Troubled Murder Contract
On December 7, 1929, the board of directors of the Tepecano Democratic Club threw a banquet in honor of Judge H Vitale at the Roman Gardens in the Bronx. Over 70 guests attended, including Ciro, six of his gun men, and numerous political figures, police officers, and friends. While Judge Vitale was giving his speech at 1:30 a.m. seven gunmen entered the dining room. They stole money and jewelry from the guests, along with the gun of detective Arthur C. Johnson. The incident was to be kept quiet until it could be looked into. However, within three hours, all the stolen items had been returned.
At the time, it was believed that Terranova had staged the Roman Gardens robbery to steal back a murder contract that he had signed. The contract was for $30,000 to murder Frankie Yale and Frankie Marlow. Ciro had paid the hitmen an advance of $5,000, with $25,000 to be paid after the job was done. However, after the hitmen killed Marlow and Yale, they didn't receive the remaining $25,000 from Ciro. The hitmen then threatened to turn the contract over to the police (although how they would profit from this move is unknown). Terranova supposedly wanted to see the contract to refresh his memory. If the signature was indeed his, he would pay the rest. Instead, Ciro staged the Roman Gardens holdup to get the contract. He was released when everything blew over. Vitale was removed from the bench in March 1930.
Read more about this topic: Ciro Terranova
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