Josephine DiFiore was the first cousin of Vincent DiFiore (daughter of Guiseppe and Anna Puleo DiFiore).
The New York Times front page on Sunday, June 13, 1926 reported:
". . . hold-up men opened fire recklessly in the office of the Sunglo-Sills Company, wholesale grocers,. . . before noon yesterday, killed a girl and a man and wounded another girl.
Josephine DiFiore, 20 years old of 37 King Street, was standing at a filing cabinet and had just raised her hands at the command of a robber, when a bullet struck her in the chest and killed her. . .' Without waiting to seize to the payroll of $1,400.00, the hold-up men ran. . .'
Miss DiFiore, a pretty and popular young woman, lived with her parents and her sister, Mildred, in a four-room apartment on the second floor of 37 King Street. Mildred, 22 years old, who is to be married shortly, was at home at noon yesterday, waiting impatiently for her sister. They were to go out together to shop for Mildred's trousseau. Josephine was half an hour late when the doorbell rang. A policeman was standing there.
'Does Miss Josephine DiFiore live here?' he asked.
'Yes' said the girl.
'Are you related to her?'
'Yes' said Mildred. 'Tell me quick. What is it?'
'I have news for you,' said the policeman. Then he told her what had happened. The young woman became hysterical and her cries brought he mother, Mrs. Anna DiFiore. The mother was frantic. Relatives and then neighbors were called in, but none could comfort the mother. 'My baby, my Josephine, ' she cried incessantly. A club of girls of which Josephine was secretary was to have met at her home yesterday afternoon, and some of them came, unaware that she had been killed."
The New York Times on Thursday, July 29, 1926, reported "Obertst Gang begs mercy from accusers who identify them in the hold-ups."
Upon being identified by an eye-witness ". . . Frankel trembled. It was obvious that his robber confederate also feared possible identification, for as Frankel began to weep they joined him. 'Please don't say I killed anybody,' pleaded Frankel, holding out his manacled hands in supplication. And then the four other gunman followed suit, muttering something to the effect that it would be a great injustice were the girl to accuse them of murders they had not committed."
The 5 bandits were labeled the "Cry-Baby Bandits" and were sentenced to life imprisonment at Sing-Sing prison where they were to hard labor shoveling coal.
