File No. 311.651T15/18.
Memorandum by the Solicitor of the Department of State.
The Tampa Lynching.
Claim in Behalf of the Italian Subject Angelo Albano.
On September 21, 1910, the Department was informed by telegram1 from the Italian Chargé that two Italians had been lynched at Tampa, Florida, on the previous night. This telegram was immediately repeated1 by the Department to the Governor of Florida with a request that the State authorities take such steps as might be necessary to protect the lives of other Italians which were said to be threatened.
The State authorities later informed2 the Department that it appeared that one of the victims, Ficcarotta, was a naturalized citizen and that the other, Albano, was born in this country. It subsequently transpired3 that the statement in regard to Ficcarotta represented the fact, but the Italian Embassy has in the case of Albano submitted4 to the Department a birth certificate setting forth that he was born in San Stephano Quisquina, Italy.
Under date of October 10, 1910, the Governor of Florida addressed a letter5 to the Department stating that he had taken whatever steps seemed to him to be necessary in the case of Albano and that he had communicated with the Sheriff, the State Attorney of the Circuit in which Tampa is located, the Solicitor of the Criminal Court of Record of Hillsborough County and with the Judge of the Criminal Court of Record of that county. In his letter he enclosed a communication from R. A. Jackson, the Sheriff of Hillsborough County, and several affidavits, the latter to the effect that Albano, in order to vote at city elections, had sworn that he was an American citizen. The Sheriff’s version of the affair, as appears in his communication to the Governor just referred to, is as follows:
* * * Albano and Ficearati [Ficcarotta] were taken from two of my deputies who had them in charge under warrants charging them with complicity [Page 614] in the assassination of J. F. Easterling, now deceased. Within thirty minutes after Albano and Ficcarati [Ficcarotta] were taken away from my deputies I had five deputies in the field hunting for the parties implicated in the lynching. They, of course, could find nothing. The next day a jury was empanelled to inquire into the lynching, which jury was kept in session more than a week, and every effort made by myself and thirty special deputies to ascertain something in connection with the lynching. No evidence of any kind could we find pointing to the guilt of anyone, and the jury accordingly found that Albano and Ficcarati [Ficcarotta] came to their death at the hands of parties unknown. * * *
With a note1 from the Embassy, dated October 13, 1910, was transmitted a report by Count Moroni, Royal Attaché of the Immigration Service at New Orleans, summarizing the results of an investigation made by him at Tampa. Count Moroni states that he has no direct evidence against the principals in the lynching, as the Americans would not incriminate themselves and the Italians would not speak from fear of retribution, they being terrorized by the lynchers, and that accordingly his statements are based upon public rumor and certain clues. The report charges that the lynching was committed by citizens of West Tampa with the connivance of the local police authorities. The charge of connivance by the authorities is made to rest principally upon the following alleged circumstances of the affair: Shortly after the arrest of Ficcarotta and Albano upon the charge of murdering Easterling, Sheriff Jackson gave orders to transfer the prisoner[s] from the West Tampa jail, which was not considered safe, to the jail at Tampa. This order was given to Deputy Sheriff Keagging, who in turn commissioned another deputy, Evans, to effect the transfer. Evans, instead of using the electric van or the wagon intended for the conveyance of prisoners, hired a public hack and attempted to make the transfer with the protection only of a friend, one Bryan, who accompanied him. It is further alleged that a circuitous and unusual route between the two jails was followed, leading through sparsely populated portions of the community. (It should be observed that the local authorities justify this procedure on the ground that had the prisoners been taken by the direct route, through Main Street, where many Italians live, they would have been freed.) As a result of the lack of adequate protection, while the conveyance with the prisoner [s] was proceeding along a lonely part of the road, the prisoners were easily taken from their custodians and shortly thereafter were lynched. It is also alleged that the Deputy Sheriff failed to use all means at his disposal to effect the capture of the lynchers.
This report was transmitted1 to the Governor of Florida for the purposes of his investigation, with a request that he apprise the Department of the results of the investigation in such time as would permit of prompt communication to the Embassy.
Under date of February 13, 1911, the Embassy informed2 the Department that it had recently been furnished with a copy of the minutes of the Grand Jury of Hillsborough County, from which it appeared that the Grand Jury had failed to find any evidence connecting anybody with the lynching at Tampa. The Embassy again summarized what it deemed to be the facts of the matter and expressed the hope that some settlement would be arrived at without [Page 615] further delay. This note was communicated1 to the Governor of Florida. The Department referred to the international duty of affording appropriate protection to aliens within our territory and expressed the hope that it might be possible for the Florida authorities again to investigate the matter with all possible thoroughness in order to bring the guilty persons to justice. It was further observed that the Department was confident that should the facts sustain the construction put upon them by the Embassy, the State of Florida would be prepared to make such satisfaction for the death of Albano as might be required by the applicable rules of international law.
The Department sent1 to the Embassy a copy of its letter to the Governor of Florida, expressing the hope that an early determination of the affair might be effected. The communication sent to the Embassy continued by adverting, in connection with the Albano case, to a similar complaint, which the Government of the United States, therein renewed, to the Government of Italy for the wounding of one of its citizens and for the death of another, both of which events took place under the very eyes of the police and other national Italian officers and in spite of which fact no protection had been given to the American citizens nor had the perpetrators of the crime been apprehended or punished. The facts of the pending Nowell and Wilson case were then set forth, the burden of the statement being that the local Italian authorities wholly failed to apprehend Nowell and Wilson’s assailants though it appeared that by the exercise of ordinary diligence they could easily have ascertained their identity. Reference was also made to the circumstance that Now ell, the surviving victim, had been sentenced to a considerable term of imprisonment for defending himself against attacks of the mob.
The Governor of Florida has recently sent to the Department a statement2 from the State Attorney describing the failure of the Grand Jury to find any incriminating evidence.