97-year-old man's death is a homicide linked to 1950s stabbing, medical examiner says
The September death of a 97-year-old Brooklyn man has been classified as a homicide stemming from a 1950s stabbing.
The New York CIty medical examiner determined that Antonio Ciccarello died from a bowel obstruction related to medical treatment for the stabbing, which likely occurred in 1958 or 1959, the New York Times reports.
According to family lore, Ciccarello was stabbed for no apparent reason as he was walking to his job as a porter in Midtown Manhattan. He went to the hospital but never filed a police report.
The New York Police Department has included Ciccarello’s death in its “reclassified homicide” statistics—which are homicides because of injuries in a previous year. Ciccarello’s death appears to be the oldest reclassified homicide by the city, according to the Times. So far, detectives have no leads on a possible perpetrator.
Ciccarello’s daughter, Mary Paloglou, was only 2 when her father was attacked. The reclassification “baffles the mind; it baffles our family’s mind,” Paloglou told the Times. “The person who stabbed him is probably dead. Long dead.”
Hat tip to How Appealing.
