People v. Strollo

• Decision Date: 21 January 1908
• Citation: 83 N.E. 573,191 N.Y. 42
• Parties: PEOPLE v. STROLLO.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

191 N.Y. 42

83 N.E. 573

PEOPLE

v.STROLLO.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Jan. 21, 1908.

Antonio Strollo was convicted of murder in the first degree, and appeals. Affirmed.

William D. Reed and James E. Brande, for appellant. Wm. Travers Jerome, Dist. Atty. (Robert C. Taylor, of counsel), for respondent.

Edward T. Bartlett, Willard Bartlett, and Hiscock, JJ., dissenting.

WERNER, J.

The indictment under which the defendant was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree charges him with the felonious, deliberate, and premeditated killing of Antonio Torsielli, in the borough of the Bronx, in the city and county of New York, on the 17th day of August, 1905. The evidence upon which the conviction is based is wholly circumstantial. A number of questions are raised which have been very ably and forcibly presented on defendant's behalf by faithful and zealous counsel. Since these questions depend in varying degree upon our conclusions respecting the case in its entirety, we shall first determine whether the verdict of the jury is supported by the weight of evidence, and then address ourselves to the specific attacks made upon the validity of the judgment. In the necessary recital of the circumstances which tell the story of this alleged crime, it will conduce to clearness of understanding and brevity of statement if we follow, as nearly as possible, the chronology of events rather than the order of proof. Antonio Torsielli, the deceased, was a native of Italy, coming from the province or district of Valva, and at the time of his death he was about 26 years of age. He had been in this country for a number of years, and for some time before his death he had lived in Lambertville, N. J., where he had been employed by a railroad company. He had been sober, industrious, and thrifty. He had been preceded to this country by his brother Vito, whom he had not seen or heard of in 14 years, although he had made various efforts to find him. Antonio Strollo, the defendant, also a native of Italy, came from Culano, which is very near Valva, and for a year or more prior to the homicide had lived in Lambertville, where he had been employed on a canal owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. These two men had known each other for several years, and during their joint residence in Lambertville had become somewhat intimate, as appears from the fact that the defendant, who reads and writes Italian, had on various occasions served as the amanuensis and confidant of the deceased, who was illiterate. The defendant had written for him letters to his relatives and friends, and had read to him such letters as he received. The inference is permissible that in these circumstances the defendant acquired some knowledge of the pecuniary affairs of the deceased, and of his efforts to find or locate his brother Vito. These were the conditions on the 27th day of July, 1905, when the deceased is said to have received a letter dated at Yonkers, N. Y., purporting to have been written to him by his long-lost brother Vito. This letter referred to Vito's long absence, to his recent removal to Yonkers, where the company by which he was employed had established a factory in which he occupied the position of a boss, to his having learned that his brother, the deceased, had been looking for him, to the great pleasure which it would give Vito to see his brother once more, to Vito's ability to give Antonio remunerative employment should he choose to go to Yonkers, and closed with affectionate greetings from his wife and children. It was signed ‘Vito Torsielli,’ and under this signature was the following postscript: ‘Come quick, because I have great pleasure to see you. My address: No. 1570 Yonkers, N. Y.’ As bearing upon the relation of this letter to subsequent events, it is significant that at or about the same time the defendant is said to have mailed in the local post office a letter addressed to Antonio Torsielli, Lambertville, N. J. It is significant because this letter was mailed at a time when the defendant and the deceased lived in the same village and saw each other daily. Affixed to this letter was a two-cent postage stamp, although a one-cent stamp would have sufficed for a local letter, and it was this fact that first attracted the attention of the postal clerk who testified to the occurrence. This letter was deposited in the post office early in the morning, was placed in the ‘call box’ of Antonio Torsielli, the deceased, and was taken from the box later on the same day. Following the posting of this letter, and under date of July 30, 1905, the defendant is said to have written for Antonio, the deceased, a letter to Vito, the long-lost brother, the substance of which is that Antonio had been made most happy to hear from his brother Vito, for whom he had been searching for more than two years; that he would go to Vito if desired, but would prefer to have Vito come after him; that Antonio was not sure of understanding about the work offered him by Vito, and was a little concerned about leaving the place he then had. The letter closed with expressions of regard for Vito's wife and family, and was signed answer, send the answer to the address below. Antonio Strollo.'

