In genealogy circles, the term
“Happy Dance” can mean Jackpot!, your research has paid-off big
time! You found that elusive brother, sister, parent, cousin,
grandparent, great-grandparent, (you fill in the blank) that you've
been searching for that it makes you jump-for-joy, dance around the
room, shout-out-loud, have a “zing” in your step and you can't stop smiling.
I was on Facebook the other day
and came across a post, don't remember from who, that asked the
question, “When did you have your last happy dance?”
With a smile on my face, I
immediately clicked in the comments section and typed, “Last
month!”
In the summer of 2012, my husband
and I were on a cross-country road trip that brought us to New
Orleans, Louisiana. A cousin in Chicago put me in touch with a
collateral cousin of our family who lived in Metairie, Louisiana, his
name is Philip Ficarra. I had never met him, only talked on the phone
briefly a few weeks before we came. He was so glad to meet us and we
felt the same toward him. Our talk turned to family stories and of
course, our family's genealogy.
With the help of the family group
sheets I brought, I figured out that his great-grandfather Salvadore,
was the oldest brother of my grandfather Philip. Oh wow! One of my
brick walls had just tumbled down! I knew there were cousins' in New
Orleans, we just never met them. They in turn had heard of a branch
of the family who moved to California. That was us!
Philip introduced us to his
lovely mother Marguerite. Her husband had passed away but she was
happy to fill me in on their branch of the family. As my husband and Philip talked
cars, Marguerite and I swapped stories. Family talk eventually turned
to a different branch of their family, the branch that had the “black
sheep.” Philip's cousin Frank, had been murdered a long time ago. I sat
up straighter in my chair. “WHAT??”
Marguerite said, “Frank had
been shot in the back of his head. He had been messing around with a
married woman, the husband came home, caught them, and Frank was
shot.”
That story stayed with me for two
years. I always wanted to see if I could find the newspaper article
about the shooting and see if the details matched what Marguerite
told to me.
Last month I renewed my
subscription to GenealogyBank.com, a web site that has digitized
historical newspapers, documents, and genealogy records. In the
search box for the collection Newspaper Archives I typed: Ficarra. In
the Date Range search box I typed: 1900 to 1940, then clicked on the
Begin Search button. The results: 105 Ficarra Records.
I thought, “Well, not too bad.
I can go through them slowly, see what I can find.”
Search result number 56 was an
article on page two dated Monday, November 17, 1930, from the
newspaper
Times-Picayune in New Orleans. I clicked on the link
and was taken to the article. It was the obituary for Frank Ficarra!
Further searching brought up an article on page one of the same
newspaper, same date: “Mysterious Killing of Former Convict Is
Puzzle to Police.” “Brother-in-Law Held After Family Affray;
Seven Bullets Supposedly Fired from Six-Shooter.” “Third Revolver
Found Discharged.” “Frank Ficarro Killed With Own Pistol by John
Occhipinti After Beating Wife, Witnesses Say.”
I
read, then re-read the article two or three times. I later found two
similar articles in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana newspaper. Frank wasn't
killed by a jealous husband as Marguerite said.
The following is an excerpt from
the newspaper article.
Mrs. Ficarro said she and her son
were asleep when her husband came home about 6:30 on Sunday morning.
She said her husband came into her bedroom and awakened her,
asserting that he was tired of living there and wanted her to move
with him somewhere else. She said he demanded that she get up and put
on her clothes.
Fearing that she might be beaten
unless she complied to his commands, Mrs. Ficarro told the police
that she got out of bed. She said a minute or two later she refused
to go with him and jumped back into bed. When she did, Ficarro,
holding a revolver in one hand, began to beat her over the head with
his fist.
Occhipinti is said to have told
Ficarro to stop beating his wife, adding that “he did not want any
more disturbance.” Ficarro, at that remark, is reported to have
threatened to kill everyone in the house.
A moment later Ficarro, according
to his wife, started running toward Occhipinti. “At that instant,”
the dead man's wife said, “John grabbed the revolver from my
husband's hand. When John took the gun, Frank quickly reached for his
hip pocket to get another gun. When he did that John fired at him. I
was so frightened. I don't remember how many shots were fired.”
I found the details of a
collateral cousin's murder. This was my Happy Dance!
Copyright, 2014, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott
