WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 2, 2017 21
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
A tale of robbery and mayhem in Ozone Park and Woodhaven
PRESENTED BY THE WOODHAVEN
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
On a frigid night in February 1921,
Professor Wilfred Phineas
Kotkov had just departed the A
Train at the Boyd Avenue (88th Street)
Station on Liberty Avenue in what was
then considered Woodhaven.
The 36-year-old professor of philosophy
at the Jewish Theological Seminary
in Manhattan was accustomed to
coming home late and oft en cut across
the empty lot at the corner of Benedict
(87th Street) and Liberty 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
face down in the snow, a bloody iron
bedpost at his side. Four young men
were seen fl eeing 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 "stick up." 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
Images provided by the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society
appeared prosperous enough to rob.
Aft er the beating, they turned out
Professor Kotkov’s pockets, looking
for money, but very little was to be
found. Instead, the quartet 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 died
three days later.
There were immediate calls for swift
justice, owing to the fact that Kotkov
had made no resistance, nor was he
even given the opportunity. 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 fi rst week of
April, just over fi ve weeks aft er the
attack, the trial of Peter Nunziata began.
The 17-year-old, the youngest of the four
attackers, was a cool customer in court,
oft en seen yawning during testimony.
At one time during the trial he was
scolded by the judge for trying to light
a cigarette in court.
Nunziata’s defense was a vigorous
one (his lawyer was Edward J. Reilly,
who would later go on to defend Bruno
Richard Hauptmann). Reilly had
Nunziata take the stand on his own
behalf and declare that it was Verona
of Woodhaven who was the mastermind,
arranging the killing to settle a
personal score.
Nunziata also claimed 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 two 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.
Peter Nunziata was the youngest
person ever sentenced to death in New
York and he received the sentence coolly,
without fl inching. 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.
Next month, in the Old Timer, we
will fi nd out what happened to Peter
Nunziata and the other defendants in
the trial for the murder of Professor
Wilfred Kotkov of Woodhaven.