About Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America in the 21st century.
The year was 1929 and the headline on the front page of a Berkshire evening newspaper read, “Assailant pours a fusillade into young woman as she walks on the street with youth.”
It was 5:40 on a cold January evening. Snow was banked on either side of the walkway. Lucy Teti Pulero, 23, was walking with Ernest Clifford Benway, 22, down Maplewood Avenue in Pittsfield.
The killer stepped from behind a tree and fired five times. He hit the woman four times. One of the four shots hit Lucy full in the face.
Lucy fell into the snow. She cried out once, in pain or in fear, and then was silent.
A Pittsfield police officer assigned to stay with Lucy reported that she did not speak a word or make another sound until she died 24 hours later (January 26, 1929) at St. Luke’s Hospital.
Miraculously Benway was unharmed. He was taken in charge but the police were careful to say he was being held as a material witness, not a suspect.
In addition to Benway, there was another eyewitness. Miss Mattie Morin told a harrowing story. She saw a man jump from behind a tree. He seized Lucy by the shoulder and flung her away from him. He then shot. The first shot missed. The second shot hit her in the face. That is when Lucy screamed once and fell.
The man stood over her and continued shooting until his gun was empty – three more shots.
After the final shot, Miss Morin described the assailant disappearing down Maple Avenue “in a dead run.” Morin saw a gun in his hand and believed he dropped it into the snow as he ran.
When the sun rose the next day, a young boy on his way to St. Joseph’s school found the gun and turned it over to the police.
Neither Benway nor Morin could identify the shooter by name. However, there was a man known to the police, and the police thought they recognized him from the two descriptions. It sounded as if it could be Lucy’s estranged husband, Joseph Pulero, 32.
Joseph had some singular mannerisms and a memorable walk. His gait was rolling and peculiar to him. His hands were usually thrust deep in his pockets as he walked. He was remarkably tall and dark with hooded and piercing eyes.
The police searched for Pulero.
“He disappeared right after the shooting,” a police spokesman said, “and has not been located.”
Even before Lucy died at St. Luke’s Hospital, a warrant was issued for Joseph Pulero’s arrest. It was front page news: “Husband Sought in Wife’s Death”.
Why was the man known to the police? Four years earlier, Pulero was also front page news: “Successful Raids and Four Arrests,” the headline read.
Pittsfield police raided three locations along West Street and on Dewey Avenue. Behind false panels and in a cellar, the police seized nine gallons of alcohol, four quarts of whisky, nine quarts of moonshine, and nine cases of beer. It was an impressive haul in the midst of the Prohibition (1920 -1933).
They called Pulero and his cohorts – Joseph Parisi, Nicholas Mangardi, and Joseph Briola – “sportin’ men,” a euphemism for crooks.
At about the same time, there was a proposal to build a race course in Pittsfield. Out-of-towners were negotiating to buy property for the purpose. Those who opposed the idea said they feared it would attract a criminal element to the Berkshire Hills. Others scoffed and said the criminal element was already here. Pulero and his pals were their proof.
All four men received jail sentences.
The Teti family and the Mangardi family were close friends and eventually intermarried; probably, that is how Lucy first met Joseph. She certainly knew that he served time. They married after Joseph was released.
In the days following the January shooting, the search for Pulero went on. He eluded the police for two years.
In May 1931, Pulero was arrested in Brewster, New York. Pittsfield Inspectors Daniel McColgam and J.D. McNaughton, the same two officers who interviewed Benway and Morin on the day of the shooting, traveled to New York. They took John Teti, Lucy’s brother, along to identify Pulero.
Pulero was arrested at a construction site where he was operating a steam shovel. He waived extradition and was returned to Pittsfield for trial.
Pulero entered a plea of not guilty.
The prosecution had the mutilated dead body. They had the murder weapon. They had two eyewitnesses to the fact that Pulero lay in wait. The prosecution demonstrated to Pulero that they could prove malice (lying in wait) and, by running and hiding, consciousness of guilt. In short, they had him: the prosecution could prove murder in the first.
They offered him a deal: if Pulero would plead guilty and save the Commonwealth the cost of a trial, they would accept second-degree murder.
On November 21, 1931, Pulero refused to change his plea. A trial was imminent.
Joseph Pulero had a plan to beat the rap.
Next week: The Trial.
