Tampa Morning Tribune
Thursday, October 24, 1940
Get Description of Owner of Death Car
A short, heavy dark-complexioned man of about 38, who lived during last
November at a rooming house at 809 Azeele street, was sought by officers last
night in the gangland killing early yesterday of Ignazio Antinori, one time big
shot in the Tampa gambling racket.
This man owned the car used by the killer.
He gave the name George E. Sanders, and he dropped out of sight last December
after telling his landlady he was going to Fort Myers.
Following a twisting
trail of evidence, police found that the murder gun was bought in New Orleans
last October by a man who gave the name John Adams and a New Orleans street
address. Both the name and the address were found to be phony.
Police figured “Sanders” was phony too, and maybe it was the same man.
Bartender Chases Killer
The car and gun were abandoned by the killer as he was chased by a bartender
from the scene of the crime - The Palm Gardens beer and dance place about six
miles out of town. Officers blocked roads in the area and rushed
bloodhounds from a state convict camp at Floral City to try to pick up the
killers trail but after a five hour search they conceded he had escaped the
net.
Also left behind by the slayer were a pair of cotton work gloves and a
weird hooded mask made by cutting two eye holes in the top of a silk
stocking. Nobody knows whether he wore the mask when he stood outside in
the darkness and shot Antinori through a rear window of the beer place.
Police are sure he wore the gloves because they couldn’t find a fingerprint on
the gun or car.
Car is the Key to Case
The car became the key to the case. “It looks like our only chance of solving
this murder,” said Chief of Detectives Bush, “is to trace this man
Sanders. He’s the key man. Usually on a job of this kind, they use a
stolen car. We have no record that this car was ever reported
stolen. From the looks of the motor, it’s been stored somewhere for a long
time.”
Through the license, officers found that “Sanders” bought the 1937
Ford Sedan last Nov. 2 from the Fox and Roberts used car lot at Floribraska and
Florida avenues, paying $400 cash.
The landlady at the Azeele street rooming
house said a man who gave the name George E. Sanders rented a room there about
the first of November and left about the first of December. He had little
luggage – only one bag – and apparently no occupation. He arose late in
the mornings and didn’t return until late at night.
Gives Description
This is the description of Sanders as she gave it to detectives: 35 to 40
years old, about five feet eight inches in height, weighing 175 or 180 pounds,
of dark complexion and usually wearing a brown suit and a brown hat.
Bush
said members of Antinori’s family and his friends had been able to throw no
light on the slaying. But, as they checked the time that the gun and car
were bought, some investigators became convinced that Antinori’s killing was
linked to the murder last October of Mario Perla, another figure in the Tampa
gambling racket.
New Orleans Pops Up
The gun, a 16 gauge automatic shotgun, was bought from a Sear Roebuck store
in New Orleans, October 7 of last year. Eleven days later, Perla’s life
was blasted out by four charges of buckshot as he rode with his wife in a car on
a Tampa street. No trace of the killers was found but officers said a 16
gauge automatic shotgun was used.
State Attorney Farrior, who has
conducted several grand jury investigations into the gambling racket and its
murderous ramifications, said he believed there was “a definite connection”
between the Antinori and the Perla killings.
Antinori’s slaying was the
fourth among Tampa gambler’s in less than four years. It would have been
the fifth, except the bad aim of gunmen who lay in wait for Charlie Wall,
present Tampa gambling boss, in July, 1939.
All Shootings Unsolved
None of the shootings was solved. Antinori, 55, was the kingpin in the
racket here during the administration of governor Sholtz, but was squeezed out
of the big money about three years ago. Since then, the syndicate now
running Tampa gambling hadn’t let him operate.
But the since the May
elections, in which some of the gambling factions fought bitterly over the
sheriff’s race, Antinori began remodeling the Mecca café in Ybor city and was
reported planning to open it soon. The circumstances of his slaying set
officers to looking for a “finger man”, or a decoy used to put him on the spot
for the gunman. After checking all angles, however, they decided that the
gunman probably worked alone, that he had been trailing Antinori awaiting a good
opportunity to kill him, and that opportunity came about one o’clock yesterday
morning.
Didn’t Fear Attack
Friends said Antinori made a practice of dropping in at various juke joints
during the night, and that he showed no fear of attack. Unlike some Tampa
gamblers, he had no bodyguards – at least not in recent months.
