In doing some research on the excellent website fultonhistory.com, the mystery of how Antonietta (and her sister Concetta) ended up in an orphanage is now clearer. The story, although an unhappy one, is very compelling and raises as many questions as it answers. The short version is that Luigi Luponio was murdered and his body was buried in a shallow grave in the Montezuma Swamp (just outside Savannah NY). There is no evidence that his murder (or that of his traveling companion Pasquale Iannucelli) was ever solved.
However, the longer story begins around noon on Dec 31, 1884 in a tangled thicket 2 miles east of Savannah NY when two boys hunting rabbits discover a passport, various papers, and other personal items; and eventually a shallow grave. In this shallow grave were buried the bodies of Luigi Luponio and Pasquale Iannucelli (husband of Maria Teresa Nassa).
After several weeks of investigation it was discovered that the two deceased men were traveling around the northeast with three other men. The last known location for Luigi and the others was Brockwayville, Pennsylvania in August 1884. They had eventually made their way to the Montezuma Swamp area where it was thought that these three men had murdered Luigi and Pasquale (crushing their skulls and slitting their throats while they slept) and then robbed them. The theory is that these murders were committed around September 1884. The three men were reported to be named Peppino Bachuccia, Pasqualino Lustroglio and Giovanni Pucinalla. An arrest in the case was made in New Haven Connecticut of Pasquale Ferrino, but more information could not be found as to how he was related to the traveling companions or if he was ever tried in a court of law. The three traveling companions were never found either in the U.S. or back in Italy as far as I can tell. Luigi is buried in Potters Field (most likely in an unmarked grave) in Herrington Cemetery just north of Savannah NY. I plan to visit the cemetery this summer on my trip back to NY.
So how does the grisly murder of Luigi Luponio end with his daughters in an orphanage? It is my belief that Luigi's wife, Catarina, may have been in the country (or in route) when her husband was killed. Her brother Giuseppe was already in Utica, so I imagine that there were plans for the family to join Luigi and Giuseppe in Utica. If we follow Luigi's path, it is likely that he was on his way to Utica when he was killed ... Brockwayville to most likely Buffalo/Rochester (old train route) and then heading east. Now, here is where it gets a little dicey. We know that Catarina was remarried to Nicola D'Alio after Luigi died and we know that they both headed back to Italy together (around 1895 or so). Did these two separate events combine to become the family story of Catarina throwing her kids into an orphanage and heading back to Italy? I think the more likely possibility is that Catarina found herself in America with no money and no job and had no choice but to put her kids in an orphanage until she could sort things out. We do not know when Nicola D'Alio comes into the picture, but we do know that Amalia D'Alio was born to them around 1891 (in Utica). Given the 7 year gap it is doubtful that she had already met Nicola when the kids went into the orphanage, but it is entirely possible that they were not immediately placed in the orphanage in 1885, but some time later after she had met Nicola.
Either way, the murder of Luigi Luponio is what caused the girls to become orphans and if the accounts are correct, led to another murder thousands of miles away. I will tell that story in my next blog.
The following are the newspaper accounts about the murder of Luigi Luponio and Pasquale Iannucelli:
