Murders in Little Italy
One hundred years ago today … The News printed a feature on the recent killings in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood.
Daily News, 25 January 1921, p. 4. Chronicling America.
The paper printed an illustration of the January 24th murder of Dominick Ponti at 434 Pearl Street. The picture might be funny if it weren’t tragic.
Daily News, 25 January 1921, p. 1. Chronicling America.
The News had been right on top of the skein of killings, dating back to late 1920 when they covered the very public death of Savatore Mauro at 232 Christie Street.
Daily News, 30 December 1921, p. 1. Chronicling America.
One might speculate that the paper was an early factor in the associating of Little Italy with gangland murders.
The term “Little Italy” itself dated back several decades. It had first appeared in the New York City newspapers in 1885 (“Money Made at the Dumps,” The Sun, 17 May 1885, p. 10). The 1880s were a decade of peak Italian immigration to NYC.
– Jonathan Goldman, January 25, 2021
TAGS: crime, murder, bootlegging, Italian, neighborhood