Florino is charged with Brooklyn murder
He and pal Anastasio survive their 1921 stay in the Sing Sing Death House
On this date (March 6) in 1921, authorities in Brooklyn believed they had solved a year-old murder. Detective John McTiernan of the Amity Street Police Station located Giuseppe Florino near the intersection of Union and Columbia Streets and placed him under arrest.
The thirty-three-year-old hoodlum, a resident of 187 Columbia Street, was charged with the May 1920 murder of Joseph Terella (also referred to in press reports as George Terrillo, George Turillo and George Turrello).
When questioned at the stationhouse by Captain of Detectives John J. McCloskey, Florino denied any connection to the Terella killing but made no other statement. After McCloskey tired of getting non-answers to his questions, he turned Florino over to the office of the Kings County District Attorney for additional unproductive interrogation.
The killing
Terella, a thirty-one-year-old longshoreman and resident of 34 Union Street, was shot just after nine-thirty, Sunday night, May 16, 1920, in front of 128 Union Street. He died the following morning at Long Island College Hospital of hemorrhage and organ damage resulting from the abdominal gunshot wound.
According to the Brooklyn Standard Union, police immediately arrested a Carroll Street resident named “Vito Aditox” in connection with the killing. But it appears no charges were filed.
The case
Detectives apparently had acquired a great deal of information through the nearly ten months following Terella's death. A few days after the arrest of Florino, a warrant was issued for the arrest of his old pal Albert Anastasio (who is better known today through the later spelling of his surname, “Anastasia”). Absent from Brooklyn for some time, the twenty-two-year-old Anastasio was also charged with killing Terella. Anastasio was located and arrested by authorities out in Providence, Rhode Island, and soon returned to Brooklyn.
Brought to trial in May, Florino and Anastasio were accused of shooting and killing Terella after a quarrel. It was alleged that Terella was acting on behalf of robbery victims and trying to arrange the return of an heirloom watch stolen by the pair of hoodlums, when they responded to him with gunshots.
Florino and Anastasio were quickly convicted of first-degree murder. At their sentencing hearing, Florino made an emotional speech, denying any responsibility for the killing and charging that the state's case was built around a supposed eyewitness who happened to be his own jealous ex-girlfriend, Mrs. Margaret Vicchi. Judge James C. Van Siclen sentenced the convicted murderers to be executed in the Sing Sing Prison electric chair during the week of July 3. The case looked to be a victory for law enforcement. At least for a while.
Birth of a legend
A legal appeal was filed, based on the romantic relationship of one of the defendants and the state's key witness. The week of July 3 passed. Then many more weeks, as Florino and Anastasio became long-term residents of the Sing Sing Prison Death House.
At an appeals hearing in December 1921, prosecutors acknowledged that the convictions rested upon Mrs. Vicchi's statements and that there was legitimate concern about her truthfulness. But they argued that it was rightfully up to the trial jury whether to accept her evidence. The appeals court found otherwise and threw out the convictions. With no better evidence against Florino and Anastasio, the Kings County District Attorney did not attempt a second trial and released the two men. From that moment on, they were referred to as hoodlums who managed to survive the Death House.
Legends grew out of their surprising legal victory. In the 1950s, the FBI heard that the retrial of Florino and Anastasia on the Terella murder charge was called off because three state witnesses had been executed by underworld assassins to prevent their testimony.
Sources
“Albert Anastasia,” FBI report, Nov. 15, 1957, p. 1, Albert Anastasia FBI file.
Alberto Anastasio, no. 72527, Sing Sing Prison Receiving Blotter, received May 25, 1921.
Giuseppi Florina, no. 72528, Sing Sing Prison Receiving Blotter, received May 25, 1921.
Joseph Terella Certificate of Death, Borough of Brooklyn, no. 12426, Department of Health of the City of New York Bureau of Records, May 17, 1920.
Letter to Chas. F. Rattigan, Superintendent of Prisons, dated Dec. 12, 1921, Giuseppi Florino, 72528, Sing Sing Prison Receiving Blotter, received May 25, 1921.
Van't Riet, Lennert, David Critchley and Steve Turner, “‘Lord High Executioner’ of the American Mafia,” Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement, June 2015.
“3 sentenced to chair by Brooklyn judge,” New York Tribune, May 26, 1921, p. 5.
“Arrested for murder committed last May,” New York Daily News, March 7, 1921, p. 3.
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“Win freedom after being in death house,” Brooklyn Standard Union, April 10, 1922, p. 2.