MURDER ON DOORSTEP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

MURDER ON DOORSTEP

CRIME WITNESSED BY WIFE Two recent murders in the electoral district of Chicago—a district known as the " bloody twentieth " —have shattered the America# city's boast that New York had succeeded it as the centre of gangster crimes. The victims of the outrages were Albert J. Prignano,,, aged 25, a member of the. Illinois State Legislature, and one-time friend of A 1 Capone, and Leo Panzorella, who was found shot dead in a lorry. Prignano .was shot down at his own doorstep before the eyes of his wife and eight-year-old son. As the family was entering the house three gangsters held up Prignano, robbed him and then, as he turned to go indoors, fired six shots into his back. His chauffeur, who defended Mrs. Prignano and the boy, wounded one of the assassins. The police regard the hold-up as a blind, and believe that political motives engendered by a gang feud are behind the murder.

A few days later Mr. Samuel Strauss, the 74-year-old millionaire philanthropist, was taken to hospital suffering from a fractured skull and other injuries, received when he was attacked in his apartment. Two men, named by Strauss as his assailants, were arrested and charged. Strauss alleged thai. as he entered his apartment they struck him down with a club and stole his watch and £3OO from his pockets.