearl in the argument over who should control the money. In November 1948, Ernie said that after delivering a load of tomatoes from the farm to Francis H. Leggett & Son Cannery in Landisville, he got a job at the food processing plant that shipped to markets throughout the United States. The defendant had decided if the Mazzolis wouldn't pay him on a weekly basis, he'd find someone who would.
When he returned to the stand on January 17, the media reported that Ernie assumed the role of a loving, affectionate father as he described his mental anguish at not being permitted to see his two children. Ernie came close to breaking down as he told of his relationship with his sons, particularly Michael, who, he said, was old enough to enjoy "tinkering around with the car and swimming." Ernie had baked a large cake for his son Michael's first birthday and reportedly treated his first-born "very affectionately." Ernie said three times that morning that he had no intention of killing anyone when he went to the Mazzoli home on the evening of November 17. Again he said his only purpose in bringing weapons was to scare his in-laws into letting him see his children. He managed to avoid answering the question of why one gun would not have been sufficient, if that were true. Neither did anyone ask the defendant why he had fired a shot in the direction of each of his sons if they were so important to him.
Ernie said he didn't remember pulling the trigger. He didn't remember anything after entering the Mazzoli home or seeing his mother-in-law and father-in-law and later his wife. He recalled hearing a shot and the smell of gun smoke and hearing his wife's screams. Ernie said he didn't remember leaving his in-laws' house and going across the street to the Pioppi home. Nor did he recall driving to the Mazzoli home in Minotola.
When Sahl took Ernie back prior to the night of the slayings and asked him if he ever planned to kill anyone, Hannold objected and the objection was sustained by the court. The defendant testified that if he had intended to kill his wife's parents, "I could have shot them when I walked in if I wanted to shoot them." No one reminded him that this was exactly what he had done after his brief argument with Tessie, Mike, and Pearl. Later in his testimony, Ernie described in detail the routine events that led up to the carnage, including calling Gallner, the Bridgeton attorney, to make an appointment for the next day to discuss his marital problems.
No one asked him why, if he were truly interested in his children, he didn't just take them and leave the Mazzoli farm rather than following Pearl across the street. Obviously, his anger at his perceived mistreatment at the hands of his inlaws required him to take further action against them. The next thing he claimed to remember, he said, was driving along Tuckahoe Road. When asked by his attorney how he learned about the shootings, Ernie said, "I heard it on the radio that five people had been killed and four wounded and that they were looking for me." Ernie claimed that he was en route to the state police barracks at Malaga to surrender when he was apprehended by troopers on Oak Road. Ernie explained that he was unwilling to sign anything because he believed that he had been previously coerced into signing a statement that had been used against him during his court martial. As a result, he hesitated to sign anything else, let alone something as damning as a murder confession. The defendant added, "They say I did not make a statement. I could not make any statements because I could not answer what they asked me." Sahl, who sipped milk periodically from a thermos bottle during the trial, finished with his client's history by the noon lunch break.
Hannold began to cross-examine Ernie shortly after noon on January 17. Prior to the questioning, Sahl had presented a series of receipts given to Ernie by Pearl as he paid off a loan she made to him for the purchase of a car. Apparently, her insistence of charging him interest was yet another example of her abusive behavior, in the opinion of the defense counsel. Hannold asked Ernie about the loan, and the defendant said that he bought the car because Pearl had objected to his "thumbing" rides with neighbors to and from the Leggett plant. Ernie said Pearl loaned him $1,000 at eight percent interest and that he had repaid $800 to her. To earn enough money to pay off the entire debt, Ernie continued to work at other jobs. After Leggett's, he worked at a fireworks plant in Vineland and later secured a job at Schneider's Bakery. There he initially earned $46 a week, but later received a $4-per-week raise. He told the court that he worked the night shift at the bakery in order to be able to help out on the farm in the day. Ernie said he finally refused to handle any more of the farm equipment after Pearl said he would have to pay for damage to a tractor that occurred when he was backing it out of a shed.
Ernie claimed that Pearl continually tried to undermine his contributions to the household when he began earning a weekly salary somewhere else. He testified, "She was always mad because I left her farm to go to work. By the way, the year I worked at the farm was the best year they had. My motherin-law spent more money that year than she ever did."
After Ernest Jr. was born, the defendant said, "I put up the money for the children's clothes but my mother-in-law actually purchased the clothes. She took credit for buying the children's clothes." His resentment toward Pearl continued to bubble beneath his outwardly calm surface. Ernie testified that he worked for another bakery in Vineland for a while and then returned to Schneider's Bakery before going to work for Tony D'Augustine in Landisville.
"My mother-in-law did not want me to work with D'Augustine," he said.
