Brooklyn Police Appeal for Witnesses

“We urge you to come forward,” the loudspeakers of the police cars blared as they cruised along West Ninth in the Besonhurst section of Brooklyn yesterday morning. “Help bring this murderer to justice. Remember, this is your neighborhood, help protect it.”

But the unusual police effort to find witnesses to the murder of Angelo Treglia was met with silence. The well-liked plumber was shot to death on the street on Saturday in full view of many of his neighbors but, so far – to the frustration of police – no one has come forward. Police say that on Saturday afternoon there were 50 or 60 people on the block.

Mr. Treglia, a slim, well-liked plumber who often did favors for neighbors had just finished repairing a bathroom shower a few doors from his home and was loading his tools into his truck. Four shots rang out. Mr. Treglia fell dead, three bullets in his head, one in his shoulder.

“It was over a concrete job,” one said. In front of the Treglia home there is a botched concrete-repair job on the curb and sidewalk. Another man had done the job and Treglia was trying to get him to fix it. “They were out in front fighting about it the other day,” a woman said, “but then they went into Italian and I couldn’t follow them.”

The second man was known as “Crazy Joe.”

About 200 neighbors attended a mass for Treglia yesterday. Tilda Treglia, the widow, broke down at the mass. “What are they waiting for, a third murder?” she said. She referred to a recent case a few blocks away in which Frank Juliano, 22, was shot to death in front of a bar. In that case, too, no witnesses have come forward.

excerpt from John Kiener NYT 10/26/77