Uncle Tony

I once asked Nona if we had any mobsters in our family. I was young, and all I knew about Italians where what I saw in the movies, and I was all about the 20's.  Mobsters were cool.  We lived in the Midwest, Al Capone had his hands all over our state, even in our little part of it.  We had the "Moo-tel" and the Coliseum.  We had rum runner tunnels under the town streets.  I would have loved to have a member of the family be a member of a family.

She told me that she was told that "Uncle Tony" wasn't necessarily a mob member, but that she'd heard quite the story about him.  Tony lived in Detroit, and the story I was told was that there was a parade, and Tony reached out an touched an American flag and was shot for it by an officer or a guard of some kind.  Cousin Louis Barra (fellow researcher) remarked that Tony was a "very fancy dresser" and a "strong member of the Italian-American society" in Detroit.  Truth? We didn't know.  But I've always wondered. Late last night I was playing on ancestry and I got a hit on Uncle Tony (actually my 2nd great uncle.)  It was his death certificate, and I was blown away.  Besides the background info and what I found last night, I'm going to blog this as I find the information.  Real time, if you will. We will all find out together what happened to Uncle Tony!

Antonio Barra was born January 20th, 1894 in Brossasco, Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy to Guiseppe Barra and Margarita Guisano, the seventh of eight children.  Big brother Giuseppe Antonio "Joe" is my great grandfather.   Antonio and brother Giovanni "John" emigrated to America when Tony was just eleven years old, following brother Joe's footsteps, who'd emigrated in 1901, leaving Italy to find work in Illinois.   They arrived in New York aboard the La Torraine May 6th, 1905.

The SS La Torraine

Tony shows up on the 1920 census in Roanoke IL as a boarder in the home of Fred and Margaret Barra, working as a coal miner, aged 26.  Fred is elder brother Chiafreddo and wife Margherita, who'd arrived in 1910.  I can only assume he'd been living with John up until this time, though I haven't found either on a 1910 census.  In 1923 he was in Pekin, Illinois.  I know this because of a photograph we have of Uncle Tony "with friend Pescelli."  Honestly, once I found this image, I wondered if he hadn't been shot for another reason.  Photography in 1923 was not cheap, you don't just walk into a studio and plunk down some change and get your picture taken for no reason, especially not with your random friend or flatmate.  I did wonder if these two didn't have a deeper relationship and possibly had been persecuted from it, but I don't know this Pescelli fellow's first name and have not found him on any records, so he remains a mystery.  The ONLY Pescelli I find on any census anywhere is Samuel Pescelli, born in 1890, emigrated in 1910, as a boarder and coal miner in Allegheny PA in 1930.  Same guy?  I've no idea, unfortunately.

The next we hear from Uncle Tony is his untimely death at age 34 in Detroit Michigan, October 14th 1928.  When did he move to Michigan and what was he doing there?  Probably he felt there was more out there for him than the coal mines in Roanoke.  I can't say I wouldn't have felt the same, especially after hearing Louis say how proud Tony was of his heritage.  The newfound death certifiate literally made me jump up from the table in triumph.  It reads:

"Internal hemorrhage following gun shot wound to abdomen: Homicide"

So off I go now to look for newspaper clippings.  Unfortunately these things aren't free, but Newspapers.com has three clippings from Tony's death, so I'll purchase a one month membership and see what we find there.  

SCORE! The first article reads:

Tony Barra, 36, 3333 E. Alexandrine Ave, and Angelo Leutcherchia, 27, both marchers in parade, were taken to the hospital, Barra shot in the hip and abdomen, Leutcherchia shot in the neck.  Hospital attendants said Barra's wounds are likely to prove fatal."

"They arrested John Sylvester, 24, another parader, in connection with the affray.  He is being held at the Hunt street station."

"The shooting was precipitated by the political differences between factions of the Italian Colony is borne out by the statement of Leutcherchia and Sylvester.  Both Barra and Leutcherchia, police said, are Anti-Fascists.  In his statement Prosecuter Frank Szymanski said Fascist Sylvester declared trouble arose when a group of Anti-Fascists shoved a gun in his ribs and told him to drop the American flag, which he had been carrying."

Sylvester said "I had the honor of carrying the American colors.  Instead of doing as they said I held onto the flag with one hand and grabbed their gun with the other.  I managed to get it away from the man holding it and shot the two of them."

It all started when someone made a wise crack to Lenterchia, they had asked if he was going to vote for Hoover or Smith, and he cracked "Mussolini!" "Then somebody shot me."  he says how proud he is to live in America, but political unrest means he's neither safe here nor in Italy, and he's proud to be an American.

This makes me incredibly sad, and I have two articles to go.

This one mentions that it was a Columbus Day parade, and that Uncle Tony was buried in Woodmere Cemetery without the benefit of Clergy....this would have deeply hurt his Catholic family.  He did have 200 supporters of the American Anti-Fascist Community come in their stead, four of whom spoke on his behalf.  It says he had "forsaken religion years ago."

Brothers Fred and John attended from Chicago.

The third article is just a summary of the first, noting that the altercation happened near Eastern Market and Barra died at 1:15 am in Receiving Hospital.  

This all just makes me incredibly sad.  I wonder if Tony had been friends with Leutcherchia and was in on it, or happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Clearly they were part of the same political party, but was he directly involved?  Either way, it seems Leutcherchia was the one who caused the scene, and Tony was a resulting casualty.  I wonder if Sylvester was ever tried for a crime.

Well, F@#$%^.

"John Sylvester, accused of manslaughter in connection with fatal shooting of a member of the mob which attacked several men a Columbus Day parade was freed by a jury in court yesterday after just 20 minutes deliberation."

Well that just ruined my day.

I can't find his headstone image on findagrave for Woodmere Cemetery, so it has either been desecrated and is gone, or someone just hasn't taken an image of it yet.  More disappointment.

Rest in Peace, Uncle Tony.