In 1915 Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone were arrested in a 
clear case of entrapment by the New York Police who wanted to show 
they where doing something about foreign anarchists in the city.  

    Below are my notes from multiple sources on the case.

Frank Abarno
born June 7th or 17th, 1891 in San Fele, Potenza Province, Italy
to America in 1895 or 1900?
died April 1978 in Trenton, New Jersey

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1910 Census, 54 Elizabeth St, Borough of Manhattan, New York:
Abarno Antonio, Head, m, w, 44, m1, 20,,,Italy It...1891? al
Lucina, wife, f, w, 40, m1, 20, 8, 8, Italy It...1900
Frank A, son, m, w, 18?,S,,,,Italy, It...1900 [born circa 1892]
Margerite, daughter, f, w, 16, S,,,,Italy It...1900
Vincenza?, daughter, f, w,13, S,,,,Italy It...1900
Willis, son, F (sic), w, 9, S,,,,New York
Antonetta, daughter, f, w, 7, S,,,,New York
Joseph, son, m, w, 5, S,,,,New York
Danny, son, m, w, 2,S,,,,New York 
Toni, son, m, w. 3/12,,,,New York

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Nor did matters end there.  During the fall of 1914 a rash of bombings occurred in 
different parts of the city.  On the afternoon of Octover 13, the anniversary of the 
execution of Ferrer, a bomb exploded in St. Patrick's Cathedral, causing minor damage. 
That same evening dynamite was found outside St. Alphonsus's Church, where Frank 
Tannenbaum had been arrested in March.  A week later a bomb exploded in the rectory 
of the church, causing slight damage.  A brief respite followed.  Then on November 11, 
the anniversary of the Haymarket executions, a bomb was placed in the Tombs police 
court beneath the seat of Magistrate Campbell, who had sentenced Tannenbaum and the 
others.  He was just about to ascend the bench when the device was noticed and 
disarmed.
     In none of these incidents were the perpetrators arrested.  The police, however, 
suspecting anarchists, focused their investigation on the Bresci Group.  In January 1915 
Inspector Tunney, head of the bomb squad, ordered a bilingual officer, Dectective 
Amedeo Polignani, to infiltrate the group.  There Polignani met two young anarchists, 
Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone, prot�g�s of Frank Mandese.  Carbone, a cobbler, 
had lost the fingers of his right hand in the act of preparing bombs, possibly linked with 
the incidents of the previous fall.
     Winning their confidence, Polignani plotted with Abarno and Carbone to blow up St. 
Patrick's Cathedral.  Following instructions in La Salute � in voi!, the three made a 
number of bombs, and on March 2 Abarno and Polignani went to the cathedral.  Abarno 
placed a bomb by a pillar.  He was just about to light the fuse when he was seized by the 
police.  Moments later Carbone was arrested at his home.  Both men were charged with 
conspiracy to bomb the cathedral and brought before Judge Charles C. Nott, Jr. of the 
Court of General Sessions of New York.  A copy of La Salute � in voi!, taken from 
Carbone's room, was introduced as evidence during the trial.
     The Bresci Group maintained that this was a blatant case of entrapment.  According to 
Mandese and Sberna, who organized a defense fund for their comrades, Abarno and 
Carbone, inveigled into the scheme by Polignani, were "victims of a dark plot of the New 
York Police."  Inspector Tunney rejected these charges, insisting that the anarchists had 
acted on their own initiative.  The jury apparently agreed.  Both men were convicted, and 
Judge Nott, "stubborn as a mule," in the description of L'Era Nuova, sentenced them to 
six to twelve years in prison.
     Galleani, in Cronaca Sovversiva, published a series of articles on the case.  He too 
accused the police of framing Abarno and Carbone through the use of an agent 
provocateur.  A photograph of Polignani accompanied each article...
pp. 100-101, "Sacco and Vanzetti" by Paul Avrich


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Carmine Carbone and Frank Abarno, the anarchists were both found guilty Apr 12, 
but were recommended to mercy.  Sentences of from 6 to 12 years each were imposed 
Apr 19.
     Judge Nott said he had taken into consideration several things in their behalf or he 
should have imposed the limit sentence, from twelfe and one-half years to twenty-five in 
the pententiary (sic).
p. 409, Information Annual...A Continuous Cyclopedia and Digest of Current Events.  
1915-16, published by R.R. Bowker Co, 1916

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tunney then assigned an undercover agent, Amedeo Polignani, to infiltrate the "Bresci 
Circle," an anarchist group which met in the Italian section of East Harlem.  Usign 
whatever subterfuge and deception were required, Polignani succeeded in winning the 
anarchists' confidence.  According to Tunney's account, the agent was approached by two 
young men, Carmine Carbone and Frank Abarno, who had grown impatient with their 
comrades' cautious tactics.  The disgruntled pair allegedly invited Polignani to help them 
build some bombs.  In March 1915 Abarno was arrested in St. Patrick's Cathedral, 
seconds after he had placed a bomb near a pillar, and Carbone was also soon taken into 
custody.  To the anarchists, this was a clear case of police entrapment.  They claimed that 
Polignani had hatched the plot, inveigled the others into participating in it, and built the 
bombs himself.  A jury found Carbone and Abarno guilty, and they were sentenced to six 
to twelve years in Sing Sing.
p. 58, "Fighting Faiths" by Richard Polenberg

