I need do no more at this moment than invite your attention to the
statement of the local judge and district attorney, who join in making
the report in question, that while the results of the investigation so
far are very unsatisfactory, no effort will be spared to find the guilty
parties.
[Subinclosure in No.
148.]
Report of the judge and the
district attorney to Governor Foster.
Sir: I am in receipt of your letter of
August 11 asking me to advise you as fully as possible as to the
lynching of the three Italians taken from St. Charles Parish jail,
near Hahnville, on Saturday night, August 8, 1896. Mr. Robert J.
Perkins, district attorney of this district, joined me at St.
Charles court-house yesterday in a joint investigation of the
matter, and we now submit what facts we have so far ascertained.
On Saturday, August 8, there were six Italians confined in the parish
jail, (1) Joseph Venturella, (2) Salvatore Arena, both charged with
the murder of Joquin Roxana, near Boutté Station, in St. Charles;
(3) Lorenzo Salardino, charged with the murder of Jules Gueymard;
(4) Connel Marini, (5) Joe Marini, his son, and (6) Liugina Marini,
his wife, charged with being accessories to the murder; the five men
being in one of the iron cells upstairs and the woman in a cell on
the first floor.
The first two named, Venturella and Arena, had asked for bail through
their counsel on August 3. After reading the evidence taken at the
coroner’s inquest the amount of bond was fixed at $1,000. Salardino
and the other three Italians were arrested Tuesday night as
implicated in the assassination of Jules Gueymard, who was shot from
ambush and killed that night at his store at Freetown.
The sheriff at once placed extra guards at the parish jail, owing to
the excitement caused by the murder, but on Friday, having reason to
believe that the excitement had quieted down, he removed the extra
guard and left the parish jail, as usual, in charge of Robert Piene,
the jailer.
[Page 404]
The jailer, Robert Piene, states that on Saturday night, between 11
and 12 o’clock, the gate leading into the jail yard was broken, and
the barred window looking into his room on the lower floor was
forced open by prying out four iron bars and leaving an open
passage; that he saw a crowd of men outside who ordered him to open
the door and pointed guns at him, threatening to shoot him; that he
opened the entrance door; was afterwards ordered to get a candle and
open the iron cell upstairs in which the five Italians were
confined; that one of the mob called Salardino and the two men from
Boutte, and after the three had walked into the passage, they said
they did not want any more and ordered him to leave the jail at
once; that he was so frightened that he went back of the jail
through the fence to Jules Ursain’s house and remained there until
daylight, and then sent a message to Sheriff Ory to notify him of
the lynching.
Sheriff Ory states that on Saturday he left the parish jail in charge
of the jailer and went home; that he was up Saturday night until 9
or 10 o’clock; that he saw no sign of excitement or anything to lead
him to suspect that an attack would be made on the jail, and that he
was informed of the lynching the next morning by a message from the
jailer.
The coroner, Dr. Lehmann, could obtain no evidence before his jury of
inquest to show who were the parties guilty of this triple murder.
The verdict of the jury was that Salardino, Venturella, and Arena
“came to their death by being lynched by parties unknown.”
None of the people residing in the vicinity of the court-house admit
that they heard anything on Saturday night. Pascal Margeotta,
himself an Italian, living within a hundred yards of the court-house
fence, knew nothing of the occurrence until the next morning. The
woman, Lugina Marone, who was in the parish jail on Saturday night,
when questioned through an interpreter, only knew that Lorenzo
Salardino on Thursday night had brought a gun to her husband’s
house, telling him to keep it and not to speak of it or it would be
the worse for him, and that she heard the next morning that Gueymard
had been shot. This is about all that we have ascertained as to the
killing of the three Italians. The results of the investigation so
far are very unsatisfactory, but no effort will be spared to find
the guilty parties.
The attack on the parish jail and the murderous hanging of the three
Italians was the result of the intense feeling created by the murder
of Gueymard. It was one of those explosions of mob violence which
are a disgrace to our civilization; but the fact that the other
Italians were not molested shows that the nationality of the three
men had nothing to do with the action of the mob.
The registration lists of the parish do not contain the names of any
of the three men as registered voters of the parish of St.
Charles.
Respectfully submitted.
- Emile Rost,
Judge Twenty-first Judicial District
of Louisiana.
- Robt. J. Perkins,
District Attorney Twenty-first
Judicial District of Louisiana.
Parish
of St. Charles, August 15, 1896.
