House call

In the summer of 1931 the war between Dutch Schultz and a group of his disgruntled former gunmen headed by Vincent Coll was raging throught the Bronx and Harlem. A victim of said war was thirty-one year old John Saricelli, described by the New York Herald as "a superintendent of a fleet of trucks used to transport Dutch Schultz’s beer into Harlem and Bronx speakeasies."

At 3:45 am two gunmen, each armed with a .45, went to his house and rang his doorbell. Saricelli made his way downstairs and answered the door.  “Good morning” one of the gunmen said, each then fired one shot into Saricelli's chest.

The gunmen fled as Dutch's superintendent stumbled into his kitchen. He had his wife light him a cigarette before allowing her to call an ambulance. Once in the "wagon" The police pumped him for information but Saricelli kept true to the gangster code. “Get away. Don’t bother me. I know I’m dying but you get nothing from me.” And they didn't.