D
espite the fact that he was working long hours, often staying out late on service calls, his in-laws apparently were disturbed by his reluctance to help out on the farm. After all, to them, when you weren't sleeping or eating, you were supposed to be working the land. Ernie's refusal to help support the household in what they would have seen as the "proper" fashion probably increased their resentment toward someone who they had always doubted was a suitable husband for their daughter.
Ernie had told the court that part of his marital problems stemmed from the fact that Tessie had refused to "go out" with him. The defendant did admit that while they were still on their honeymoon, they visited his sister, Mary Jane Wald, at her home on Pine Street in Philadelphia. On another visit to his sister, Ernie reportedly said he was not getting along too well with his in-laws and wanted to move out of the Mazzoli home. According to Sahl, "Ernie wanted to live elsewhere but Tessie refused to leave. And, she did what her parents wanted her to do." When Ernie once again told them he was looking for an apartment in Vineland for his family, the Mazzolis reportedly said he could go. Tessie and the boys would stay. Ernie said that Tessie's parents repeatedly threatened to disown her and the children if she left.
The defendant recalled that during that Friday he continued to dwell on all of the insults he had endured. On the way to his in-laws' home that night: "I kept thinking over all these things that she had done to me and I kept thinking how in the last month at the store I had been walking around in circles. I had worked straight through from about nine to nine or midnight [the night before], hardly eating anything at all, my insides just burning up. I felt as though I was going to blow my top and jump out of a window."
When Ernie's sister, twenty-four-year-old Mary Jane Wald, took the stand, she recalled the first birthday party that Ernie and Tessie threw for Michael. She mentioned Ernie's baking the cake for his son and that she always thought of him as an affectionate father. She also recalled seeing Ernie swimming with Michael and Jeannie Pioppi. During her testimony, Wald said that she had only visited her brother once at the Mazzoli farm after he married, in February 1950. She did not see him again until November 21, when his address had been changed to the Gloucester County Jail. She came down almost every visiting day after that. The first time she saw him behind bars, Wald said she asked him if he "meant to kill those people." Ernie answered "No." On her second visit, when she questioned him about that night, her brother said, "I don't remember what happened. It seems like a dream to me."
Ernest C. Ingenito Sr. was the next witness called by the defense. A heavyset, dark-haired man, he related his own marital and in-law difficulties to show the environment in which Ernie had been raised. According to the witness, the Ingenito family lived at 128 East Spencer Avenue in Wildwood, where Ernie was born, for eight years before moving to 231 Rockland Road in Stonehurst, New Jersey. From there, they rented a home for a time at 69th and Market Streets in Philadelphia. Ernest Sr. confirmed that his oldest son had attended St. Ann's Parochial School in Wildwood but believed he went to public school after that. The Ingenitos reportedly moved nine times before Ernest Sr. and Helen finally separated. In Philadelphia, Ernest Sr. said they lived for four months on Rockland Road while he was out of work. Then they moved to 410 North 40th Street and from there to Powelton Avenue. That's where Ernie reportedly fell from a tree while playing Tarzan with some other boys. Ernest Sr. said they took his unconscious son to Presbyterian Hospital, where he was held overnight. Although the doctors recommended further tests, Ernest Sr. told the court he simply could not afford them at the time. After Helen brought Ernie home, Ernest Sr. said he "noticed a change in the boy." Ernie wouldn't pray in school and also told his parents that he couldn't hear the teacher. Shortly afterward, the Ingenitos moved to 20th and Venango streets, close to Temple Hospital.
When Ernie showed no signs of improvement, his parents took him at least eight times to Temple Hospital, Ernest Sr. said. The boy was given IQ and hearing tests, but the family could not afford the $150 for a "brain specialist" from New York that the doctors recommended, because Ernest Sr. was unemployed. When their marriage broke up, Helen took the children and moved back to Wildwood. During that time, Ernest Sr. said his wife poisoned the children against him. He testified that she told them, "Your father don't want to work," and "the Ingenitos didn't like them." While he was on the stand, Ernest Sr. admitted that he was frequently unemployed after the family left Wildwood, and that his relatives, in fact, didn't like his children because their mother was not Italian.
As Ernie's behavior got worse, his father finally asked the Philadelphia Board of Education if there was any place Ernie could be sent because he couldn't let him continue to roam the streets. That's when his son started his first stint in reform school. During that time, Ernest Sr. moved again-this time to Corinthian and Poplar streets. His son's behavior showed no sign of improvement, however, after he was released. As Ernie went in and out of Shallcross, his father moved to 16th and Oregon streets, then to 1610 South Broad Street. As his son's difficulties continued, Ernest Sr. said Ernie finally went to Wildwood to live with his mother, brother, and sister. One of the first things his son did when he returned to the resort town was join a gang of boys in breaking into a newsstand on 19th Street to steal cigarettes.