Scarcely more than a fortnight after the last-mentioned letter was supposed to have been mailed, Antonio Torsielli, the deceased, left Lambertville under circumstances indicating that he did not intend to return. On the 16th day of August, 1905, he went to the Lambertville National Bank and drew out the whole of his deposit, amounting to $156.80. He also had his time made up for his work on the railroad, and drew all his pay, amounting to at least $39. In addition to this he is said to have obtained from one Espossito the sum of $100, which he had previously loaned to that person. He had packed all his belongings in a bag described as a ‘grip,’ and on the evening of August 16th he called at the house of one Sabbato Gizzi, from whom he obtained a slip of paper containing his name and address, and to whom he stated that he was going to his brother in Yonkers. The next morning, August 17th, Antonio Torsielli, the deceased, appeared at the railroad station in Lambertville, but he was not alone. With him was the defendant. Subsequent developments disclosed that he, too, had drawn from the bank at Lambertville the last of a deposit, originally amounting to $25, which on August 7th had been reduced by $15, and on August 16th was exhausted by the withdrawal of the balance of $10.06. Nor was this all that the defendant had done in making preparations for the departure of the deceased from Lambertville. He had taken to the office of the Adams Express Company in that village a valise weighing 42 pounds and a small package, which were addressed to Antonio Strollo, 21 Mulberry street, N. Y. This valise and its contents were subsequently identified as having belonged to the deceased. It was in these circumstances that Antonio Torsielli, the deceased, and Antonio Strollo, the defendant, met at the railroad station in Lambertville on the morning of August 17, 1905. The deceased went to the ticket office to purchase a ticket for New York, but was pushed aside by the defendant, who insisted upon paying for the ticket. A single return ticket was purchased, and the only explanation we have of that fact is that the defendant was in the employ of the railroad company, and was permitted, in common with other employés, to ride on a pass within certain limitations. The two men left Lambertville at 8:45 a. m., arriving in New York about noon. There they first spent some time in Mott street, and witnessed a ‘St. Rocco’ parade. Then they went to a saloon in Park street and partook of some refreshments. At half-past 1 in the afternoon they entered a train of the elevated railroad at Houston street and rode to the terminal in the Bronx. There they alighted and walked over to Jerome avenue, and thence along the avenue until they came to a pumping station. At this point, according to the subsequent statement of the defendant, they saw a man about 15 feet distant standing under a tree. The deceased is said to have exclaimed to the defendant, ‘Say, Tony, that man standing under that tree looks like my brother,’ to which the defendant replied, ‘I don't know your brother.’ Approaching nearer to this man, the latter, addressing Antonio Torsielli, said, ‘Who are you?’ and the answer was: ‘Who, me? My name is Antonio Torsielli.’ Then Antonio said to the man under the tree, ‘Who are you?’ to which this man replied: ‘Why, me? I am Vito Torsielli.’ At this one or the other of them said: ‘Then you must be my brother.’ Thereupon they kissed and embraced each other, and the happily discovered Vito said to the deceased: ‘I sent you four letters. Why didn't you come before?’ To which the deceased replied: ‘Well, I had to get my time and my pay. That is the reason I couldn't come before.’ ‘Well,’ said this Vito, ‘I sent you these four letters. What did you do with them?’ Thereupon the defendant interposed and said: ‘I have them in my inside coat pocket.’ He then proceeded to produce the letters and gave them to one or the other of these reunited brothers. The defendant then shook hands with the brothers, and without further ceremony left them.

We turn now to another chapter in the story. On the same afternoon when the search of the deceased for his long-lost brother Vito is said to have been brought to such an abrupt but happy close at the pumphouse, a man named Taylor, who lived in Yonkers, happened to be in Van Cortlandt Park looking for mushrooms. He was in an open place surrounded by the wooded portions of the park, in the near vicinity of Van Cortlandt Park avenue, and about a mile and a half or two miles from Jerome avenue. There Taylor saw two men, who came toward him on one of the paths through the woods. One of these men was the defendant, and the other was the deceased. The latter addressed...