Commonwealth v. Petrillo

• Decision Date: 24 March 1941
• Docket Number: 76
• Citation: 19 A.2d 288,341 Pa. 209
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Petrillo, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

19 A.2d 288

341 Pa. 209

Commonwealth v. Petrillo, Appellant

No. 76

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

March 24, 1941

Argued January 22, 1941.

Appeal, No. 76, Jan. T., 1941, from judgment of O. & T Phila. Co., May T., 1939, No. 736, in case of Commonwealth v Herman Petrillo. Judgment affirmed.

Indictment for murder. Before LEWIS, J.

The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.

Verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree with penalty of death and judgment and sentence thereon. Defendant appealed.

Errors assigned, among others, related to various rulings on evidence and refusal of motion to withdraw a juror.

The judgment is affirmed and the record is remitted to the court below so that sentence may be executed.

Thomas D. McBride and Harry M. Berkowitz, for appellant.

Vincent P. McDevitt, Assistant District Attorney, with him Charles F Kelley, District Attorney, for appellee.

Before SCHAFFER, C.J., MAXEY, DREW, LINN, STERN, PATTERSON and PARKER, JJ.

OPINION

MR. MAXEY, JUSTICE.

This is an appeal by Herman Petrillo from the judgment and sentence of death after his conviction of the murder, on July 20, 1934, of Raffaele Caruso. ^[1] A guard in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, found the latter's body in the Schuylkill River, near the Girard Avenue Bridge, on the morning of July 21, 1934. Caruso was 48 years of age and slightly crippled in one leg. The established cause of death was drowning. To connect criminally this defendant with Caruso's death, the Commonwealth relied on (1) proof of a mercenary motive, (2) the testimony of alleged accomplices, and (3) certain incriminating statements made by him, and by others in his presence.

At the time of Caruso's death there was insurance on his life as follows:

Policy "A," issued November 6, 1933, by the Home Life Insurance Company, for $630, with the insured's landlady, Mrs. Christine Cerrone, named as beneficiary. ^[2]

Policy "B," issued December 11, 1933, by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, for $420, with Mrs. Cerrone named as beneficiary.

Policy "C," issued February 21, 1934, by the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, for $400 with "the estate" named as beneficiary. On May 24, 1934, the beneficiary was changed from "the estate" to "Herman Caruso, relation -- brother," (meaning this defendant who posed as Herman Caruso; he was in fact no relation of the insured). The state charges that the name "Raffaele Caruso" had been signed by this defendant to the application for change of beneficiary.

Policy "D," issued February 28, 1934, by the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, for $640, with the defendant named as beneficiary, again under the alias of "Herman Caruso." Policies "B," "C," and "D" provided for "double indemnity" in case of accidental death.

Agent Cirillo of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company testified that on January 2, 1934, the defendant applied to that company for a $3,000 policy on the life of Raffaele Caruso, describing himself as Caruso's "nephew" and agreeing to pay the premiums. The application was rejected. H. B. Forjohn, agent of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, testified that Petrillo was the payer of the premiums on policy "C" (written by this agent) and that in June, 1934, he called on Petrillo and informed him that the two policies ("C" and "D") "were in excess of the tabular limits allowed by the company" and that policy "C" (in Petrillo's possession) would have to be returned and that he would refund him the premiums. (Agent Bove had written policy "D.") Petrillo replied: "Well, what are you all worried about?" Forjohn directed Petrillo to have the agent in Petrillo's territory transfer the policy to Forjohn's territory so that he could cancel it. Petrillo agreed to do this. When the agent returned from his summer vacation he found that the policy had not been transferred and cancelled and that the insured had died. The agent then requested Petrillo not to present a claim on Policy "C" and gave him $20. Petrillo then agreed to present a claim only on Policy "D."

After Caruso's drowning, the defendant (so it is testified) became very active in collecting on these policies. He reported to the agent of the Home Life Insurance Company that Caruso had "died accidentally." When the check for $600.00 was ready on policy "A" (why the amount was not $630.00 does not appear), the defendant and Mrs. Cerrone and the undertaker, A. J. Errichetti, came to the agent's office and Petrillo said: "Give me the money and I will pay the undertaker." The agent testified that after Mrs. Cerrone cashed the check at the bank, Petrillo took the money out of her hands. He gave the agent $50.00 for a policy on Mrs. Cerrone's life. What Petrillo did with the balance of the money does not appear.

