"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933

Friday, July 23, 2010

Don't talk, don't talk to strangers.

Almost seven weeks after his brother was found nearly decapitated at Coney Island, thirty-four year old Sylvio Melchiorre, who told police he had no idea why anyone would want to kill his brother, was shot down outside his Venetian café in Little Italy on this date back in 1921.

According to witnesses, of whom there were many since the murder took place at noon on a Saturday, Sylvio was outside his café conducting business with the iceman. After having a youth point him out, a stranger went up to the intended victim and attempted a conversation.

Melchiorre waved him off and continued talking with the iceman but then the stranger said something that made Melchiorre angry because the two men began to argue. During the heated debate the stranger made sure that Melchiorre continued to face him so he wouldn’t notice the gunman coming up from behind.

As the café owner waved his arms about yelling at the stranger the gunman crept up, drew his pistol and fired five times. Each bullet found it’s mark and Melchiorre fell to the sidewalk dead. The gunman returned his gun to his holster while the first man spoke to him. Both men split up and escaped in different directions.

That thar is most likely a pic of Melchiorre at the top of the blog.

3 comments:

Charlieopera said...

I'd get pissed off too if I ordered a decaf espresso and they brought me leaded.

Great picture.

Patrick Downey said...

Happened to me in Queens once. Stayed up to 4:30am cursing the waiter. On another note saw your book, Johnny Porno, at my library. Either the previous reader spilled something while reading or there are some titallating passages as some of the pages were kind of stuck together.

Charlieopera said...

Probably my copy ... when you get old, you sometimes have to work yourself up.