100 years ago in The Record

Sunday, Aug. 26, 1917

Investigators have few leads in their hunt for the man who shot Bruno Montello last night, mainly because Montello won’t identify his assailant. Montello is resting comfortably at Troy Hospital, where doctors are treating a gunshot wound to his abdomen. While this morning’s Sunday Budget reports him “hovering between life and death, tomorrow’s Record will report a physician’s opinion that Montello “is not in danger.” The shooting took place on William Street, the alley described by the Budget as “Tragedy alley.” The Record reports that Montello was playing cards in the same house where a murder-suicide took place some years ago. The site of several boardinghouses catering to Italian immigrants, William Street “has been the scene of more shooting and stabbing affrays than any other locality in the city,” the Budget claims, “and it has been particularly given to feuds among foreigners who resort to the gun or the knife to settle differences.” Patrolman Edward Flynn found Montello in the alley after hearing three shots. Mistaking him for the gunman, Flynn ordered Montello to drop his weapon. According to the Budget, Montello answered, “Me have no gun. Me shot.” The victim emigrated to the U.S. from Italy in 1914, and has worked at a Sycaway farm for the past year. As far as “the woman in charge of the house” knew, Montello “had no enemies.” Montello tells Second Precinct Captain James Shaughnessy today that he doesn’t know who shot him. That contradicts what he told investigators last night. Pressed to clarify his story, the victim says, “Well, all right; I’ll get him when I get out.” “He is turning a deaf ear to all questions of the police,” The Record elaborates, “evidencing, in reality, a belief that they are of no use to him or that he is not desirous of their help in bringing the man to justice. “There is also a belief that Montello may have reasons which would inure to his benefit not to name the man.” Witnesses tell investigators that Montello stepped away from the card game shortly before the shooting. A resident of the alley claims that he saw Montello step outside, where he got into an argument with “a man who wore dark clothing and a straw hat. “This man was urging Montello to go with him, and the quarrel was followed by the firing of three shots, the assailant running south in the alley after the shooting.” While an uncooperative Montello recuperates, investigators “made a visitation of Italian boarding places in William street, but were unable to get any trace of the assailant.”