Bronx gang arrested, linked to Yonkers holdup

Part IV

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The “bunch of good crooks,” believed to be eight shotgun-wielding bandits in all, escaped from the December 12, 1928, Yonkers bank truck robbery with $104,500 - an average of $13,062.50 per man. Their getaway car turned up just north of the Bronx, where, it was assumed, another getaway car had been placed. Some of those details became interesting when New York City police made a raid at a Bronx speakeasy the next day.1

Receiving a tip that the remnants of the Joseph Noe gang were arming and preparing a fresh strike at their enemies, detectives early Thursday morning, December 13, raided the former Noe headquarters at 543 Brook Avenue in the Bronx. The five-story building, which sat close to the intersection with busy East 149th Street, contained a number of residential apartments, an illegal tavern, a storage area and an upstairs two-room apartment used by the gang.2

The detectives saw gang members John Jacapraro, Michael Basile and Joseph Piteo standing at the bar inside the speakeasy and arrested them. Police went upstairs to the gang apartment, where they took James Rose into custody. They discovered a large safe in the apartment and had Rose open it. Inside it were handguns.

A vast quantity of ammunition - including an estimated 1,500 revolver rounds, hundreds of shotgun cartridges and a fully loaded magazine for a Thompson submachine gun - was found within the apartment’s rooms. According to some accounts, the police also found bulletproof vests. They did not find shotguns to go with the cartridges or a Tommy gun to match the magazine.3

If the gangsters had made use of shotguns and a submachine gun in recent criminal activity, they may have chosen to dispose of the weapons connecting them to the crimes but may not have felt any need to eliminate the ammunition. It is worth noting that shotguns were used in the Yonkers robbery, and a Tommy gun without its magazine reportedly was discovered following the gunfight that took the lives of Joseph Noe and Louis Weinberg.4

During the raid, an automobile with three men in it, pulled up in front of the speakeasy and then quickly drove away west on 149th Street. Police gave chase and forced the car to the curb several blocks away at Courtlandt Avenue. The occupants, James Russo, Dominic Dorelli and Charles Wersberg, were taken into custody. Back at the speakeasy site, police found and arrested Vincent Coll. Coll reportedly had been approaching the gang headquarters when the raid occurred and ducked into a nearby doorway to hide. When he saw the car with gang members show up, he emerged to warn them away, leading to his capture.5

To justify the arrests, police said the eight prisoners were suspects in a payroll holdup that occurred on October 22. On that date, Sidney Korn, twenty years old, walked to the Manufacturer’s Trust Company bank on Third Avenue in the Bronx, intending to make a $900 deposit for the Wilson & Company meat packing business. He was about ten feet from his destination, when three gunmen approached and ordered him to walk away toward their car. When he reached the car, the gunmen told him to get inside, and Korn resisted. There was a scuffle, and a single shot was fired. The three would-be robbers left Korn and the money, jumped into the car and sped off. Wounded in the right groin, Korn was rushed to Lincoln Hospital for treatment. (It is uncertain whether Korn, a resident of 774 East 171st Street in the West Bronx, was acquainted with the gunmen. They certainly seemed to know he was carrying a fair amount of cash and not merely going to the bank to make a withdrawal or apply for a loan.) Police must have known they had little chance of fitting a crime committed by three men to their more numerous prisoners, but they “technically held” the eight men on assault and robbery charges related to the Korn incident.6

The prisoners were identified as:

• Vincent Coll, twenty, a truckman, of 1759 Montgomery Avenue in the Bronx. Four years earlier, Coll was put on probation for auto theft and then was sentenced to the House of Refuge for illegal weapons possession. He was out on parole at the time of his arrest at the speakeasy and could be sent to prison as a parole violator if any found involved in any wrongdoing.

• Mike Basile, sometimes “Vasile,” listed as twenty-one but possibly just twenty, a butcher, of 306 East 150th Street in the Bronx. Basile was arrested for grand larceny in 1926 but not prosecuted.

• John Jacapraro, twenty-two, chauffeur, for whom two Bronx addresses - 291 East 150th Street and 948 Grant Avenue - were listed. His police record showed that he was acquitted of a felonious assault charge connected with a 1924 shooting. (See Part II.)

• Joseph Piteo, twenty-six, of 1331 Intervale Avenue in the Bronx. His record showed several convictions for grand larceny, the last earning him a six-year sentence at Sing Sing. Piteo was free on bail at that time for the attempted killing of Eddie Diamond in Denver. When questioned by police, Piteo admitted jumping bail. (See Part III.)

• James Rose, twenty-three, of 452 East 143rd Street in the Bronx. Rose was said to be the proprietor of the speakeasy that served as gang headquarters. His police record included arrests for intoxication.

• Charles Wersberg or Weisberg, thirty, of 1618 Selwyn Avenue in the Bronx. He had served a prison sentence in Sing Sing for a bank holdup in Corona, Queens. At the time of his arrest, he was out of prison on parole.

• Dominic Dorelli or Borelli, thirty-one, real estate broker, of 2131 First Avenue in East Harlem. He already had served three prison sentences - one for felonious assault and two for robbery.

