100 years ago in The Record

Friday, March 2, 1917

Albany County investigators identify the body found two weeks ago inside a burning barrel in a Watervliet brickyard as Frank Fiore of Albany, The Record reports.

According to a death certificate, Fiore died of a broken neck, or more specifically a fracture of the hyoid bone in his throat. Investigators now believe that the injury resulted from an attempted strangulation during a fight with an unnamed assailant over a woman.

The crucial clue to the identity of the man in the barrel was a laundry mark on his shirt. “B-42-X” was traced to Killip’s Laundry in Albany. Laundry marks can be traced to individual customers, and this mark meant that the dead man was one of two Killip’s Laundry clients. A search for the two men turned up a living customer, but no one seemed to know the name of the other man, who had to be the barrel victim.

The next big break came when a boy brought clothes to Killip’s bearing the “B42-X” mark. The laundry promptly notified the police, who tailed the boy after he reclaimed the laundry. The boy returned to a boarding house on Dongan Avenue. The proprietor told detectives that the laundry belonged to Fiore, who had last been seen on February 15. He remembered Fiore wearing clothes similar to those found on the body in the barrel. A photograph of Fiore resembled the badly burned victim.

What happened to Frank Fiore between the time he left his room and the time he ended up in the barrel? Details remain sketchy because the investigation is still in progress, but investigators believe that Fiore was dating a woman who was coveted by another man.

“It is know that Fiore attended upon a girl residing in the southern section of Albany,” our reporter elaborates, “It is said that another foreigner was enamored of this girl, and that a day or two before [Fiore’s] body was found he traced the girl and Fiore to a place in either West Albany or Colonie.

“It is further stated that this man found Fiore and the girl together and that a fight resulted. In that struggle Fiore’s hyoid bone and neck was broken, as was one of his ribs.

“How the body was packed or how it reached Retallick’s brick yard is a matter of conjecture. It is figured, however, that the body was kept in the place where the murder occurred until the next night.”

The 34 year old Fiore worked for the New York Central railroad. He is described as very quiet and unobtrusive” and “a peaceable sort.”