Great American Crime Stories

by Bill Bowers

  LAST SUNDAY AT THE GRAVES.

  On last Sunday there were about one thousand men, women and children, at the Bender grounds, gazing with mingled emotions of horror and curiosity. The graves even yet sent forth a sickening stench, and women held their noses as they peered down into the narrow tenantless holes. Two special trains were run, one from Independence and one from Coffeyville, to a point on the railway line about two miles from the house, and teams were busy running to and from the cars to the grounds, while the greater portion of the crowd was compelled to walk. These trains brought about 600 persons. There were about six or seven hundred persons there from all parts of the surrounding country, in wagons, carriages, buggies and on horseback.

  The curiosity of many seemed to master their repulsion, and hundreds brought away some memento of the dreadful place. The blood-stained bedstead was smashed to pieces and divided in the crowd, all the shrubbery and young trees were broken or torn up and carried away, and pieces of the house borne off by the curious. Such another raid would not leave much of the shanty. It was supposed that the grounds would be ploughed and scraped again this day to search for other bodies, but the intention was abandoned, and it is not probable any further search will be made until it is done regularly by the County authorities.

  REWARDS OFFERED.

  Rewards to the amount of $5,000 have been offered for the capture of the murderers, and there is not the slightest doubt but they will be recovered. On last Saturday the detectives were on the trail of the Benders, with the express certainty of effecting their speedy capture, and it is more than probable that they are already taken.

  With the number under arrest and the others watched, no doubt some one will reveal the whole truth, when Kansas will be rid of the worst scoundrels that ever infested and cursed this country.

  4

  The Lamana Kidnapping and the New Orleans Black Hand

  Despite sensational American press reports (beginning in the late nineteenth century) depicting the Black Hand as an organized criminal enterprise, it was more precisely a method of extortion common to Italian-American criminal gangs. Typically, practitioners would send a letter to an intended victim, demanding that a specified sum of cash be delivered to a certain location at a certain time, and threatening beatings, torture, kidnapping, or even murder unless the target complied with the demand for money. The criminals usually decorated their letters with drawings of skulls, knives dripping blood, coffins, or other terrifying images, almost always including a human hand colored in with black ink, which gave the method its name. Not surprisingly, prominent and well-to-do Italian-Americans were most frequently targeted.

  In June 1907, gangsters kidnapped seven-year-old Walter Lamana and sent his father, Pietro Lamana, a threatening letter demanding a $6,000 ransom (equivalent to about $145,000 today). But the elder Lamana refused to pay, and instead notified the police, who commenced a frantic search for the kidnapped child.

  BLACK HAND KILLS KIDNAPPED CHILD

  Head Severed, Body Cut Up Near New Orleans

  PRISONER CONFESSES

  Lays Bare Terrible Secret of Blackmailing Society.

  All but Three of Gang in Parish Jail, and Lynching Is Threatened. Fear of Detection Leads to Strangling Victims – Intention Was to Return Body Piecemeal to Father, Who Refused to Pay Ransom.

  New Orleans, June 23—The fate of the kidnapped Italian child, Walter Lamana, and the crime of the “Black Hand,” here, was disclosed this morning, when the dead body of the missing child was found in a thick swamp, back of St. Rose, fifteen miles from New Orleans.

  The boy’s head had been cut off, and the body, chopped to pieces, was wrapped in a blanket and deposited in a box, which floated on a cane raft anchored in the swamp. The discovery was due to a vigorous sweating of the suspect, Ignacio Campi Sciano, in the Jefferson Parish woods, last night, by the sheriff’s posse and members of the Italian vigilance committee.

  After being put through a severe examination, the prisoner weakened and promised to lead the party to the place where the body of the murdered child was concealed. But for this guidance the body probably would not have been recovered. It was a tramp of nearly two miles through a dismal and almost impenetrable swamp, the slimy water of the morass reaching to the waist of the officers. The body when found, was in an advanced state of decomposition.

  Child Strangled Ten Days Ago.

  The child had evidently been murdered ten days ago by strangling, when the pursuit of the “Black Hand” became so hot that it looked as though the kidnappers would be run to earth. Fearing that the child knew too much and would betray them, the kidnappers murdered him Thursday, June 13, after they had him in captivity five days, and cut off the head and chopped up the body, intending to send it piecemeal to the father to prove that the “Black Hand” had kept its promise to return the child in pieces in case they did not receive the $6,000 ransom demanded, but the pursuit had lately grown so hot that the murderers dared not carry out their purpose.

  Indeed, they were in such terror of arrest that they dared not return to the swamp, where the body of the child lay floating on the cane raft, to dispose of it and get rid of the dangerous evidence, for it now develops that the police and vigilance committee had struck the right trail at the very start, and had several times passed within a few yards of where the child was concealed. The trail pointed to Kenner or St. Rose as the place of his captivity, while the men arrested at the very beginning of the police investigation and afterward turned loose proved to be parties to this awful crime.

  Released Suspects Were Murderers.

  They were among the first arrested, but, with exception of Tony Costa, were released, as no direct evidence could be found against them. They were kept under surveillance, however, and the rearrest of Campi Sciano late last night, and his fear that he was going to be killed, finally broke the seal of silence and he told the whole story of the crime.