• Thomas Russo, also known as James Batto, thirty, owner of peanut vending machines, of East 123rd Street in the Bronx.7

In their earliest reporting, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the Brooklyn Daily Times also stated that the group included Richard Sullivan, thirty-two, bartender, of 729 Jackson Avenue in the Bronx. The Daily Times omitted Vincent Coll from its list, so still had a total of eight prisoners. The Daily Eagle, however, included Coll, for a total of nine prisoners, while stating “eight men seized” in its Page 2 headline. The bartender was not mentioned in later accounts.8

Authorities in Yonkers took an immediate interest in the report of the arrests of the eight Bronx gangsters with obviously missing shotguns. On the same day, Police Chief Edward Quirk told the press that he had been informed of the matter by NYPD Inspector John Duane.9

Inspector John Duane reportedly was the brother of the NYPD Captain Henry Duane. The police captain was commander of West Side Manhattan detectives in November 1928, when Arnold Rothstein was murdered. He was later reprimanded for dereliction of duty because he took a nine-day vacation that started the day after the Rothstein murder. Both Duanes retired from the police force in the summer of 1931.10

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On Saturday, December 15, the eight suspects were arraigned in Morrisania (Bronx) Court as robbery suspects and for violation of the Sullivan Law (New York State law restricting possession of firearms). They pleaded not guilty. Magistrate Bernard Douras ordered them held without bail for examination on Monday.11

The press began reporting that witnesses to the Yonkers robbery had viewed a lineup of the suspects. According to the reports, the witnesses, including wounded Yonkers Patrol Officer Patrick O’Keefe, identified one or two of the Coll gangsters as possibly being part of that holdup. Dominick Dorelli was mentioned specifically by newspapers, but police would not confirm the rumors.12

The number of suspects identified as the possible Yonkers bandits increased to as many as four of the eight at the start of the following week. The Yonkers Herald stated that Dominick Dorelli, Vincent Coll, Charles Wersberg and Thomas Russo were identified by holdup witnesses.13

The Sullivan Law charge focused on Jacapraro, Piteo and Rose, when the group was next brought into Morrisania Court. Magistrate George F. Ewald set bail at $50,000 each for Jacapraro and Rose. Piteo continued to be held without bail.

Magistrate George F. Ewald may be best remembered today for having bought his way into office with a $10,000 “loan” to Tammany Hall in 1927. Appointed to the $12,000-a-year magistrate position by New York City Mayor “Jimmy” Walker, Ewald became a target of New York State’s anti-corruption “Seabury investigations.” He resigned his judgeship in mid-July of 1930.14

On Wednesday, December 19, Magistrate Ewald agreed to discharge the eight prisoners into the custody of Yonkers police, and the Coll gangsters were brought to Yonkers for questioning related to the bank truck holdup.15

The next day, in Yonkers City Court, defense attorney Edward V. Broderick argued that his clients faced a “flimsy charge.” Broderick’s reasoning may have been a bit degrading to those clients: “That [Yonkers bank truck holdup] was a high-class job, done by experts, and these men are not of that type.” Broderick noted that the identifications were weak. “My clients say none of them were identified, and the police claim that they have only identified four at the most.”

“That was a high-class job, done by experts, and these men are not of that type.”

Judge Charles Boote admitted his own concerns over the identifications: “There is serious doubt as to whether they are the ones.” But the judge decided to hold the group without bail to allow further investigation.16

The eight suspects were held through the Christmas holiday. On Wednesday morning, December 26, 1928, Judge Boote asked for an update from Police Chief Edward Quirk. The chief stated that four of the suspects had been inconclusively identified by witnesses as participants in the holdup. Those identifications were “too weak to base a complaint against them.” Quirk speculated that witness recollections may have been affected by fear of the suspects. Boote discharged the eight men for lack of evidence.

Only three were allowed to go free: Michael Basile, Dominick Dorelli and Thomas Russo. The rest were turned over to New York City detectives for transport to Bronx County Jail. John Jacapraro, Joseph Piteo and James Rose were set to be arraigned for violating the Sullivan Law. Vincent Coll and Charles Wersberg were to be returned to prison for parole violations. (It appears that parole violators were returned to the institutions from which they had been paroled. In Coll’s case, that was the Elmira Reformatory, which he entered when sixteen. A twenty-year-old gangster was a tough fit for a reformatory, so Coll’s return visit there is believed to have been a brief one.)17

At an arraignment in Morrisania Court on December 28, City Magistrate August W. Glatzmayer set bail for James Rose ($5,000) and John Jacapraro ($2,500). Both men were bailed out. Piteo, who faced a possible life sentence under the Baumes Law (New York State law requiring life imprisonment for habitual offenders) as a fourth-time offender, was held without bail.18

The charge against Rose was dismissed by Magistrate Ewald on January 5, 1929. The case against Piteo was referred to the grand jury. Jacapraro remained free, as his weapons charge was put on the docket of the Court of Special Sessions. It is not certain if he was ever tried on the charge.19

• Part I. Casualty of ‘Bronx beer war’ is hardly remembered today

• Part II. Bronx-born Jacapraro fell in with Noe-Schultz gang

• Part III. Impact of ‘Bronx beer war’ was widely felt

• Part IV. Bronx gang arrested, linked to Yonkers holdup (now open)

• Part V. Jacapraro is slain as ‘Bronx beer war’ escalates