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| Josephine Amore (The Star & Newark Advertiser. August 17, 1908) |
Someone murdered Michael Martelle in his
second-floor flat at 16 Drift Street in Newark, New Jersey, on August 5, 1908.
His wife told detectives she heard gunshots after her husband walked toward the
back of the house. He staggered back through the hallway and fell dead on the
floor.
The police quickly arrested his next-door
neighbor, Carmine Amore, and charged him with the crime even though many people
testified Amore was playing cards at a bar across the street. Then, just as
quickly, the case against Amore fell apart as his pretty young wife confessed
to the crime.
Michael Martelle “bothered the life out of
me to elope with him,” said Josephine Amore, “and threatened to kill me if I
refused. He, a father of five children, would have deserted them all and had me
desert mine. He insisted that I get $500 from my husband and then, with all my
jewelry, go away with him.”
What to do? What to do? Finally, the young
woman decided on a course of action.
“He did not scare me. I got me a great big
gun and hid it,” said Josephine. “He said I must kiss him, so I got my revolver
and killed him. That is all. He is dead. I am glad.”
She thought it was best to take care of
Martelle before her husband found out and “perhaps commit some great crime.”
She said Martelle sent her a series of letters.
“Each time he wrote me, there was a threat
that I must answer. I stood it as long as I could and decided it best to take
his life before he would take mine.”
That was her explanation for killing
Michael Martelle.
If Josephine had done anything wrong, no
one would have known it by watching her. When she saw her brother, Dominick A.
Valentine, and some other friends in the courtroom, she shouted, “Hello,” in a
cheerful mood.
It would have been an open-and-shut case
against Carmine Amore if not for Josephine’s confession. Detectives had found
the murder weapon in his bureau drawer, four .38 caliber cartridges, and an
empty shell in his pocket.
Two days later, Essex County Prosecutor
George Mott told reporters he had enough evidence to convict Carmine and
Josephine Amore for the murder of Michael Martelle. Mott hinted there might
even be a third person involved in the plot, but he refused to name a suspect.
What tipped detectives off were three
letters Josephine Amore wrote to her husband, brother, and the dead man’s wife
to explain why she killed Martelle. The letters “were too carefully worded. Too
cleverly composed to have been the work of a nervous and desperate woman.” At
least, that was the general feeling at police headquarters.
(The Morning Call. August 7, 1908)
The first letter, to the victim’s wife, said:
Dear Rosy, I know that
at first blow, you will have great pain when you read the terrible news. But
what could you want, dear friend? Could I leave my family as your husband
wished? You know I have always loved you and esteemed you like a sister.
Could I ever consent to
your husband’s wishes? No, never, and never. I beg you to tell all my relatives
what I have always done when you and your husband were angry and all the favors
I have done for you both.
Conscientiously, I want
you to defend me with the public because you are the only one who knows that I
loved you as a sister and tried to make you peaceful and happy in your family.
I know you will pardon me and befriend me—your affectionate friend.
The second letter was to her brother,
Dominick Valentine.
My affectionate
brother—When you hear the news, I am certain you will feel like ice. Oh, dear
brother, only God can tell you how many sacrifices I have made for this
infamous human fiend. Michael Martelle. How could I ever go with such a man who
has a good family and children like myself? You cannot imagine, dear brother,
all the means I used to make him understand the wrong he was doing.
I even knelt before
him, begging him to leave me in peace with my family and children.
I beg you to love
Carmine and protect me before the public because I have done nothing wrong.
The last letter to her husband explained
why she killed Martelle.
My dear, affectionate
husband, I know you will feel a blow when you read this, but what could be
expected? I could not do otherwise. Oh, my God! How it pains me in thinking
that for a brute, I must sacrifice myself, forsake you with our children and
all my good friends. But there is only one thing on earth to revenge the
honor—the blood.
Now you will understand
why I could not find any peace for a long time while you were asking me why.
And I could tell you nothing. If I opened my mouth, he would have killed me—he
swore it. Then the public would have judged me a bad woman.
I swear to you that you
may be proud of me before the public that he did not succeed with his
intentions. I tried all means to pacify him, but he said I should be his—dead
or alive. Then I decided to wait for the moment to avenge myself.
You will pardon me for
the sorrow and pains. Oh, my poor children—how will they exist without the care
of their own mother? Your affectionate wife.
