Basilio, Tucinnata: 1904

The mutilated body of Tucinitta Basilio was found at the No. 9 bridge one mile east of Hollidaysburg about 9:00 pm on February 25, 1904 by William Powell. Mr. Basilio lay at the bottom of an embankment, and it was noted that he had been struck a blow on the head, and then stabbed fourteen times. Some of these wounds were superficial, but a deep stab over his heart and another in his back were deadly. The tip of the killer’s stiletto was found in a wound on the young man’s knee. His clothes were torn and bloodstained. Relatives later reported that he had possessed a watch and had about eighty dollars; all that was found on the body was a stiletto, some apples, and and a watch-chain.

Mr. Basilio was nineteen years old, a native of Italy, and was employed by Riely and Webber, railroad contractors. In the first mention of the murder, the victim was misidentified as Antonio Suticcio.

A grand jury was convened and examined several witnesses, among them four Italians who had been detained in jail by Police Chief James McGrew and Cosntable James Stanley. All four denied any knowledge of the crime. It was revealed that the boy had left the Italian colony in East Hollidaysburg on the day he died. He and Prestipino Michele went to Altoona at 2:00 p.m. to look for work, and left Altoona for Hollidaysburg about 5:00 p.m. The two men went to the post office in Hollidaysburg to pick up Basilio’s mail; this mail was later found on the body. Michele was not seen after he left the post office, and his trunk disappeared from his boarding home that night.

It was determined by the jury that Basilio was stabbed to death with a knife. The four Italian witnesses were remanded to jail, and undertaker McFarland took charge of the body. Basilio was buried in Hollidaysburg on March 1, 1904.

It is possible that this is the incident the New York Times reported three years later in their expose of the Italian Black Hand Society, stating that on March 13, 1904, and Italian boy was left for dead in Altoona by a gang from Pittsburgh. The Times blamed the Black Hand for more than thirty murders in three different counties.