MURDER AT No. 248 PRESIDENT ST (1916)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Joseph Russo had a good reputation. He was a 26-year-old longshoreman with a strong work ethic. But when his wife was discovered with a bullet between her eyes, Detective Coughlin figured he would search the place. And when the dust had settled, the police were in possession of nine weapons and Russo was in lock-up. INVESTIGATING THE CRIME Carroll Gardens by this time had changed from the lower middle class Irish neighborhood that it had once been, into a working-class Italian community with numerous Italian criminal gangs. Violence was a common daily occurrence and reports of abductions, shoot-outs, and kidnappings for ransom were often in the papers. Still, the police had, during the investigation, come to believe that “the bullet that killed his wife was fired accidentally.” Russo told the police that he had been “cleaning an automatic pistol about 10 P.M. with his wife seated across the table from him with the baby, Anthony, in her lap.” After Russo had removed the magazine, he had forgotten that “a cartridge had been left in the chamber.” Then, apparently, continuing to clean and oil the weapon, Russo pulled the trigger and the cartridge “exploded.” First, gracing the face of the baby, whom Rose had seated on the table, the bullet then “entered […]
