FIVE MURDERS ADMITTED

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 November 1933, Page 8

FIVE MURDERS ADMITTED

CRIMES ALLEGED AGAINST GANG.

NEW YORK, September 22. Following the arrest her© late last night of five men and two women and the seizure of a store of firearms, the police claim that they, have solved the mysteries of five murders, four bank robberies in which £50,000 was stolen, and the kidnapping of Mr John O’Connell.

Aftex - an all-night third-degree “grilling” some of the prisoners are stated to have confessed complicity in the five murders. In comment which is made here it is remarked, however, that prisoners aftei) several hours of the third degree, are often ready to confess anything. It is suggested that one of the men, realising that he is certain to be executed for murder, may have offered little resistance to hints that he should admit committing other crimes. Two of the prisoners, Leonard Scarnici and Anthony Reino, are charged with homicide. Philip Zeigler, Charles Herzog, alias Shore, and Fred Plentl, are accused of robbery. Eleanore Scarnici, wife of the first prisoner, and Emma Russon, described as Reino’s wife, are detained on the charge of abetting. Scarnici made no attempt in his confession to implicate any of the others except Reino, who, he said, was his chief assistant. All of them refuse to admit that (hey had any hand in the kidnapping of Mr O’Connell. Scarnici, when questioned, cried, “You have got me for five murders. What more do you want?”

Mr O’Connell was brought to New York this morning to confront the men. Although he declared that handcuffs which were found in the flat occupied by one of the men were those with which he had been fettered, he did not identify any of them defintely as his captors. Goggles, adhesive tape and gauze were among the objects found at Scarnici’s flat in a New York suburb. Tn a house where the two women were staying the police 'discovered in a trunk and a violin case a machine-gun, three shotguns and four revolvers, all loaded, two butchers’ knives with long blades, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

The murders said to have been admitted by Scarnici are those of two of his former associates, whose bodies were found in a ditch three months ago, of two filling-station operators, and of a policeman when the gang raided the Rensselaer National Bank in Juhe.