Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1912 — Gets Hunter’s License to Slay Men [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Gets Hunter’s License to Slay Men

CHICAGO. —Obsessed with a desire for revenge, but imbued with a spirit of refrain from breaking the law, Joseph Tesso, a Chicago Italian, armed himself with an Illinois hunting license before he started the other day to Hammond, Ind., to carve up three of his fellow countrymen with a razor in a vendetta of long standing. .... When Tesso appeared at the window for a license he presented A bland smile and a large razor. _ "You’re in the wrong place," said the clerk. "You want a barber license.” "No wanta shave, wanta keel,” replied Tesso, grinning. “Want to kill, do v you? Well, I guess you want a hunting license all

right,” and thinking that the razor j merely comprised the man’s effects] the license was issued when the re-i quired amount was paid. Armed with his license and his razor Tesso cut such a swath among his compatriots employed In the New York Central yards at Hammond that a riot i call was turned in. When the tumult subsided three Italians were so severely carved that they had to he rushed to a hospital. Tesso, clutching his razor In one hand and the 11* cense in the other, was arrested. When arraigned bfefore Judge Prest Tesso proudly produced his license with a smile. ■ "I gotta da right to keel evera one in Indeean," he explained. ‘1 gotta whatcha call da license.” The judge smiled and the attaches and spectators laughed, but the Italian was so persistent in his plea that he had been told that a hunting license obtained in Illinois would give him the right to kill anybody he Wished in Indiana that the*charge was changed to assault and A small fine imposed.