Macabre murder

Press, 20 July 1977, Page 9

Macabre murder

jigsaw in N.Y.

NZPA-Reuter New York

The police and doctors in New York face a macabre jigsaw puzzle — piecing together parts of dismembered bodies found floating in the East River in the last three months.

The remains found floating unwrapped in boxes and in sacks, may come from seven’or eight corpses and, according to the police, are probably the result of underworld gang killings. The police recently identified a torso from which the head, arms and legs had been sawn off as the remains of Charles “Ruby” Stein, reputed to be the leading loan shark of the New York underworld. The chief medical examiner, Mr Dominick Dimaio, said one of the corpses not yet identified had been cut up with the same saw used on Stein. Other remains fished from the river and at present lying in the city morgue are believed to be those of another loan shark, Eli “Joe and Baker” Zeccardi, acting head of the Genovese Mafia family. Zeccardi disappeared after leaving his home in an affluent suburb of New Jersey, and officials believe his family received demands for a ransom of between $lOO,OOO and $200,000. Some sources have said the money was not paid and that the family notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his disappearance.