him, I asked if it hurt much, he said he did not feel it, did both of you go to drink.  No.  Where else did Strollo go, Strollo said he was going at the Bleecker Street Hotel to sleep, did you see him again.  No.  Nothing else, if you want to help me reflect well, but you don’t need any more words from me say just what I have said and I hope, with faith of a brother not a friend, I am ever your Friend,

     A. STROLLO.

It may, and probably will, appear to the reader that a clearer case of guilt could hardly be established, but the action of juries is always problematical, and this was a case composed entirely of circumstantial evidence.  The jury would be obliged to find that no reasonable hypothesis consistent with the innocence of the accused could be formulated upon the evidence.  Thus, even in the face of the facts proven against him, some “freak” juryman might still have said, “But, after all, how do you know that Strollo killed him?  Some other fellow might have done it.”  Even the “faking” of a defence does not prove the defendant guilty, but merely that he fears conviction, and is ready to resort to feigned testimony to secure his freedom.  Many innocent men convict themselves in precisely this way.

Accordingly it was by no means with confidence that the People went to trial, but throughout this remarkable case it seemed as if it must have been preordained that Strollo should not escape punishment for his treacherous crime.  No defence was possible, not even the partially prepared alibi was attempted, and the only thing that savored of a defence was the introduction of a letter alleged to have been received by the defendant while in the House of Detention, and which, if genuine, would have apparently established that the crime had been perpetrated by the “Black Hand.”

The offering of this letter was a curious and fatal blunder, for it was later proven by the People to be in Strollo’s own handwriting.  It was his last despairing effort to escape the consequences of his crime.  Headed with a cross drawn in blood it ran as follows: 

I swear upon this cross, which is the blood of my veins, Strollo is innocent.  I swear upon the cross the revengeful Black Hand could save me.  New York, Oct. 12, 1905.  Sir Strollo, knowing you only by name, eight days after that I leave this letter will be sent to you.  I leave at seven o’clock with the Steamer Britain the Harbor.  Therefore I leave betraying my oath that I have held for the last three years belonging to the Black Hand.  I will leave three letters, one to you, one to the Police Officer Capri, and the other to the law, 300 Mulberry Street.  All what I am saying I have sworn to before God.  Therefore your innocence will be given you, first by God and then by the law, capturing the true murders.  I am sure that they already captured the murderer of Torsielli.  Who lured you to come to New York was Giuseppi Rosa, who