Bodies discovered at bottom of river

Press, 5 October 1984, Page 6

Bodies discovered at bottom of river

NZPA-Reuter New York The New York police were hauling cars from the East River yesterday, thinking they may have stumbled on to a mass murderer’s burial ground. Since Friday the police have dredged up two cars, each with a body neatly wrapped in blankets in the boot. Scuba divers have spotted 10 more cars in the same stretch of the river near Hell’s Gate, not far from some of Manhattan’s plushest apartment houses. One of those 10 cars was hauled ashore yesterday and the police found it empty. Detectives believe that the river could be the dumping-ground for a suspected organised crime “hit-

man,” Edward Esposito, a nephew of an assassinated New York gang leader, Joe Colombo.

Esposito was found hanged in a wooded area of New Jersey last week after he allegedly killed a New York state police investigator, Richard Snyder, and dumped his body in the river in the policeman’s own car.

Esposito, whose own death is listed by the police as an apparent suicide, was said by them to have killed Mr Snyder after discovering his estranged wife with him. A New York City policeman had spotted Esposito driving to the river in Mr Snyder’s car and later saw him walking away from the

When the police started dredging the area for Mr Snyder’s car, they instead found another car containing the skeletal remains of an alleged Philadelphia mobster, Robert Fratello, who was believed to have been killed by Esposito in 1979.

On Wednesday they discovered Mr Snyder’s car with him in it and scuba divers sighted the other cars underwater. “We don’t know if we have a dumping-ground but the potential is there. We are going to remove all cars to be sure there are no surprises,” a spokesman for the New York Police harbour squad said.