Woman Condemned

M. Greiner James

Description

A sensational murder, trial, and a young woman's execution in Depression-era New York At first glance, the 1932 Easter morning murder of Salvatore "Sam" Antonio had all the trademarks of a gang-related murder. Shot five times, stabbed a dozen more, Antonio was left for dead. His body was rolled into a culvert on Castleton Road outside of Hudson, south of Albany, New York. It was only by chance that the mortally wounded Antonio was discovered and brought to the hospital. He died in the emergency room without ever naming his assailant.William H. Flubacher of the New York State Police arrived at the hospital minutes after Antonio succumbed and immediately began his investigation by questioning the victim's wife, Anna Antonio. The vague details she offered, coupled with her utter lack of shock or grief upon hearing of her husband's brutal murder, convinced Flubacher that something was amiss. Soon, as James M. Greiner tells us in this absorbing book, Anna was accused of hiring two drug dealers, Vincent Saetta and Sam Feraci, to kill her husband.In Greiner's description of the trial itself, he seeks to show how flaws in the judicial system, poverty, and prejudice around the Italian American community in Albany all played a part in Anna's conviction and death sentence. Perhaps no other woman on death row endured the mental anguish she experienced; her execution was postponed three times-once when walking to the electric chair.The first complete history of this historically significant case, A Woman Condemned draws upon newly discovered New York State Police records, volumes of court transcripts, and period newspapers, leading readers to wonder if justice was really served.

Sujets

• USA
• True crime
• États-Unis
• Prison

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781631013775
• Langue: English

Extrait

A WOMAN CONDEMNED
TRUE CRIME HISTORY
Twilight of Innocence: The Disappearance of Beverly Potts · James Jessen Badal
Tracks to Murder · Jonathan Goodman
Terrorism for Self-Glorification: The Herostratos Syndrome · Albert Borowitz
Ripperology: A Study of the World’s First Serial Killer and a Literary Phenomenon · Robin Odell
The Good-bye Door: The Incredible True Story of America’s First Female Serial Killer to Die in the Chair · Diana Britt Franklin
Murder on Several Occasions · Jonathan Goodman
The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories · Elizabeth A. De Wolfe
Lethal Witness: Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Honorary Pathologist · Andrew Rose
Murder of a Journalist: The True Story of the Death of Donald Ring Mellett · Thomas Crowl
Musical Mysteries: From Mozart to John Lennon · Albert Borowitz
The Adventuress: Murder, Blackmail, and Confidence Games in the Gilded Age · Virginia A. McConnell
Queen Victoria’s Stalker: The Strange Case of the Boy Jones · Jan Bondeson
Born to Lose: Stanley B. Hoss and the Crime Spree That Gripped a Nation · James G. Hollock
Murder and Martial Justice: Spying and Retribution in World War II America · Meredith Lentz Adams
The Christmas Murders: Classic Stories of True Crime · Jonathan Goodman
The Supernatural Murders: Classic Stories of True Crime · Jonathan Goodman
Guilty by Popular Demand: A True Story of Small-Town Injustice · Bill Osinski
Nameless Indignities: Unraveling the Mystery of One of Illinois’s Most Infamous Crimes · Susan Elmore
Hauptmann’s Ladder: A Step-by-Step Analysis of the Lindbergh Kidnapping · Richard T. Cahill Jr.
The Lincoln Assassination Riddle: Revisiting the Crime of the Nineteenth Century · Edited by Frank J. Williams and Michael Burkhimer
Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee · Ann Marie Ackermann
The Insanity Defense and the Mad Murderess of Shaker Heights: Examining the Trial of Mariann Colby · William L. Tabac
The Belle of Bedford Avenue: The Sensational Brooks-Burns Murder in Turn-of-the-Century New York · Virginia A. McConnell
Six Capsules: The Gilded Age Murder of Helen Potts · George R. Dekle Sr.
A Woman Condemned: The Tragic Case of Anna Antonio · James M. Greiner
A WOMAN CONDEMNED
The Tragic Case of Anna Antonio
James M. Greiner

