Andrew Canzoneri (1937–38)

Wanted notice and death

A law-enforcement notice identified Canzoneri as Al Mancuso and “Gyp,” age 33, 5 feet 6 inches, about 175 pounds, with brown eyes, black hair, a broad nose, a missing upper-left tooth, and a round face. It said he had family in New Columbus, Pennsylvania, and might be with Michael Duffy of Lansford. He was wanted for the fatal shooting of New York dance-hall manager Alfred Rossi and had been indicted for first-degree murder. The notice dates Rossi’s death March 22, 1937; a later newspaper says August 22, 1936, a material conflict.

The later report also connects Canzoneri to the March 26, 1937 shooting of two men during a Wilkes-Barre dice game. It says associates of Rossi learned he was hiding in Hammonton, from which he was abducted August 7. His bullet-riddled body was found August 20 in woods near Atsion. On February 4, apparently 1938, undertaker Edward Cline exhumed him from Vincetown Baptist Cemetery at the request of his widow, Margaret Canzoneri of Nesquehoning, for reburial at Summit Hill, Pennsylvania.