SHOT WHILE PRAYING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15646, 27 June 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHOT WHILE PRAYING.

'.AMERICAN ASSASSIN KILLED. PANIC AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN. Ok. his knees, praying in a group of ■ startled schoolchildren, Joseph Laberiola, a New York "gunman," met the death recently for which he had been marked for. ■two years, and on the same spot where two other murders, of which he was ac- • cased by tka police, were committed. The one time that Laberiola had appeared in the streets without a heavily armed bodyguard was at three o'clock oh the afternoon of his death, when ho turned the corner of Third Avenue just as a public school was dismissing its two thousand pupils. That was the moment fop which Laberiola' b enemies hod been waiting tirelessly. Just as bo reached the spot where " Tom" Gallo was murdered on March 10, 1912, eight men surrounded Laberiola. While several of the assassins brushed the schoolchildren aside, telling them to keep away or they might get hurt, one man stopped Laberiola and said:

"Your time has come! You're to die for the killing of 'Tom' Gallo and of 'Sam' Giumpata. Make your peace with your God!"

Laberiola know what that summons meant. He dropped to his knees on tho stone sidewalk, ■ never uttering one word of protest or a plea for mercy, and clasped his hands together in front of him as he started to chant ft litany. * Tho man who had been selected to do tho actual killing pushod his way through the group, and as Laberiola prayed ho sent three bullets into his body.

> Laboriola toppled over on the sidewalk dead, his hands still clasped in a suppliant manner. Instead of frightening away the children the group of assassins had aroused their curiosity, and as the murderer fired tho shots half a dozen small boys were edging their way through the circular group. But when they heard tl» revolver reports and saw the praying man collapse in death thoy ran screaming.

Panic look possession of tho crowded block immediately. Hundreds of children ran screaming in many directions. While women cried oat from windows the assassins disappeared into various buildings, and when tho first policeman arrived the slain man was alone. Not a man was in sight to be arrested.

Laberiola, better known as " Lnbby the Lout," had been in trouble with the police many times. Ho did, not' work for a living. Tho police said that he was tho partner of a certain saloon-keeper who long has been marked for death in the collection of blackmail.

When Tom GaJlo was shot and killed by a bidden assassin whore Laberiola was killed, "Labby the Lout" was among among those arrested. Although Gallo's friends insisted that Laberiola had fired tho shot that killed Gallo the police were unable to obtain sufficient evidence to get an indictment, and Laberiola was released. From that day Laberiola was a marked man. He knew ho was to be killed, and he employed one, and sometimes two men to be with him all the time.

Sam Guimpata, who was said to have been one of Hallo's friends, and to hare threatened Laberiola, was shot and killed on September 18 last year at the same spot where "Labby the Lout" was so tragically killed. The police said that Laberiola was in the crowd that collected about Guimpata's body, and the Gallo men said that "Labby the Lout" had killed another man.

Laberiola had been arrested many times, and the police had endeavoured to drive him out of town. He had been sent to Elmira and had been in gaol often, but he always reappeared.