New-York Tribune, 21 April 1903, page 1: barrel victim identified as a Buffalo man

Front page of the New-York Tribune, Tuesday, 21 April 1903. The story says the body found in a barrel “in Eleventh-st. near the East River, a week ago” was identified the day before as that of “Maduena Benedetto, forty-eight years old,” of Buffalo. (The Sun of the same day, and later records, give the name as Benedetto Madonia.) It reports that the photograph of the dead man was shown on Sunday by Detective Petrosino to Joseph Deprimo, a convict in Sing Sing serving four years for counterfeiting, who recognised his brother-in-law.

The paper quotes Deprimo as telling the warden that he had sent for the dead man to collect his share of money owed to him, and that “There was no Mafia in the thing.” It reports the police belief that the man was killed by a gang of counterfeiters while trying to obtain that money. It also reports that the assistant district attorney consented to the release of Ignazio Lupo, described as a wine merchant, from the murder inquiry, and that Lupo was at once rearrested by United States marshals on a counterfeiting charge.

The motive given is the police theory as the paper reported it. The page prints the dead man’s Buffalo street address, which is not reproduced here. No scan of this page is stored: the Library of Congress image service was unavailable when the page was filed.