I finally received the court file in the mail! It primarily contained witness statements and the charging document. The first item of note is Domenico’s statement, which is, unfortunately, lacking in detail. He didn’t have much to say. Apparently it didn’t occur to him that his great-great-granddaughter might be poking around in his business and would really appreciate a little more info.
The most interesting statement was the affidavit of 13-year-old William Lewis, who saw the entire incident, which happened at 10am on a New York City street. The transcription of the statement is below the photos of the document. Because of his youth, I will excuse the young Mr. Lewis for referring to Domenico as “elderly.” As you can see from Domenico’s statement above, he was 52 years old at the time of the shooting.
The statement reads:
City, County and State of New York
SS
William Lewis being duly sworn deposes and says that he resides at #3 Bank St. in said City and that he attends Public School #16 – That on the 3rd day of July 1897 about 10am I was on the north-easterly corner of Abingdon Square and Bank St. when my attention was attracted by a certain elderly Italian crossing from said corner in a westerly direction and directly against a Bleecker St. horse car going south – he the said Italian then crossed behind said car to where another Italian was pushing a hand cart in a southerly direction, east of a music stand in Abingdon Square – he the said Italian afterwards known to me as one Domenico Cardarrelli then placed his hands on said card as though he intended to stop its progress and engage in a loud argument in Italian and threaten to strike the man pushing same, whom I afterwards found to be one Giuseppe Bounocore, now deceased – I watched them thinking that they were going to fight – when I saw the said Cardarrelli deliberately draw
a revolving pistol from his hip pocket with his right hand and pointing the same at Bounocore’s head discharge it – the said Bounocore then fell on his face in the street and seemed to be unconscious, when the said Cardarrelli approached on step nearer the fallen man and again pointed the pistol at the back of his head and attempted to discharge it a second time – by this time there were quite a number of men collected who shouted at Cardarrelli, who then held the pistol before him and walked easterly on Bank St. with the men following – and when opposite the area-way of #79 Bank St. throw the pistol down said area.
William Lewis
Sworn to before me this 10th day of November 1897
James Riley
Commissioner of Deeds
New York County
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