Giovanni Cayaldi and the murder if Iron Cranmer
New Jersey Courier 21 Jul 1916
Five men serving time for murder were paroled from state prisonlast week, among them Givoanni (John) Cayaldi, an Italian cranberry picker who shot and killed iron Cranmer at West Creek on the night of October 7, 1905. Cayaldi pleaded to second degree murder, with constent of the court and on December 19, of that same yer, was sentenced to twenty years in state prison, of which term he has served about ten years and six months.
Cayaldi was a young Italian at the time of the killing, 24 years old. He with other Italians were picking cranberries at the Stafford Forge bog. Saturday nights they would take their violins and accordions and go to the hotel in West Creek village, and make music for the hangers on there. This night about midnight when the hotel closed, Cayaldi, with Charlie Baker, the boss Italian and interpreter for John W. Holman, who at that time was running Stafford Forge bogs, started up the road, with Iron Cranmer, his sons, Will and Barton Cranmer, Hugh Bird of Tuckerton and others. All had been drinking, and Baker had reached the quarrelsome stage, while the shore boys had had enough to make them want a scrap. Baker began the fight, so the court testimony went, by daring Will Cranmer to fight him, and by striking the young man over the head with a beer bottle. Cranmer sailed into Baker, got him down and was pounding him.
Before Baker started his fight, he took off his coat and gave it to Cayaldi to hold, and in the coat was a loaded revolver. Cayaldi drew the gun and threatened to shoot. Hugh Bird was shot through the arm. Iron Cranmer, remonstrating with Cayaldi for shooting Bird, was shot through the abdomen. Cranmer died in Cooper hospital, Camden, on Monday night, having been taken there by Dr. Joshua Hilliard of Manahawkin and John L. Lane of Tuckerton.
Cranmer lived at what is know as Spraguetown, a suburb of West Creek, and was sixty years of age, the father of twelve children. The theory on which Cayaldi was allowed to plead guilty was that he was unused to the Anglo-Saxon method of fist fighting and thought that Baker was being killed, and in his fear and desperation started shooting. Cranmer, it was allged by the witnesses, did not attack Cayaldi, was not drunk, but presumably tried to keep Cayaldi from shooting his son Will, who was beating up Baker. The late Eckard P. Budd of Mt Holly and Seaside Park made a plea for Cayaldi in court, and T.J. R. Brown was at that time prosecutor, with the late Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Hendricskon on the bench.
Another of the men paroled wwas the notorious Francis Lingo, colored, of Merchantville, suspected of two murders of white women and serving twenty years for abducting a child.
Five men serving time for murder were paroled from state prisonlast week, among them Givoanni (John) Cayaldi, an Italian cranberry picker who shot and killed iron Cranmer at West Creek on the night of October 7, 1905. Cayaldi pleaded to second degree murder, with constent of the court and on December 19, of that same yer, was sentenced to twenty years in state prison, of which term he has served about ten years and six months.
Cayaldi was a young Italian at the time of the killing, 24 years old. He with other Italians were picking cranberries at the Stafford Forge bog. Saturday nights they would take their violins and accordions and go to the hotel in West Creek village, and make music for the hangers on there. This night about midnight when the hotel closed, Cayaldi, with Charlie Baker, the boss Italian and interpreter for John W. Holman, who at that time was running Stafford Forge bogs, started up the road, with Iron Cranmer, his sons, Will and Barton Cranmer, Hugh Bird of Tuckerton and others. All had been drinking, and Baker had reached the quarrelsome stage, while the shore boys had had enough to make them want a scrap. Baker began the fight, so the court testimony went, by daring Will Cranmer to fight him, and by striking the young man over the head with a beer bottle. Cranmer sailed into Baker, got him down and was pounding him.
Before Baker started his fight, he took off his coat and gave it to Cayaldi to hold, and in the coat was a loaded revolver. Cayaldi drew the gun and threatened to shoot. Hugh Bird was shot through the arm. Iron Cranmer, remonstrating with Cayaldi for shooting Bird, was shot through the abdomen. Cranmer died in Cooper hospital, Camden, on Monday night, having been taken there by Dr. Joshua Hilliard of Manahawkin and John L. Lane of Tuckerton.
Cranmer lived at what is know as Spraguetown, a suburb of West Creek, and was sixty years of age, the father of twelve children. The theory on which Cayaldi was allowed to plead guilty was that he was unused to the Anglo-Saxon method of fist fighting and thought that Baker was being killed, and in his fear and desperation started shooting. Cranmer, it was allged by the witnesses, did not attack Cayaldi, was not drunk, but presumably tried to keep Cayaldi from shooting his son Will, who was beating up Baker. The late Eckard P. Budd of Mt Holly and Seaside Park made a plea for Cayaldi in court, and T.J. R. Brown was at that time prosecutor, with the late Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Hendricskon on the bench.
Another of the men paroled wwas the notorious Francis Lingo, colored, of Merchantville, suspected of two murders of white women and serving twenty years for abducting a child.
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