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Who Killed Carlo Tresca



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Assured that he would not, Tresca decided to go. Arriving at the dinner, he was nettled when he saw that Pope was there, sitting on the dais. But friends persuaded him to stay. A few minutes later Frank Garofalo, known as a friend of Pope, came in, escorting Miss Dolores Faconti, an Assistant United States District Attorney. Immediately, Tresca got up fuming. "This is too much," he protested. "Not only a Fascist, but also his gangster. This is no place for me," and he stalked out of the banquet room.

He had agreed to meet several associates afterward in a Bedford Street restaurant. Going there, he told them he had just "insulted" Pope and Garofalo. Next day a prominent city official who had been at the banquet telephoned Tresca and asked him to keep silent about what had happened the night before. He agreed to. Half an hour later Miss Faconti telephoned and asked if she might come to his office to talk with him. Then she too begged the editor of Il Martello not to publicize the incident, and he promised he would not.

Details of this affair and of earlier conflict over Fascism in New York were made known to the District Attorney's office by Taddei, as well as by others. Not satisfied with the response he got there, Taddei delivered a speech in the Rand School of Social Science on February 14, 1943, covering the main points that he published later in his pamphlet.

Citizens Urge Pagnucco's Removal From Case

Pagnucco's past association with Fascist sympathizers came to the attention of District Attorney Hogan on August 8, 1944. Photostatic evidence of that association was dispatched to him by a committee comprising Morris L. Ernst, attorney; former Municipal Court Justice Dorothy Kenyon; Roger N. Baldwin, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Eduard C. Lindeman, member of the faculty of the New York School of Social Work.

This committee urged that Pagnucco be removed from the Tresca investigation on the ground that though he might be honest and conscientious, he clearly was not in a position to examine effectively persons from whom he had received favors or honors. The committee contended further that the investigation had not been really exhaustive because persons whose names were known to the District Attorney's office as early as March, 1943, who were close to Tresca and had intimate knowledge of his political conflicts, had not been called and questioned.*

Prosecutor Hogan acknowledged the committee's letter immediately, stating that he had worked closely with Pagnucco for several years and had full confidence in him. However, he would take the matter up with Assistant District Attorney Jacob Grumet, head of the Homicide Bureau. Not until October 3 was a conference arranged between the committee and Messrs Hogan and Grumet to discuss the charges. Again Mr. Hogan declared that he had complete confidence in Pagnucco, and that he would neither displace him nor ask him to withdraw from the investigation. The


*As this pamphlet goes to press, one of these individuals still has not been questioned by Mr. Hogan's office. (This name appeared in the original edition.)

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