On November 25, 1939, Pagnucco was a guest of honor at a ball held by Famee Furlane, a "fraternal club" at 243 East 34th Street which conducted one of twenty-three "Italian language" schools supervised by the Fascist Royal Consul General, Commendatore Gaetano Vecchiotti. That official, who later left this country under a financial cloud, was high patron of the affair. Guist of Honor No. 1, listed in an elaborate souvenir journal, was Generoso Pope, Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy. Guest of Honor No. 2 was "Hon. Louis Pagnucco." The souvenir journal included a full page portrait of him, with a caption describing him as "our popular counselor," and three pages of history of the club, by Pagnucco, in which he referred to one member as a "heroic participant" in the Ethiopian War, that war of Fascist aggression against a weaker nation. Among other guests of honor were Count Facchetti-Guiglia and Captain Vincenzo Rossini, both widelyknown among Italians as Fascist propagandists.

Pagnucco also was one of those listed by Il Progresso as being on the platform at a Columbus Day celebration in Columbus Circle in 1941, with Attorney Samuel DiFalco and others. Generoso Pope was chairman. And at a similat 1943 celebration, where Pope again presided, Pagnucco and DiFalco were listed by Il Progresso among the guests of honor. DiFalco, it will be recalled, appeared at the District Attorney's office as attorney for the employers of Carmine Galante, early suspect in the Tresca case, when they were summoned for questioning.

Careers of Pope and Tresca Diverge Widely

Generoso Pope is known as a leader with far reaching influence in the Italian community in New York.

He and Carlo Tresca came to this country as young men in the same year, 1904. Their careers, however, diverged widely. Pope made a fortune as a sand-and-gravel contractor and as publisher of two New York Italian-language dailies, Corriere d'America, discontinued in 1942, and Il Progresso Italo-Americano, owned by Pope since 1927. Il Progresso is the leading Italian daily in the United States. Pope also owns a daily in Philadelphia.

For years Pope's papers openly supported the Mussolini regime and celebrated its workings in their columns day after day. In 1936, on the anniversary of the so-called march on Rome, Pope sent a fervent greeting to Il Grido Della Stirpe, New York periodical, which in bold type proclaimed itself "Organ of Fascist Propaganda." Pope's greeting, on page I, said:

"The active and fruitful work performed by Il Grido della Stirpe, and by its editor, Domenico Trombetta, among the American communities, deserves commendation and gratitude... Today, October 28, Italian holiday, I commend this paper which extols the glories of the Fascist revolution." (Emphasis is ours.)

In 1937 Pope was photographed while on a visit to Rome's Victory Monument, as he gave the Fascist salute, with two of Il Duce's associates- Count Ignazio Thaon de Revel, former head of the Fascist League of