GRASSO, Frank - Putnam

In front of the very cabin in which Mrs. Alice Seward was murdered several years ago two Italians were shot to death Sunday night. A negro named Roy McCorkle is alleged to have done the killing. One of the Italians was carried into the cabin where he died a few hours later. The second victim was not found until Monday morning. His body was found just over the hill beyond Uie cabin. He was dead when found. McCorkle was arrested. Joe Mastroianni and Frank Grasso were the victims of the shooting. Both were shot with a Colts automatic revolver. Joe was shot twice. One bullet entered his back on the right side and lodged under the skin under his left arm. The other bullet went through his right leg and into his left. Just what the trouble was over or why the shooting took place the officers have been unable to learn. The story as told by those who were at the Sims & Co. Happy Hollow Railroad camp at the time the trouble occurred is to the effect that several negroes and the Italians, men and women, met at a commissary in the afternoon and drank much liquor. At that time, John Biker, a negro, loaned his revolver to Italian Joe. Later in the evening Joe and Andrew, both Italians, accompanied by an Italian by the name of Nunrio Palmerino, known as ‘Grill,” went to the Seward cabin, where the former two live with their wives. Both men married white women. Joe being the husband of the mother of Andrew's wife. Grill was invited to go to the cabin and eat supper with them. He works at the Jones Bros, camp and had gone over to visit friends at the Sims & Co. camp. Soon after supper at the cabin trouble began between Andrew and bis wife. Andrew, angered because she refused to let him leave the cabin, attacked and beat and choaked her. Her cries of murder and for help aroused the negroes who were in their cabin just a short distance away and other Italians who were near. Only four negroes were at the negro shack. All of them, Roy McCorkle, Jim Baker and John Baker and his wife, went to the Italian’s cabin and Ihe negress demanded her husband's revolver from Joe. Andrew and bis wife were still quarreling at this time. Joe had given the revolver to Grill.  Grill returned it to its owner, but not before the general fight and scuffle had started. Nobody seems to know how or who started the general melee. All the people were in yard in the front of the cabin at this time. Suddenly four shots were fined .and Joe fell to the ground. Grill who was standing by his side at the time picked the man up and carried him into the shack and then ran to telephone for a doctor. The negroes and others ran from the scene. This occurred at near 7:30 o’clock in the evening. Dr. McGaughey was summoned and attended the dying man, who lived for more than an bour after the physician arrived. To the doctor he made a dying statement to the effect that Roy killed him. He repeated this several times during the time he lived. Soon after the arrival of the doctor, Sheriff Maze, Deputy Does, Officer Grimes and Constable Wade arrived. They immediately went to the negro shack and arrested the three negro men. John Baker had a 32 calibre revolver in his possession, but it was not the one which had been used in shooting the men. McCorkie, however, had an automatic 32 calibre revolver. This weapon shoots steel coated bullets—the kind which killed the two men. When arrested McCorkle did not have the revolver, but he told the officers where they could find it. It was lying on the stove outside of the shack. Each denied doing the shooting, but all were brought to jail. Nothing definite could be learned about the shooting at the camp last night. The women and men who had witnessed the affair seemed to be unable to tell who had fired the shots or why they had been fired. Some said that Roy had fired them while others said that Grill was the guilty man. It was not until morning that the body of the second victim of the shooting was found. It was found a few yards behind the cabin. The man had been shot in the back and the bullet had gone through his body. He evidently had started for his shack when he fell and died. Coroner O'Brien reached the camp shortly after the second body was found. None of those who witnessed the trouble can remember seeing Grasso at the time of the trouble and It Is possible that he was struck by a stray bullet.

