Monday, Oct. 2, 1917
“Racial” animosity between Italians and Austrians is on display today at the trial of Stephen Zazzuk for the August 11 stabbing of coworker Frank Vambacco, The Record reports. The antagonists worked in the kitchen of Martin D. Ormsby’s restaurant on State Street, where their fight broke out. Vambacco lost an eye in the attack tells the court today that he “still suffers from his other wounds.” Vambacco brings the lost eye to court today in a piece of cloth. He unwraps the cloth and displays the eye for the jury’s edification. He testifies that Zazzuk was drunk when he arrived at work that night and “proceeded to make trouble.” Vambacco “started to put him out” when Zazzuk became “abusive,” but the defendant grabbed a carving knife from a table and started slashing at him. During cross- examination, defense attorney J. B. Mulholland tries to show that “the trouble between the two men was of racial origin and related to the world war.” Italy is an informal ally of the U. S. in the world war against Germany and Austria. Zazzuk is described as an “Austrian,” but given the multiethnic nature of the Austro- Hungarian Empire, it’s unclear what his actual ethnicity is. Vambacco denies that the August 11 fight was provoked by “war talk,” but he admits to punching Zazzuk in the jaw on an earlier occasion, after the latter had said that “The Austrians would lick the wops.”
Mulholland apparently wants jurors to infer a selfdefense motive for Zazzuk’s action from Vambacco’s present feelings toward him. He asks the witness, “Have you said that you would kill Zazzuk if he were not convicted?”
In a manner our reporter describes as “excited,” Vambacco answers, “No, but I said if I get a chance I’ll take his two eyes out. He took one of mine, and I’ll take two of his if I get a chance. I don’t care to have him convicted. I want to meet him.”
“You want to kill him, do you?” Mulholland presses.
“No, not kill him, but I want to take his eyes away. He made me blind and I want to make him so…. If I get a chance I’ll take his eyes out, sure.”
Martin Ormsby testifies that Vambacco is “a quiet and peaceable man.” He tells the court that when he talked to Zazzuk in jail, “the accused replied that his only regret was that he did not kill.”
Asked by Mulholland if Vambacco has threatened to kill Zazzuk since the incident, Ormsby states, “He did not say that, but he said he would get even.”