PM, January 15-17, 1941 (Some of the photographers are: Leo Lieb, Morris Engel, Morris Gordon, Irving Haberman, Peter Killian, and Weegee)
2 Killed, 3 Shot in 5th Ave. Holdup… Here’s How It Happened

“All were bad, vicious movie-type Dead-End kids, gun-toters in their teens, problems for the police. Emanuel and Nino are now in Sing Sing.
For journalism’s most vivid story of Death in Fifth Ave. PM recommends its readers to today’s Daily News. Max Peter Haas, 33, German born photographer, was filling his Leica…”
PM, January 15, 1941

“…the filthy apartment… at 402 E. 11th St. (quoting an early Probation Report) in which the Espositos were reared…”
PM, January 16, 1941

“For the first time since Bruno Richard Hauptmann, police today permitted photographers in the line-up room at headquarters. The subject was Anthony Esposito, under indictment with his brother, William, for the murder of a business man and a policeman in Tuesday’s tragic Battle of Fifth Ave. The angry gunman ducked after Weegee took the above.”
“The detectives manacled to Esposito, didn’t want their names or pictures in the papers. They obliged by turning around, holding the gunman by head and arm so he couldn’t duck again. The yard-stick (top photo) is on the line-up platform, where Esposito had stood, refusing to answer questions. “He looked like a sullen, surly, snarling animal, Weegee reported. “He stumbled and sagged over to one side like a drunk.”

PM, January 17, 1941 (PM Sketch by Gregorio Prestopino)

(To be continued…)

Weegee Daily… February 9, 1941… Murder in the Rain… Hell’s Kitchen Style…

February 9, 2014

1941, Weegee Daily

PM Daily, February 9, 1941
Murder in the Rain… Hell’s Kitchen Style
This is the picture story of the careful man who remembered to put on his rubbers but failed to watch out for death. Weegee took the photo and wrote the title… Weegee said: “He was going into his home on W. 48th Street when an unknown man fired three shots and ran toward 10th Avenue. Nobody saw or heard any shots… so they said.”

Weegee Daily, February 9, 2013
No Murder… No Rain… No Snow… Hell’s Kitchen Style
Weegee as photographer and reporter (and poet!)… We recently saw a horizontal version of this image (the printed version is perhaps a third of the un-cropped image) and the legs in the upper left corner are more obvious… Perhaps the square in the foreground, in the sidewalk, is the same in both of the above photos… Perhaps coincidentally, Weegee’s future home was behind and a few doors west of this location…

This is the picture story of a careful man who remembered to make this photo before the blizzard arrived. Ceegee took the photo and wrote the title. About the photo of a 73 year old crime scene, in what critics call a continuation of a boring and profoundly unoriginal blog, Ceegee said: “I was gradually going home, walking past W. 48th St., before going to B&H Photo, and perhaps an old bakery, when I fired about ten shots and walked toward 10th Avenue. A few people, walking home, walking dogs and/or children, saw the shots… if so, they didn’t say.”

(A few easily google-able news clippings…)

Weegee Daily Map!

Weegee Daily… October 9, 1941… Their First Murder…

October 9, 2013

1941, Weegee Daily

DARTED and LIQUIDATED

PM, October 9, 1941, p. 15

Brooklyn School Children See Gambler Murdered in Street

“Pupils were just leaving P.S. 143, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, at 3:15 yesterday when Peter Mancuso, 22, described by police as a small-time gambler, pulled up in a 1931 Ford at a traffic light a block from the school. Up to the car stepped a gunman, who fired twice and escaped through the throng of children. Mancuso, shot through the head and the heart, struggled to the running board and collapsed dead on the pavement. Above are some of the spectators…”

Weegee Daily, October 9, 2013
Brooklyn Dog Walkers See Photographer Standing in Street. Approximate location of Their First Murder…

Intersection of Roebling St. and N. Sixth St., Brooklyn. Approximate location where Peter Mancuso was shot in a 1931 Ford… Sidewalk where the slayer fled toward N. Seventh St… The entrance of the former P.S. 143…

New York Daily News, October 9, 1941

“A small-time Brooklyn gambler, Peter Mancuso, 23, was slain at 3:20 P.M. yesterday when he stopped his car at the crowded intersection of Roebling St. and N. Sixth St., Brooklyn.

A lone assailant darted up to the car and liquidated Mancuso with two bullets fired at close range through the open front window…

One bullet hit Mancuso in the head, another in the heart. With a dying effort he got the door of the car open and toppled into the street…

Meanwhile, P.S. 143, a block away, on Havermeyer St., was just letting out. The slayer dashed down N. Seventh St. heading for the school and zig-zagged among the crowds of children… the fugitive darted into Havermeyer St. and disappeared.”

To be continued…

Weegee Daily… August 26, 1940… From Federal Penitentiary to This… The Guns, The Gunman, The Gutter…

August 26, 2013

1940, Weegee Daily

PM Daily, August 26, 1940
From Federal Penitentiary to This…
Two guns and the prostrate form of Louis Riggione tell the story. Released from prison two months ago, Riggione was enjoying his freedom by an early morning walk with his brother, Joseph, when underworld bullets mowed him down.
PM Photo by Weegee

PM Daily, August 26, 1940 (image from the Internet)

Weegee Daily, August 26, 2013
From Work to This…
I’m going to go out on a limb and conclude that the Daily News has the correct spelling, Reggione.
The Daily News photo has the credit: “By Acme.”
Across from the Puck building… According to a popular (un)real estate website, a five room apartment at 280 Mulberry St., recently rented for $3,250/month, and the average rent for a two bedroom is about $3,000… I’m going to go out on another limb, 282 Mulberry St., according to the Daily News, was on the Lower East Side, and is now in Nolita…
WD Photo by Ceegee