TELLS OF THE SHOOTING -- While the officers and coroner were working with little success, to get the details of the double killing at the Happy Hollow camp Sunday a representative of this paper was working on another clew which developed the only straight description of the affair. Nunrino Palmerino, better known as “Grill,” who was standing beside Joe Mastrolnni, one of the victims of shooting affray, at the time he was shot down and who witnessed the shooting, told of the trouble in which his friend lost his life. ‘‘It was Roy that shot Joe” said Grill, whose ability to speak English is better than most of the railroad laborers. “I was standing beside Joe at the time of the shooting. McCorkle was standing about 15 feet away. Without the least warning he took a revolver out of his hip pocket and fired four shots. Joe fell to the ground and I picked him up and carried him into the shack. As soon as the shots were fired Roy ran away but returned a little while later and asked about the condition of Joe.  McCorkle was standing directly in front of me when he shot and I saw his every action.” Grill’s story of the trouble was the first straight story told of that affair. He described the trouble about the revolver and told the name of every person present at the time of the trouble. After securing the story for the Herald, its representative took the Italian to the office of the Prosecuting Attorney where he repeated it to the Prosecutor and other officers who were present. Grill will be the most important witness against the negro. Grill says that be did not see Grasso at the Seward cabin at the time of the shooting. Grasso is the other victim of the trouble.

After a thorough investigation of the double killing at the railroad camp last Sunday evening, Coroner O'Brien Wednesday returned a verdict that both men had been killed by bullets fired by Roy McCorkle, the negro now In jail, and he recommends that the men be dealt with accordingly. The verdict is that the negro had shot to kill. The verdict was made after a thorough Investigation of the affair in which the testimony of all those who knew anything of the case was taken. Pasquale Ruffolo, an Italian interpreter, who arrived here this morning aided Mr. O’Brien is securing the story of the killing from the Italians. He says that all told straight-forward stories and that all stories of the killing virtually were the same. In the coroner’s mind there is no doubt but that the two Italians were murdered by the negro.

Source: Greencastle Herald 15 May 1907 p 1

After a thorough investigation of the double killing at the railroad camp Last Sunday evening, Coroner O’Brien this afternoon returned a verdict that both men had been killed by bullets fired by Roy McCorkle, the negro now in jail, and he recommends that the men be dealt with accordingly. The verdict is that the negro had shot to kill. The verdict was made after a thorough investigation of the affair in which the testimony of all those who knew anything of the case was taken. Pasquale Nuffolo, an Italian interpreter, who arrived here this morning aided Mr. O'Brien is securing the story of the killing from the Italians. He says that all told straight-forward stories and that all stories of the killing virtually were the same. In the coroner’s mind there is no doubt but that the two Italians were murdered by the negro.

Source: Greencastle Herald 15 May 1907 p 1

The body of Frank Grasso, the Italian who was killed in the Sunday evening shooting affray near Lena and whose body was not found until the next morning was buried late Tuesday afternoon in Forest Hill Cemetery. Father McLaughlin conducted the services.

Source: Greencastle Herald 15 May 1907 p 1

Court Instructs Grand Jury to Probe into the matter of the Selling of Whiskey And Beer at the Railroad Camps on Sunday's and Other Days. Attorney John James, who, as county attorney, will defend the negroes now held in jail in connection with the double killing at the Happy Hollow camp Sunday evening, had the sheriff bring the prisoners to the court room this morning when the judge instructed the grand jury. The purpose of taking the negroes to the court mom at that 'time was so that their attorney might, in their presence, question the members of the grand Jury and ascertain whether or not they were qualified to act in the investigation. The grand jury was accepted by the attorney for the prisoners. The latter cannot he forced to testify before the grand jury and attorney James Instructed them not to do so. Judge Rawley instructed the grand jury to thoroughly investigate the killing and also to investigate the alleged unlawful selling of liquor at the railroad camps. Attorney James Instructed the negroes to testify before the grand jury in the investigation of the latter if called upon to do 80. On good authority the Herald learns that the liquor which is sold at the camps on Sundays is not sold at the commissaries as rumored but is sold to tile Italians and others employed on the works by bootleggers. This applies to the whiskey more than to the beer. The Italians themselves buy the beer by the keg and keep it in buildings near the commissaries and in their shacks. Several of them band together and liny the beer and on Sundays spend much of the day in drinking. They do not sell it however, since the “blind tiger" law was passed by the late legislature - kbz