The Kent State University Press
KENT, OHIO
For Phyllis, Maria, and Frankie
© 2019 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Number 2019014333
ISBN 978-1-60635-382-0
Manufactured in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced, in any manner whatsoever, without written permission from the Publisher, except in the case of short quotations in critical reviews or articles.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Greiner, James M., 1954- author.
Title: A woman condemned : the tragic case of Anna Antonio / James M. Greiner.
Description: Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, [2019] | Series: True crime history | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019014333 | ISBN 9781606353820 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Antonio, Anna, 1906-1934. | Murder--New York (State)--Case studies. | Trials (Murder)--New York (State)--Albany. | Abused wives--New York (State)--Case studies. | Women death row inmates--United States--Case studies.
Classification: LCC HV6533.N5 G74 2019 | DDC 364.152/3092 [B] --dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019014333
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Gut
PART I: MARRIAGE AND MURDER
1 From Railroads to the Rackets
2 Sam Faraci
3 “Are We Ready for a Good Time?”
4 “My Name … Sam Antonio”
5 “Mrs. Antonio, You Are Not Helping Us”
6 Lies, Alibis, and Gertrude King
7 “At Last, a Break”
8 Three Confessions
PART II: THE TRIAL
9 The Gathering of Legals
10 Flubacher and the Italian Detective
11 Jimmy Hynes, the Ice Cream Boy
12 The Fifty-Cent Knife
13 Anna Antonio
14 Henry Lowenberg
15 “Who Is Tony Pinto?”
16 The Rat
17 Perjury and Attorney Conspiracy
18 “Who Is Vincent Saetta?”
19 “Do Equal Justice”
PART III: SING SING PRISON
20 The Big House
21 The Court of Last Resort
22 An Unforgiving Press
23 The State Electrician
24 Saetta Speaks
25 “The Portals of Mercy”
26 August 9, 1934
PART IV: AFTERWARDS
27 The Custody War
28 Lehman’s Painful Decision
29 The Trial in Retrospect
A Note on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Authors and historians who do their own research will probably tell you the same thing. While digging and searching for one thing, you stumble upon something else. That’s what happened here. While researching material about an unfortunate woman who was hanged for murder in my hometown of Herkimer, I came across the story of Anna Antonio. At that time my knowledge of executed women in nineteenth-and twentieth-century New York was somewhat limited. I was already familiar with the Ruth Snyder case, due in part to the sensational grainy photo of her in the New York Daily News when she received that fatal jolt of electricity. The only other woman I had ever heard of was Ethel Rosenberg, victim of the Red Scare of the 1950s. I had never heard of Anna Antonio. My initial reaction after doing a little research was curiosity. What did she do and why did two men follow her to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison? Telling the complete story of the life and times of Anna Antonio would have been impossible had it not been for the support, cooperation, and generosity of a great many people.
Once more I am indebted to Jim Folts and his staff at the New York State Archives in Albany. His friendly and knowledgeable staff couldn’t do enough to make my visits there—and there were quite a few—enjoyable. The four volumes of trial transcripts, together with rearguments, Auburn prison records, and Sing Sing prison records, had to be photographed. This involved multiple trips to Albany, and if you don’t think that was fun, allow me to introduce my assistant who took all those pictures—my wife Teresa. Equally important as the transcripts is the website called Old Fulton Postcards. Don’t let the name fool you. This website is not about postcards; it’s all about old newspapers. Established and managed by Tom Tryniski, this unique site provides millions of pages of old newspapers to the public for free.
At the Albany Hall of Records, Craig Carlson and his staff retrieved the police blotters of the Albany County Jail while City of Albany Historian Tony Opalka not only provided me with a wealth of information about the south side of Albany but pointed the way to Jim Davies at the Albany Library, which led to Allison Munsell Napierski of the Albany Institute of Art and History. Through their efforts I was able to obtain 1930s photographs of Albany. Lisa Crompton of the Historic Albany Foundation searched through files of homes in the south end and sent not only photographs of Sam and Anna’s apartment on 3 Teunis Street but a two-page history of the dwelling. A few miles away, Melissa Thacke and Dianne Gade retrieved Cappello family material for me from the archives of the Schenectady County Historical Society. On the other side of the state, Brooke Morse sent me information on the checkered past of Sam Faraci archived in the Ontario County Records, Archives and Information Services in Canandaigua. City of Hudson Historian Pat Fenoff provided information on the notorious red-light district of Hudson in the 1930s, and Guy Cheli was literally my “go-to guy” when it came to researching photographs of Sing Sing prison. He directed me to Norm MacDonald, curator of the Ossining Historical Society. Norm located the pictures I requested of the Death House and sent them to me post haste. Dana White, village historian for Ossining, simply amazed me at how quickly she sent me the information I needed on Sing Sing prison matron Lucy Many.
The central repository of information on Sing Sing warden Lewis Lawes is the Lloyd Sealy Library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Special Collections librarian Ellen Belcher was insistent that I use a clear digitalized photograph of Lewis Lawes for this book and I am so glad she did. It’s a great picture of the warden.
Closer to home, Sue Perkins, executive director of the Herkimer County Historical Society and longtime friend of mine, was always there to help me with census records, genealogical research, and computer work.
Tom Kriger, author of several articles on the New York milk wars of the 1930s, offered his insight into the fierce competition between the milk companies of that era. Unfamiliar with the Steamburg arson, Kriger said destruction by arson did occur. Although he has yet to uncover any evidence that organized crime was making inroads in the dairy market during that era, he candidly said that he would not have been the least surprised.
Sometimes in the course of your research you just get lucky. That is the only way I can explain how I came across the material on the lead investigator of the Antonio case, William Flubacher. When, by chance, I discovered a picture of Flubacher in his uniform on the New York State Police Centennial Web site, I was put in contact with Trooper Brian Gregoire. “What do you want to know about Flubacher?” he asked. I explained what I was doing and he told me he had a trunk that was full of Flubacher’s personal papers. The trunk proved to be a treasure chest. Mug shots of the suspects, original interview notes, and police reports added so much more to this project. The information Gregoire provided to me necessitated the rewriting of several sections in the book, but it was well worth it and I can’t thank him enough.
Retired Herkimer County judge Patrick L. Kirk and his wife Cheryl are old friends of mine. Both of them wanted to help out on this project and I’m glad they did. In