Italian Harlem's Police Report #3

Topic: Italian Butcher Murdered; Was killed by his former Partner, who had married the Girl he loved 1902

Two Italian butchers, who for several years have supplied meat to the residents of "Little Italy" in East Harlem, fought a duel with pistols and knives yesterday morning, which resulted in the death of one and the disappearance of the other. The dead man is Cinzeno Tanzello, twenty-five years old, of 300 East One Hundred and Seventh Street, and his murderer, Giuseppe De Posino, twenty-two years old, of 306 East One Hundred and Seventh Street, who up to a late hour last night had not been captured by the p olice.Up to several months ago the men were partners in a large butcher shop at 300 East One Hundred and Seventh Street.

Among their customers was a young Italian girl named Rosina. Both fell in love with her, proposed, and were refused. De Posino persisted in his attentions and there were numerous quarrels between the partners. Finally Rosina accepted De Posino, and they were married secretly. When Tanzello learned this he was furious. After a fight the partnership was dissolved. Tanzello continued to run the store at 300 East One Hundred and Seventh Street, while De Posino took his bride to 306 East One Hundred and Seventh Street, where he opened an opposition shop. Since that time the two men have fought and quarreled every time they met.The rivalry culminated yesterday morning, when De Posino saw several of his customers enter Tanzello's store, and leave it with bundles of meat. Furious, he rushed into Tanzello's store and charged him with robbing him of his customers. Tanzello denied the charge, and picking up a butcher's knife made a slash at De Posino. Dodging the blow De Posino stepped backward and drawing a revolver from under his apron fired two shots. One bullet took effect over the left eye, and the other just over the heart. Tanzello fell across the doorstep. De Posino rushed into his won store, grabbed the contents of the till, and disappeared in a tenement house across the street. By this time the entire neighborhood was in an uproar, and policeman Shaw of the East One Hundred and Fourth Street Station, who heard the shots, arrived and found four Italians carrying Tanzello to a drug store. He at once summoned an ambulance, and Dr. Neal took the injured man to Harlem Hospital, where he died a few minutes after his arrival there.Capt. Haughey detailed a number of men on the case, but a most careful search failed to reveal the murderer. Detectives Reed and Dixon, however, arrested Assinato Tanzello, who is either a cousin or brother of the dead man, and Antonio Boliandi, both living at 306 East One Hundred and Seventh Street, as witnesses and accessories to the crime.

The New York Times March 10, 1902.

To contact: miram@thehistorybox.com
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