  It was what had been supposed from the beginning. The conspiracy had been concocted in the Monteleone house, where the “Black Hand” met. Tony Costa led the boy from his home with promises of candy, and he and the barber, Charamonte, threw the child in the closed wagon on Saturday, two weeks ago. The boy was gagged and bound, driven through the streets of New Orleans at night and fifteen miles up the river, by Stefano Gianduza, and delivered by him to Campi Sciano at St. Rose. Here, Gianduza, Campi Sciano, and Mercurio Como, nicknamed “Morte,” or “Death,” held the boy a prisoner for the ransom.

  Crime of the “Black Hand.”

  On June 13 the “Black Hand” held its meetings at Campi Sciano’s house, to determine what should be done, as things were getting threatening in New Orleans. There were present Antonio Gianduza, Campi Ceiano [sic], Stefano Monfre, and Francesco Incarearietra [sic]. The men agreed that the situation was bad. Lamana would not give up the ransom they demanded, and the police were hot on their trail.

  During the conference the child, who was confined in the next room, constantly cried and begged to be taken back to his parents. This annoyed the kidnappers, and Frank Incarcarletra said that these cries would sooner or later bring the police on them. The child was ordered to shut up, and not doing so, Incarcarletra ran into the room where he was confined and strangled him to death.

  The body was chopped up by Gianduza and then taken to the swamp for concealment.

  Gang Thrown in Jail.

  The police continued their arrests today, raiding the Monteleone house, where they got nine more members of the “Black Hand.” They include Campi Sciano and his wife, Charamonte Costa, Nicolena Gibbra, a handsome girl of twenty and mistress of Francesco Incarcarletra, who strangled the child, and who confessed she knew of all the crimes of the “Black Hand.” Carmelo and Vincenzo Incarcarletra, brothers of the murderer; Angelo Monteleone, his wife, sister-in-law, father and mother-in-law; Michael Fici, and Francesco Gibbra. It is thought that the entire gang will be cau
ght by to-morrow.

  The three worst criminals have not yet been arrested. They are Incarcarletra, who strangled the boy, and Gianduza and Stefano Monfre, who cut the body in pieces.

  The news of the recovery of the kidnapped boy’s body caused such an excitement in the Italian quarter that a large extra force of policemen was placed there to prevent any demonstration against those who are suspected of connection with the “Black Hand,” while on St. Philip street, where the Lamanas live, no one was allowed to pass except by special permit.

  There were threats of lynching, but the parish prison authorities took energetic steps to prevent a repetition of the Italian lynching of 1892. Sheriff Long swore in seventy extra deputies armed with rifles, and gave notice that he would sacrifice his life before the prisoners should be taken. At the suggestion of Acting Mayor McRacken, the funeral of the murdered boy was held this afternoon, instead of tomorrow, as intended, as the sight of the dead boy’s body in the Lamana home was working the Italian population up to the highest pitch of excitement, and it was deemed advisable to get rid of the corpse as soon as possible.

  The funeral at the St. Louis Cathedral was attended by 2,000 persons, mostly Italians. A call for a mass meeting has been made, but the mayor has issued instructions to Chief of Police Boyle to allow no meeting or speeches which propose violence.

  An immediate trial of the prisoners is demanded as the only way to quiet the excitement that the crime has aroused. The trial will be in St. Charles Parish, and the chances are that it will take place at once.

  5

  The Murder of Grace Mae Brown

  Chester Gillette’s brutal murder of his pregnant, nineteen-year-old girlfriend Grace Mae Brown on July 11, 1906, and his subsequent trial created a nationwide sensation. Brown’s short and tragic life inspired Theodore Dreiser to create the character of Roberta Alden in his novel An American Tragedy. Gillette murdered Brown, who worked with him at his uncle’s skirt factory, while they were sitting in a small boat in South Bay on Big Moose Lake in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. He struck her in the head with a tennis racket, whereupon she fell overboard and drowned.

  The fact that Gillette was handsome and Brown beautiful and innocent no doubt added to the titillating effect of the story, and its attractiveness to the media. Gillette, age twenty-four, died in the electric chair at the state prison in Auburn, New York, on March 30, 1908.

  To this day, some people maintain that the ghost of the murdered Grace Mae Brown haunts the shores of Big Moose Lake, where she met her untimely and violent end. In 1996, the television program Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode about Grace Mae Brown’s murder and her alleged restless spirit wandering the shore of South Bay.

  PEOPLE v. GILLETTE

  No controversy throws the shadow of any doubt or speculation around the primary fact that at about six o’clock in the afternoon of July 11, 1906, while she was alone with the defendant, Grace Brown met an unnatural death and her body sank to the bottom of Big Moose lake. But the question which is bitterly disputed, and which is of such supreme importance to this defendant, is whether this tragedy was the result of suicidal drowning or of violence inflicted by his hand under such circumstances as constituted deliberate murder. The jury, after a long and arduous trial, have adopted the latter theory, and, therefore, the serious responsibility comes to us of determining whether their conclusion is infected with any such error, either of fact or of law, as requires the judgment based thereon to be reversed and the defendant to be relieved from that sentence to the extreme penalty of the law which now hangs over him.