New York Daily News, August 27, 1940
One Reggione Saved By Rain, Brother Slain
The only reason Joe Reggione is alive today, detectives investigating the murder of his brother, Louis, said yesterday, is that it is hard to hit a running man with a revolver on a dark, rain-swept street… as the brothers reached the doorway of a tenement house at 282 Mulberry St., where they shared a five-room flat…
Vendetta, Says Sister
“It’s a vendetta,” she told them. “Somebody has sworn to kill us all. Oh God, who’s going to be next?”
DEAD END
Louie Was a Tough Guy – But He Wasn’t Touch Enough
The Guns, The Gunman, The Gutter
Shot down by rival tough guys, Louie Reggione, gun toter, counterfeiter, ex-convict, lies dead in the gutter in front of his home… guns used by the killers are circled…”

Google street view

(Nolita!)

To be continued…

Weegee Daily… February 9, 1941… Murder in the Rain… Hell’s Kitchen Style…

February 9, 2013

Weegee Daily

PM Daily, February 9, 1941
Murder in the Rain… Hell’s Kitchen Style
This is the picture story of the careful man who remembered to put on his rubbers but failed to watch out for death. Weegee took the photo and wrote the title… Weegee said: “He was going into his home on W. 48th Street when an unknown man fired three shots and ran toward 10th Avenue. Nobody saw or heard any shots… so they said.”

Weegee Daily, February 9, 2013
No Murder… No Rain… No Snow… Hell’s Kitchen Style
Weegee as photographer and reporter (and poet!)… We recently saw a horizontal version of this image (the printed version is perhaps a third of the un-cropped image) and the legs in the upper left corner are more obvious… Perhaps the square in the foreground, in the sidewalk, is the same in both of the above photos… Perhaps coincidentally, Weegee’s future home was behind and a few doors west of this location…

This is the picture story of a careful man who remembered to make this photo before the blizzard arrived. Ceegee took the photo and wrote the title. Of the photo, of a 72 year old crime scene, in what critics call a continuation of a boring and profoundly unoriginal blog, Ceegee said: “I was gradually going home, walking past W. 48th St., before going to B&H Photo, and perhaps an old bakery, when I fired about ten shots and walked toward 10th Avenue. A few people, walking home, walking dogs and/or children, saw and heard the shots… so they didn’t say.”

(A few easily google-able news clippings…)

Weegee Daily Map!

Weegee Daily… February 7, 1941… This is a New York sidewalk audience…

February 7, 2013

Weegee Daily

PM Daily, February 7, 1941, p. 13
This is a New York sidewalk audience. Study their faces. Turn the page to see what they are looking at.
Photo by Weegee, PM Staff

PM Daily, February 7, 1941, p. 14
This is What They Saw
The body of Salvatore Sutera, 27, lies in front of 202 Mott St. where it was found at 4:45 PM Thursday. He had been shot in the mouth and was dead when police arived. Bloody footprints in the hallway indicated he had been shot there and staggered to the sidewalk… Weegee, our photographer, took this picture and then turned his camera on the watching crowd and got the picture printed on the preceding page.”
PM Daily, February 7, 1941, p. 14

Weegee Daily, February 7, 2013
This is a New York sidewalk painting. Study their faces. Look into their eyes. Scroll down to see what they are looking at.
Photo by Ceegee, Weegee Daily Staff

Weegee Daily, February 7, 2013
The doorway of 202 Mott St. as it was found at 6:45 PM Wednesday. The door had been shot in the handle. Muddy footprints indicated that it had been snowing yesterday. It was a door, had no police record, and had not been forcibly opened. Ceegee, our photographer, took the above pictures and then walked down the block, turned left on Delancey St. and then turned his camera on the watching crowd painting pictured above…

Weegee Daily Map!

Weegee Daily… January 12, 1943… Police photographer snaps the end of the trail of Carlo Tresca…

January 12, 2013

Weegee Daily

…Bullets End a Stormy Career in Labor History
Police photographer snaps the end of the trail of Carlo Tresca, one-time Anarchist, one-time Wobbly, more recently militant and anti-fascist.
PM Daily, January 12, Vol. 3, No. 179, p. 3
PM Photo by Weegee

Weegee Daily, January 12, 2013

15th Street and 5th Ave, 2013…

Sight of the slaying… Fashion and Anti-fascism…

oblivious to the
history, a shopper
steps over the
“anarchist’s” blood spilled
in labor’s struggle,
shot in the
head, like light,
or coffee and
chewed chewing gum,
preserved in an
amber concrete photograph,
pedestrian

Then and now:
From PM Daily, January 12, 1943, p. 2: “Tresca was shot down gangster-style, within a half block of the office of his semi-monthly newspaper, Il Martella (The Hammer), an Italian-language publication that carried on an incessant fight against fascism.”
From the bebe website: “bebe is the go-to destination for chic, contemporary fashion. The brand evokes a mindset – an attitude, not an age. It’s a true original, always defining fashion’s next stride forward. Designed for the confident, sexy, modern woman, bebe is a global label that embodies a sensual, sophisticated lifestyle.”

PS.
Weegee’s photo was not is every issue of PM published on January 12, 1943. Perhaps only a later edition. The Corbis website and Museum of the City of NY blog have variants of the Tresca murder.
WD Photos by Ceegee

(To be continued/edited…)

Weegee Daily Map!