Fortunato Lomonte

For­tu­nato Lomonte, a cousin of the Morello fam­ily, ran a hay and grain office with his brother Tomasso at 2103 1^st Avenue, on the junc­tion of E108th Street. Just a few doors away was the “Mur­der Sta­ble”. The police were sur­prised to learn of his mur­der on May 23^rd 1914. For­tu­nato, who had just left his busi­ness premises on the Sat­ur­day morn­ing, was walk­ing along E108th Street when he was shot in the back with three bul­lets. The killer had appeared from the hall­way of a ten­e­ment, then escaped by return­ing to the hall­way and vault­ing a fence at the rear of the build­ing. Josephine Con­stanzo a passer by was also shot. Lomonte’s friends drove him to Harlem Hos­pi­tal where he was revived. Detec­tive John Cas­setti pushed Lomonte for the killers name, but Lomonte refused to name his killer before he fell uncon­scious and died.

The mur­der is thought to be from the D’Aquila fam­ily look­ing to move into the Harlem power vac­uum after the incar­cer­a­tion of the Morello lead­er­ship in 1910, but may have been for the recent killing of D’Aquila friend Giuseppe Fontana.

Physi­cians at the hos­pi­tal said that the vis­it­ing Tomasso Lomonte swore revenge for his brother. The fam­ily house at 213 E107th Street was later besieged by friends and fam­ily, every­one who entered the house was ques­tioned by the police about their busi­ness before being allowed entry.