About 11
o’clock Tuesday night, Antinori stopped at the Saratoga bar at Franklin and
Fortune streets, run by his son Joe, and picked up a 19 year old girl, Jackie
Wilson. They drove to a jook north of town, went by the Mecca, and later
returned to the Saratoga. There Antinori picked up Jimmy Fraterrigo, also
known as Jimmy Caggin, 1938 and a half Main street, a frequent companion.
The
three drove directly to the Palm Gardens, arriving a little before one o’clock
in the morning.
They sat down at a table in front of, and about 12 feet from,
the only rear window. It was a dull night. Only two or three other
customers were there, sitting several tables away.
Aim Was Deadly
“We danced a couple of times by the juke organ” said Jackie Wilson, “and
ordered some bottled drinks. We had been there just about 15 minutes, I
guess. All of a sudden there were two loud shots from the back, and it
seemed to me I could feel a burn on my arm. Mr. Antinori slumped down and fell
out of his chair.”
Miraculously, neither the girl nor Caggin was hit,
although half the buckshot ripped into the wall just behind them. The other half
of the shots struck Antinori with deadly accuracy in the right side of his face
and killed him instantly.
Bennett Blanchard, proprietor of the place, saw a
car swing into the driveway and continue around to the back of the building just
before the shooting, but said he thought it was a customer.
Bartender Gives Chase
When the shotgun roared, and Antinori toppled over, bartender Will Haynes ran
out from behind the bar and saw a car racing out of the driveway and heading
south on the highway. He jumped into Blanchard’s car and started in
pursuit while Blanchard phoned for an ambulance and deputies.
Haynes told
officers he kept the tail light of the fleeing car in sight, but couldn’t gain
on it. About a quarter of a mile down the highway, the gunman turned at
dizzying speed onto Palm River road. Haynes said he kept in behind him for
a mile then saw the car pull over to the side of the road and stop. A man
stepped out into the underbrush.
Drove By Car
“I thought he was lying in wait for me”, said Haynes “but I stepped on the
gas, and sort of slumped low in the seat and drove right by the car. I was
afraid to stop, so I went on to 50th street and made the loop on back to Palm
Gardens.”
By the time Haynes got back to the place, Deputies Wallis and
Jackson were there. City and County officers soon had men posted on all
surrounding roads. They found the car, with the gun inside, and farther
down the highway they found the mask and gloves.
They didn’t find the
killer. By foot, or by a confederate’s car, he had vanished into the
night.
Antinori had lived in Tampa since he was five years old and was active
in Italian organizations here. He is survived by the widow Mrs. Angelina
Antinori; two sons, Joe and Paul; two daughters, Mrs. Sam Ferrara and Vincenza
Antinori, and three brothers, Vincent and Steve of Tampa, and Rudolph or
Italy. Funeral services will be held at 5 o’clock this afternoon at the
Wilson Sammon Funeral parlors.
Tampa Morning Tribune, Friday, October 25, 1940
Ignazio Antinori is
buried; Killing Stumps Police
McLeod Holds Dead man’s companion
Ignazio Antinori, one time power in the Tampa gambling racket was buried with
an elaborate funeral yesterday while officers re-check their few clues to the
identity of the killer who shot him through the window of a rural beer garden
early Wednesday morning.
Sheriff McLeod, who was on a trip to West Virginia
at the time of the shooting, returned to town and picked up for questioning
Antinori’s two companions at the time he was shot – Jackie Wilson, 19 year old
West Tampa waitress, and Jimmy Fraterrigo, 37 barroom hanger-on.
Puts One in Jail
Both had been questioned by city and county officers before, but the Sheriff
quizzed them again and put Fraterrigo in jail afterward. He was docketed
for “investigation and material witness”.
Chief of Detectives Bush, who has
been heading the investigation, pressed a search for a man known as “George E
Sanders”, who is listed as owner of the car abandoned by the murderer.
Sanders bought the car from a Tampa used car lot last November and lived a month
at an Azeele street rooming house. Then he dropped out of sight.
Bush
said he was convinced is a phony name, and that this is the same man who, as
“John Adams”, bought the murder gun at a New Orleans store last October.
New Orleans police found the name and address given by the gun buyer were
phony.
Hopes to Trace Car
Pinning his hopes on tracing the car, Bush said a minute examination showed
that it had been stored, probably in or near Tampa, for the last several
months. He is trying to find where it was stored, and where its battery
was recently charged.
“If we can find this Sanders, the case is solved” said
the Detective Chief.
Several hundred persons, including many members of the
Italian colony and city and county officials, attended the funeral services at
the Wilson Sammon Funeral parlors.
A procession of nearly one hundred cars
followed the hearse to the L’Unione Italiana cemetery.