THE STOOL PIGEON & THE HOLDUP (1931)
(The New York Police Department has several thousand photographs of crime scenes available online at the City’s Department of Records. Many of them are gruesome. But they are great 
pictures for doing research. The picture in this blog post was taken after a holdup at 729 4th Avenue in 1931. Although the pictures usually have limited or poor information associated with the photos, after a bit of some rudimentary research, we can usually find the whole story in old newspaper archives. Finding these, we are able to piece together the story behind the photograph.)
THE STOOL PIGEON & THE BODYGUARD
The picture above (the black & white inset photograph) is the scene of a holdup, which took place at 729 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, on 16 May 1931. Two men were shot during the event, but before it took place, another – providential – event occurred, which stymied the holdup and caused the arrests of the three men.
Chile Acuna, whose revelations pried off the lid of police vice squad conditions (read about it here) was arriving home at 740 4th Avenue around 11:30 p.m. on 16 May 1931. His wife and their two kids were with them.
So was their bodyguard, Patrolman William F. O’Brien.
THE HOLDUP
Noticing the vehicle at the curb of the drugstore across the street, O’Brien observed what happened next. He saw three men exit the vehicle while the fourth remained at the wheel.
As the three men approached the drugstore, O’Brien told Acuna:
“Run upstairs with the children. I want to say hello to someone.”
To O’Brien it seemed like a holdup.
It was.
As O’Brien entered the store, he noticed as two men were forcing Vincent Raspoli, the proprietor, to the rear of the store while the third was taking money from the cash register.
O’Brien drew his sidearm and an exchange of gunfire ensured.
One man, an innocent bystander who had been making a telephone call from a booth within the drugstore at the time of the holdup, was also injured, having received a bullet in the thigh as he exited the booth when the shooting began.
POSTSCRIPT
The two 16-year-old boys plead guilty in the holdup. About ten years later it is evident that at least one of the boys, Edward Filipkowski, was involved in another holdup.
Chile Acuna, the stool pigeon in the story above, would die of a brain tumor the following year.
Patrolman O’Brien, known as “Two Guns O’Brien,” made the grade of Detective the following year.
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The story you have just read was composed from historical research conducted by The Brownstone Detectives. It was uncovered during the extensive research that our clients commission us to perform on their historic homes, research which culminates in the production of one of our celebrated House History Books. If you are interested in discovering the history of your home, contact us today.
