32 times • OCTOBER 1, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com old timer PRESENTED BY THE WOODHAVEN CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY Swift justice in historic Woodhaven murder case On a frigid night in February 1921, Professor Wilfred Phineas Kotkov got off of the A train at the Boyd Avenue (88th Street) Station on Liberty Avenue in what was then part of Woodhaven. The 36-year-old professor of philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan was accustomed to coming home late and often cut across the empty lot at the corner of Benedict (87th Street) and Liberty Avenue to get to his home where he lived with his wife, Anna, and two children. It was in that dark vacant lot, just after the clock struck midnight, that four young men lay in wait with robbery and mayhem in their minds. Cries for help were heard by Patrolman George Burling, of the precinct in Richmond Hill, on patrol several blocks away. When Burling arrived at the scene, he found Kotkov lying facedown in the snow, a bloody iron bedpost at his side. Four young men were seen fleeing the scene; Burling pursued the young men and managed to quickly apprehend two of them. Peter Nunziata and Joseph Alfano of Brooklyn were immediately arrested and, once at the precinct, they confessed and implicated Frank Cassesso, also from Brooklyn, and Alphonso “The Turk” Verona, of Water Street, Woodhaven, in the attack. According to their confessions, it was Verona who had suggested that they prepare for a “stickup.” An abandoned iron bed frame was found in the vacant lot and the heavy post, with a brass knob, was pried off. The quartet stood near the Boyd Ave. station, the iron post hidden under Nunziata’s long coat, waiting for someone who appeared prosperous enough to rob. When Kotkov walked down the stairs at Boyd Avenue (now 88th Street), the young men spied his briefcase and gold watch and quickly decided that he would be their victim. Kotkov didn’t notice the young men as he passed them by, nor did he notice them fall into step behind him as he crossed the dark, empty lot. Only when the four young men asked Kotkov where he was going did he notice them and he began to walk faster. The four young men ran after him, with Nunziata leading the way with the iron in his hand. According to the police, Nunziata cast the first blow, knocking Kotkov to the ground, and once blood was spilled, the attack turned into a brutal frenzy with blow after blow rained down on the fallen man’s head. Alfano, the police said, turned out Kotkov’s pockets, looking for money, but very little was to be found. Instead, the quartet of thieves had to settle for Kotkov’s horn-rimmed glasses, his fountain pen and gold watch. Kotkov was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica where he held on for a few days. All efforts to save his life failed and he succumbed to his injuries three days after he was first attacked. There were immediate calls for swift justice, owing to the fact that Kotkov had made no resistance, nor was he even given the opportunity to do so. Newspaper editorials called for the ultimate retribution – the electric chair. The wheels of justice were indeed swift. Within a week, indictments were handed down and by the first week of April, just over five weeks after the attack, the trial of Peter Nunziata began. The 17-year-old, the youngest of the four attackers, was a cool customer in court, often seen yawning during testimony. At one time during the trial he was scolded by the judge for trying to light a cigarette in court. A witness to the attack, a woman who lived in a house adjacent to the lot, told how she watched the young men chase Professor Kotkov down and beat him. The professor’s widow told the jury about the dreams of a happy life that had been shattered; she fainted in court when shown her late husband’s glasses and fountain pen, which had been a gift from her on his last birthday. Nunziata’s defense was a vigorous one. His lawyer was Edward J. Reilly, who would later go on to defend Bruno Richard Hauptmann, who was convicted of the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh. Reilly had Nunziata take the stand on his own behalf and declare that it was Verona of Woodhaven who had killed Dr. Kotkov. He claimed that Verona told him that he had some trouble with “a Jew up in Woodhaven” and that he wanted to settle the score. He also claimed that Verona induced him to go out on this fatal errand by intoxicating him with liquor. When it seemed that this argument was not persuading jurors, Reilly also had Nunziata claim that his confession was beaten out of him by the police with a rubber hose and that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. On April 18, the jury deliberated for less than 2 hours and came back with a verdict of guilty, and that included an hour for lunch. Nunziata sat unmoved when the verdict was read. The judge explained to the young man what the verdict meant — that he would soon face death in the electric chair. A few days later the judge set the date of execution as June 5, about six weeks away. The attack, the investigation, the indictment, the trial, the deliberation and the sentencing all took place within a 105-day window. The public demanded swift justice, and they received it. Nunziata was the youngest person ever sentenced to death in New York and he received the sentence coolly, without flinching. He was escorted out of the courtroom to a car waiting to drive him to death row in Sing Sing, where “Old Sparky” was waiting. In the Nov. 5 Old Timer, we will find out what happened to Peter Nunziata and the other defendants in the trail of the murder of Professor Wilfred Kotkov of Woodhaven. Photo courtesy of Project Woodhaven At top: A clipping from the Long Island Daily Press showing murder suspect Peter Nunziata in a Queens courtroom during his trial. Above: The 88th Street-Boyd Avenue A train station as it appears today. If you have any memories and photos that you’d like to share about “Our Neighborhood: The Way it Was,” write to The Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, NY 11385, or send an email to [email protected]. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned upon request.
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