Ernest Sr. said he later visited his son in Wildwood after he separated from his first wife and was staying with an aunt. Ernest Sr. left Wildwood not long afterward and bought his place in Cecil on the Black Horse Pike. He had remarried in April 1944 and wanted to make a fresh start with his second wife. When Ernie needed a place to stay after he was discharged from the Army, his father invited him to stay with them. After he remarried, Ernest Sr. thought that he and Ernie were getting along very well. The witness said that Ernie was clearing trees on Piney Hollow Road when he met his future wife. He was still married to Doris, but that did not discourage Tessie from visiting Ernie in Cecil.
According to Ernest Sr., the Mazzolis had appeared at his diner one day and told him, referring to Ernie, "We just read by the papers that his wife is getting a divorce or annulment from him. We didn't know he was married."
"I never told you he wasn't," Ernest Sr. said he had responded. "You never came to me. I didn't know anything about it. It is all news to me that he is going over to visit your daughter."
"Keep him away from our daughter," Mike had said.
In response, Ernest Sr. had called his son into the lunchroom and said, "The Mazzolis don't want you around there. They don't want you around their daughter. Stay away."
Even though the Mazzolis had asked him to keep Ernie away from their daughter, Ernest Sr. said they showed up at his lunchroom about a week after Ernie received his annulment from his first wife. Ernie got in their car and left with them, and the Mazzolis were soon driving to Cecil three times a week to pick him up. Ernest Sr. said that Tessie always came along with her father and mother. Ernest Sr. later learned that Ernie had gone to work on the Mazzoli farm. When his son and Tessie were married, Ernest Sr. asked his son why he wasn't invited. Ernie said, "Only the Mazzoli family was there." Ernest Sr. said that when he later visited his son at the Mazzoli home, Ernie and Tessie "sat like a couple of wooden Indians" during the conversation.
Ernest Sr. became angered during cross-examination by the prosecutor and declared, "You're trying to antagonize me." According to the witness, both his son and his daughter-in-law complained about the way finances were handled at the Mazzoli farm. Ernest Sr. testified that Ernie had once said he'd like to leave the Mazzoli home, but Tessie wouldn't go. Ernie resented the fact that he did not receive a salary and had to ask for money for a haircut and gasoline. In response, Ernest Sr. told his son, "That's the way they do things in Piney Hollow." His lack of support provoked Ernie and an argument broke out. Ernest Sr. said his son told him to mind his own business when he tried to patch things up between them. Although neither man would admit it outright, chances were good that they exchanged blows that day-the last contact they would have
for the next two years.
When Ernest Sr. visited his son in jail the Tuesday after the shootings, he testified that the authorities asked him to question Ernie about the incident. But as Investigator George Small loitered within listening distance, Ernie told his father that he didn't remember anything after he shot Mike Mazzoli. That day, he didn't claim that the gun "went off" or that he couldn't remember anything at all. He admitted shooting his father-in-law. During his testimony, Ernest Sr. said he watched his son and Al Rulis at target practice in the Rulises' backyard at least five months before the shootings, because the Rulis home could be seen from his house on the Black Horse Pike. Under cross-examination, Ernest Sr. denied that he ever went to the Mazzoli home with his son, armed with a revolver, when Ernie was involved in an argument with the family.
By January 17, public interest in the trial had grown to the point where seats were at a premium. Many spectators brought their lunches and ate in the courtroom to make sure they didn't lose their places. When Ernie was recalled to the witness stand, tears filled his eyes while he softly testified about the birth of his first child, Michael. Area newspapers reported that he swallowed frequently and repeatedly wet his lips. Tessie listened intently and whispered to her cousin, Eva Biagi, her constant companion at the trial. During crossexamination by the prosecutor, Ernie said that he remembered neither returning to D'Augustine's appliance store on the night of the shootings nor telling Henry Coia Sr. to look after his children.
Ernie claimed during cross-examination that he had tried to be a good provider for his family. He said that he had given Tessie different presents for her birthday and holidays, including money, stockings, and a clock. The timepiece had been placed in evidence by the prosecution, who would later refute some of Ernie's apparent generosity by calling Alice Rebecca Kester of Vineland to the stand. Kester testified that Ernie had been introduced to her as a single man while she was employed as a waitress at the Thunderbolt Inn in Mays Landing. In court, she identified the clock as her property even though Ernie had said he had purchased it for his wife in Atlantic City. Gloucester County detective George Small told the court later that day that the clock had been one of the items taken from Ernie's room in Cecil.
Rain of Bullets: The True Story of Ernest Ingenito's Bloody Family Massacre Page 14