D. Benjamin Kresch, a lawyer, testified: "Petrillo came to my office and told me that he had a friend who was having difficulty collecting on an insurance policy, that they were trying to collect double indemnity on it, and were only able to get single indemnity from the company, which involved a policy ["B"] with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. I asked who the person was. He said, 'Mrs. Christine Cerrone.'" The attorney testified that he got in touch with that insurance company on several occasions and "finally the Metropolitan agreed to pay the sum of $420.00 in settlement." The witness said he told defendant about this offer and the latter "said he would talk to Mrs. Cerrone and let me know, and he returned in a short time and said that the amount was agreeable. . . . I communicated with the insurance company and received a check from them payable to Mrs. Cerrone." The witness said he cashed the check at the Pennsylvania Company, that he gave the cash to "Mrs. Cerrone, and as I remember, she handed some of the money to Petrillo. She said to me she owed him some money."

E. B. Lyman, a home office representative of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, testified that when the claim for insurance on Caruso was presented to his company he tried about fifteen or twenty times to meet defendant and finally met him. The latter first represented himself to the witness as "Herman Caruso." The witness said to defendant: "If you are Herman Caruso, why did you sign our change of beneficiary form as Raffaele Caruso, making yourself brother and beneficiary?" Defendant said that the agent made him do that. The witness said: "What agent made you go into our branch office at 7th and Chestnut and forge the name of Caruso to the claim certificate?" Defendant did not answer. The witness stated the defendant claimed $2,080.00 "because the man was accidentally drowned." Petrillo, the witness testified, "wanted the one policy that Mr. Bove wrote paid with the double indemnity, and then he propositioned that they pay both of them without double indemnity. Then he propositioned that he would be willing to accept the one that Forjohn wrote with double indemnity. In other words, I think one was $640.00 and the other was $400.00 even." When the witness told defendant that "the company would have a public administrator appointed, he [the defendant] pulled out an administration paper out of his pocket, a blank, and said that he was going to be made administrator."

F. V. Jones, District Cashier for the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, testified that Petrillo presented a death certificate to him, made an affidavit to it and demanded payment. When the witness asked him by what right he made his claim, "He said he was a brother, beneficiary in the policy" and had "paid the premiums always." This witness identified a check of that insurance company for $445.00 "to the order of Antonio J. Errichetti" (undertaker) and stated that this check was issued in pursuance of Petrillo's claim. He said that it was "a partial settlement of two policies" (i.e., policies "C" and "D"). Petrillo signed the release, both as "Herman Caruso" and as "Herman Petrillo." Later in his testimony the witness said that the release referred to was "in full consideration of both policies." The Commonwealth called as a witness the undertaker's son-in-law, who assisted him. He testified that Petrillo got this $445.00, gave the undertaker $250.00, gave the witness $20.00 for flowers and "kept the change." (Errichetti died in 1936.)

S. F. Herron, Assistant District Manager of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, testified that after Caruso's death the defendant, in reply to a question, said: "I gave the agent the name Herman Caruso because I knew he would not issue the policy unless there was a relative or some beneficial interest in the policy." Petrillo admitted to an agent that he had signed the name "Raffaele Caruso" to the application for change of beneficiary of policy "C." Agent Lowa testified that the defendant paid the premiums on policies "C" and "D" and that he represented himself as "[Herman] Caruso."

This record discloses that this defendant and Caruso met for the first time in the Jewish Hospital, Philadelphia, in June, 1933, when according to Morris Bolber, the defendant took him to that hospital, saying he "would show him a man who did miracles." Caruso was then in this hospital recovering from an injury received in an automobile accident. Defendant introduced Bolber to "a cripple sitting in a chair," as Caruso, and when the latter did not reply to Bolber's question (in English) about his condition, Petrillo said: "Don't worry about him, I am going to make plenty of money on this man."

A few weeks later, according to the testimony of Mrs. Christine Cerrone, Petrillo made arrangements to bring Caruso to her home at 1305 Porter St., Philadelphia. He told her that he wanted her to give him plenty of good...