The back story- On December 8, 1933 Peter Turigiano, the owner of a beer garden, was playing cards at the home of Giacomo Zanco with the latter and two other guys Giuseppe Gionalla and Felice Corrola. Gionalla left the game and was found dead the next morning in a snowdrift on Long Island. His three companions from the previous night were quickly arrested as material witnesses. Just what they knew about the murder is unknown but Zanco, realizing he was safe where he was, stayed in jail while Turigiano and Corrola fought for and were granted their release.
Once out of jail Turigiano supplied underworld information to the DA's office but declined any sort of protection. On March 27, 1934 the saloonkeeper was in the back room of his bar, the Roma Gardens, when a gunman came in and slightly wounded him along with one of his customers. This attempt on his life shook him up but he still refused to go to the state for protection deciding instead to hire a bodyguard named Pietro Calito.
Calito proved to be an ineffectual bodyguard however because seventy-four years ago this morning both men were found in the back seat of Turigiano's sedan under a pile of rags and burlap sacks. Each man bore the signature Murder Inc. sash cord trussing* plus a bullet in the head for good measure.
*For more on Murder Inc. and their unique execution methods check out Gangster City
"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933
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