  In pursuing the first branch of our investigation and in the discussion of the evidence for the purpose of making clear and stating our conclusions with reference to its weight and effect, it will not be possible to refer to all of the details which have been developed with such care by counsel on either side in support of his theory of guilt or innocence. All of them have received our painstaking consideration and the omission of reference to many of them is due to those limitations of reasonable length which should be imposed upon this opinion.

  At the date of her death Grace Brown was about twenty years of age and the defendant was about three years her senior. The former had been brought up in a country home of an apparently simple and wholesome atmosphere, and, subject only to her relations with the defendant, she seems to have been a girl of pure character and of unusual intelligence and attractiveness. The defendant was possessed of education, of previous good character, and had had considerable experience in the world. They came together as employees in the factory of defendant’s uncle in the city of Cortland, New York, and this common employment led to acquaintance and intimacy, and finally to the seduction, and three or four months before her death to the pregnancy of the deceased by the defendant. The defendant largely screened this association from observation, and in public sought the society of young ladies belonging to what would be regarded as a more pretentious social grade than that to which decedent belonged.

  In the latter part of June, evidently by pre-arrangement and with the expectation that the defendant soon would join her, the deceased left the factory and went to her father’s home not far from Cortland. While there several letters passed from her to him and two or three from him to her. The great body of the former is filled with expressions of affection for defendant and with pathetic references to her physical and still greater mental distress caused by her condition; with references to their coming trip and what manifestly were preparations for marriage; with complaints at defendant’s lack of affection and consideration and his pursuit of pleasure elsewhere and his failure to write to her more frequently; with entreaties that he should soon come to her, and doubts whether he would come as he had promised, followed by expressions of contrite sorrow for her distrust of him; and finally with very significant statements that if he did not come to her she would return to him at Cortland.

  Finally on the evening of July 8th the defendant went to a neighboring railroad station where the next morning he was joined by the deceased; thence they journeyed to Utica where they stayed that night; thence the next morning to Tupper lake in the Adirondacks where they stayed that night, the next morning retracing their course to Big Moose lake, and thus reaching the spot where was to be enacted the closing scene of their unhappy association. This journey must have been planned with the theory, genuine of course on the part of the woman, that it would lead to marriage. It could have presented no other reasonable or lawful purpose. The time had passed when desire would prompt such a trip as the cover or opportunity for mere illicit enjoyment. A condition existed which only could be relieved in a legitimate way by marriage and the defendant has testified that at that time he loved the deceased and intended to marry her.

  Yet every significant step taken by him seems to have led away from this consummation. At all times when he was in the neighborhood or presence of those who knew him he concealed his companionship with the deceased, and at Utica and Tupper lake where he stayed with her as his wife he registered both under assumed names and from fictitious residences, and the final registry made at Big Moose lake which gave correctly the name and residence of the deceased, still utilized a false name and place of residence for himself. And while he was thus carefully suppressing the facts of identity and companionship he was arranging through social engagements with young lady acquaintances and otherwise to be present a few days later at certain pleasure resorts, publicly and undisguised.

  From these circumstances, the People argue with much force that at the time when defendant started out on the journey he did not intend to marry the deceased; that he did not purpose during the latter days of the week openly to acknowledge a relationship which he was so carefully concealing during the first days, and that, therefore, already he must have planned to rid himself of its embarrassments. At least it is manifest that during those days when they journeyed back and forth he was unready and unwilling to solve t
heir difficulties by the lawful remedy of marriage.

  Shortly after arrival at Big Moose the defendant engaged a row boat and alone with the decedent started out on the lake. Some of the incidents which attended the setting out on this trip are treated as of great importance by the district attorney and we think properly so. While an article of decedent’s wearing apparel was left in a conspicuous place in the hotel from which they started, defendant gathered up and took with him all of his property, including an umbrella, an overcoat and a heavy suit case upon which he carried a tennis racket which became an article of much importance on the trial. We do not think that the evidence fairly establishes any legitimate explanation of this latter conduct, and we are forced to the conclusion urged by the People that the defendant was then planning such a termination of the boat ride that he would not desire to return to the hotel and, therefore, was taking with him all of his possessions.

  The two people were seen on the lake at various times during the afternoon and finally towards its close were observed going toward a secluded portion of the lake where subsequently the tragedy occurred, the defendant rowing and the decedent sitting in the stern of the boat, and soon after and at about the time when death was happening and from the direction where it was happening a sound was heard which was described as a woman’s scream.

  After the death the defendant went on shore and taking his possessions with him struck through the woods to a road with which it is claimed he had become familiar and journeyed on foot and by steamboat to another resort of the Adirondacks near that at which as before stated he had planned to be the last of the week. As he went, he carefully hid his tennis racket in the woods. He became a guest of the hotel under his own name and there and in that neighborhood spent the following two days after the manner of an ordinary summer tourist, showing no outward signs of distress and giving no information of what had happened. Upon the following morning he was taken into custody.