Peter Panto

Panto is a redirect to this article. Panto is also an abbreviation for English pantomime .

Peter "Pete" Panto (* 1911 ; † July 14, 1939 ) was a trade union activist and dock worker from New York , who campaigned against corruption and mafia-like structures in the port unions and whose sudden disappearance in 1939 generated strong media attention.

Panto murder case

Fight against corruption

Panto's goal was to make the public aware of the mafia-like conditions in the International Longshoremen's Association , the US union of stevedore and dock workers , and was extremely popular with the dockers because of his commitment.

At meetings he often had several hundred dock workers as listeners, whom he could reach and convince with his speeches. However, it became an imminent threat to organized crime, which had infiltrated the trade unions through numerous gangs. Therefore Albert Anastasia Panto tried to appease. His attempts at bribery failed, however, which is why Anastasia threatened the activist vehemently from then on.

Assassination of Pantos

When Panto, who was now supported by the union's Brooklyn Rank-and-File Committee , threatened to provide evidence and name names in speeches, Anastasia made the decision to have Panto murdered. On July 14, 1939, after a phone call, Panto left his house and was not seen alive by witnesses.

Panto had previously told his brother that he would have to meet two trade unionists he couldn't stand. If he is not back from the meeting by the next day, his brother should inform the police.

In January 1941, Panto's body was found in a lime pit.

Possible course of events

According to a testimony from Albert Tannenbaum , a contract killer of Murder, Inc. - who became an informant for the authorities and appeared as a witness against members of the criminal organization - the Murder, Inc. member Emanuel Weiss , a henchman of Anastasia and Louis Buchalter , at a meeting alleged the following: According to this, Panto was lured by two unionists into the house of James Ferraco in Lyndhurst, New Jersey , where he himself (Weiss), James Ferraco and Albert Anastasia were waiting. After entering the house, Panto recognized Anastasia and tried to escape, but was overwhelmed and strangled by Weiss.

Abe Reles , who like Tannenbaum belonged to Murder, Inc. and who was also promised impunity for committed murders for his cooperation with the public prosecutor, accused Tony Romanello (sometimes also Tony Romeo or Tony Romero) with the crime in addition to Anastasia, Weiss and Ferraco . Otherwise, his statement did not agree with that of Tannenbaum. Accordingly, Weiss, Ferraco and Romanello would have waited in a car in front of Panto's apartment. After leaving the house, they would have dragged him into their car. During the journey, the union activist was arrested by Romanello and strangled by Weiss. They finally buried Panto's body on a property in Ferraco near Lyndhurst.

Investigations after the body was found

From the discovery of the body in January 1941, the prosecutor under William O'Dwyer investigated the accused. However, the Panto murder was neither convicted nor charged. Criminal witness Abe Reles, on whose information Panto's body could be found in Lyndhurst, died in 1941 under mysterious circumstances. In 1942 Tony Romanello was arrested and questioned by the authorities on the matter. However, in the absence of sufficient evidence, the suspect was released. A few months after his release from custody, Romanello's body was found on the banks of Brandywine Creek near Wilmington . His body had multiple gunshot wounds and was marked with bruises. The public prosecutor was certain that Romanello was tortured and murdered on behalf of the other perpetrators because of his involvement in the Panto murder case. In 1944, gang leader Louis Buchalter and Emanuel Weiss were executed for another murder in Sing Sing prison. James Ferraco, wanted for the same murder, had disappeared without a trace. The public prosecutor's office assumed that, like Romanello, he was killed in 1940 or 1941, presumably on the orders of Albert Anastasia. The latter was known for murdering potential witnesses who could link him to such a crime. In 1957 Anastasia was herself the victim of an assassination attempt and shot in a hair salon in New York.

Theater and film

Pantos' struggle against corruption and criminal machinations of the unions infiltrated by gangs was processed in numerous plays and scripts. Arthur Miller's The Hook, for example, remained unproduced, but was later incorporated into the film project Die Faust im Nacken ( On the Waterfront ) by his friend, director Elia Kazan .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ O'Dwyer Refuted on Panto Murder; Jersey Lawyer Says Ex-Mayor Told Him Rebel Dock Leader Was Slain in Brooklyn . The New York Times , December 20, 1952, accessed June 30, 2016.
2. ↑ Nine Hundred & Forty Thieves . In: Time . December 29, 1952 (American English, article online at Time Magazine website [accessed April 23, 2011]).