After more investigation, detectives found
three more letters in Martelle’s jacket pocket. They showed an ongoing intimate
relationship between Martelle and Amore.
“We have evidence that shatters the wife’s
confession,” said Captain Brown. “It shows she was in the plot and fixes the
crime on the husband.” The Amores decided she should take the blame, said
Police Chief Corbett, “because they believed no jury would convict her.”
Detectives said that when she heard about
the killing, Josephine went to the police station and confessed to the crime.
She was so sincere, saying she did it to preserve her honor that the police
believed her without question and released her husband.
How could they do otherwise?
Josephine was thirty-six, with six
children, but could easily have passed for twenty. Detectives instinctively
believed her story.
 |
| Carmine Amore (The Star & Newark Advertiser. December 8, 1908) |
Rosie Martelle, the dead man’s wife, told reporters that Josephine and her husband were always close, but she was never jealous of her. When she was sick, Josephine always stopped by to nurse her.
“I did not know why. She was rich, and I
was poor. Now I see,” said Rosie. “She loved Michael. She was double-dealing
me.”
Rosie Martelle looked around cautiously to
see who was listening, then whispered, “I will kill her if the law does not. I
know she did not shoot him, but Amore did, and they both should die.”
“And who will kill [Carmine] Amore,” asked
the reporter, “if the law doesn’t?” Rosie Martelle’s actions said it all. She
patted her younger brother, Antonio, on the shoulder and smiled.
Two days later, detectives rearrested
Carmine Amore and charged him and his wife with the killing of Martelle.
By mid-September, authorities
reconsidered—again — and believed Josephine Amore’s confession might be true.
Nine persons signed affidavits that said they saw Carmine Amore playing cards
in Thomas Busacca’s Saloon at the time of the shooting.
They swore he was in the saloon from 7
p.m. until 10:10 p.m., ten minutes after the shooting. That’s when his daughter
burst in screaming: “Come, papa. They’re all crying.”
He ran across the street and tripped over
his revolver in the hallway. As he got up, Amore put the gun in his pocket. He
went into his room, “where he saw two chambers had been fired. He emptied the
shells and cartridges into a pocket, and when the police came, changed his
clothes.” That explained why detectives found the gun in his bureau drawer and
the shells in his jacket.
 |
| (The Star Ledger. January 6, 1909) |
Carmine Amore disappeared on December 1, 1908, two weeks before his wife’s trial was scheduled to begin. His attorney, Joseph S. Murphy, feared he’d met with foul play.
Amore was last seen visiting his
brother-in-law, Dominick Valentine, the head of the Letter Carrier’s Union, at
his office on Broad and Grant Streets. His daughter said Carmine had $500 on
his person when he disappeared and was wearing a diamond ring worth several
hundred dollars more.
When he left Valentine’s office, Carmine
said he was going home—but he never made it.
The next day, The Star and Newark
Advertiser posted three theories police felt might explain Carmine Amore’s
absence: murder, voluntary disappearance, or suicide.
Josephine Amore believed her husband met
with foul play. When he visited her in jail on Sunday, her husband said, “their
enemies were harassing him” and “if they could, would do away with him before
the date of her trial.”
The police were more inclined to believe
Carmine Amore’s disappearance was part of an elaborate ruse to free Mrs. Amore.
They believed Carmine Amore fled the country. Once he was safely away,
Josephine Amore would repudiate her confession and say her husband killed
Michael Martelle.
The suicide theory developed from a
statement given by a barber named Antonio Pannico, who overheard Carmine Amore
talk about how hard it was to manage his wholesale grocery business after the
shooting. Supposedly, Amore said, “he could understand the feelings which
prompted people in trouble to commit suicide.”
Once her husband was safely away,
Josephine Amore changed her tune, repudiated her confession, and pleaded not
guilty to killing Michael Martelle. Then, with no definitive evidence, a
jury quickly acquitted her of the charges, and she walked away a free woman.
Carmine Amore returned home from London,
England, in early March 1909. He gave up the $6,000 bond he posted, but that
was a small price to escape a murder charge. He reopened his grocery store just
days later.
“It’s no disgrace to run when you are
scared,” explained Mrs. Amore.
Life continued as usual for the Amores. To
this day, Michael Martelle’s murder remains unsolved despite the strong
circumstantial evidence that he was done in by Carmine and Josephine Amore.
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