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Enter the third conspirator, Frank Abarno, 25 years old, and a native of San Velle 
(sic), Italy...A fortnight passed, and Carbone turned up at the Brescia meeting-place in 
company with Abarno.  They beckoned to Polignani and the three walked down Third 
Avenue, Abarno mouthing anarchy, and suddenly suggesting that he would like to go into 
St. Patrick's, find Cardinal Farley alone, and choke him to death.  The gentle soul then 
remarked: "Carbone, you make some bombs!"...the three...hired a furnished room at 1341 
Third Avenue....On February 27 Polignani and Abarno made a tour of inspection of St. 
Patrick's, and as they were descending the steps Abarno remarked that when he had 
destroyed the Cathedral they would turn their attention first to the Carnegie residence at 
90th Street and Fifth Avenue, and then to the Rockefeller home....High noon of the 
following day [Feb 28, 1915] saw the three plotters cheerfully at work in the furnished 
room...."I'll throw that one and you can throw the other, Carbone," Abarno said.  "Now 
listen.  We will meet here Tuesday morning at six o'clock to the minute.  We will get to 
the Cathedral just at 6.20.  Then we'll light the bombs, and the fuses will burn slow for 
twenty minutes, so as we can get over to the Madison Avenue car and then we can all get 
to work on time, and we will have a good alibi all right...Shortly after sunrise on 
Tuesday, Polignani tumbled out of bed and into his clothes.  He ate a hasty and nervous 
breakfast at a cheap lunch-room around the corner, and hurried to the side-walk before 
1341 Third Avenue, arriveing a few minutes after six.  Abarno joined him at 6.30....they 
started down Third Avenue...Then I saw Abarno and Polignani enter the vestibule, cross 
it and enter the church itself, taking their cigars out of their mouths as they turned 
towards the north aisle.  Abarno led the way.  At the tenth pew he motioned Polignani to 
sit there, and Polignani obeyed, dropping to his knees in prayer.  Abarno continued to the 
sixth pew ahead....Abarno rested for a moment in his pew, with his head and body bent as 
if in prayer, then rose and rejoined Polignani.  Again he rose, and this time moved toward 
the north end of the altar, where he crouched for several seconds, placing his bomb 
against a great pillar.  With his other hand he flicked the ashes from the coal of his cigar 
and touched the glowing end to the fuse.  He had taken perhaps three steps down the aisle 
again when the scrub-woman stopped plying her dust-cloth.  She fastened an iron grip on 
Abarno's arms and hustled him down the aisle so swiftly that no one remarked the affair.  
The scrub-woman was Detective Walsh, disguised....Abarno immediately suspected 
Carbone of treachery.  He protested violently that the missing conspirator had instigated 
the whole affair, that it was his idea, that he had made the bombs, and that he could be 
found living with a Hungarian-Jewish family on the fourth floor of a house at 216 East 
67th Street.  
pp. 50-67, "Throttled!" by Thomas Joseph Tunney

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   PEOPLE, etc., Respt., v. Frank ABARNO and Carmine Carbone, Applts. (Supreme 
Court, Appellate Division, First Department.  June 29, 1917.)  Judgement affirmed.  No 
opinion.  Order filed.

p. 1103, "The New York Supplement" by West Publishing Company

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Polignani played a prominent role in the case in which two anarchists, Frank Abarno and 
Carmine Carbone, were charged with attempting to bomb St. Patrick's Cathedral.  The 
defendants charged a police frame-up---specifically, that Detective Polignani had 
masterminded the bomb attempt.  Accounts of his role differ sharply, but Polignani did 
admit that he had purchased most of the bomb's components and rented the premises 
where they were assembled.  What also emerged from the trial evidence was that the 
bomb was a "fizzler," no more dangerous than a firecracker, used merely as a prop in a 
scenario staged to entrap the defendants.  But the jury was not persuaded, and the 
defendantes were give six- to twelve-year prison terms.
p. 31, "Protectors of Privilege" by Frank J. Donner
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

excerpts from the New York Times

New York Times, Wednesday 1915.03.03:

     7:00 am yesterday, just as Bishop Hayes had begun to celebrate early mass at St. 
Patricks two young Italians dressed as laborers came down East 51st Street and turned 
toward the northern entrace of the Cathedral on 5th Avenue...
      Det. Emilio Polignani [alias Frank Baldo], 25, on the police force only a year had 
ratted them out...
     The prisoner was Frank Arbano [sic] 22 years old of 284 Elizabeth Street.
     Gaetano Bresci Circle meets in basement of house at 301 East 106th Street.
     Alexander Berkman & Emma Goldman - offices of Mother Earth at 20 East 125th Street.
     Arbano has a father and mother, four brothers and three sisters living in town.  
Arbano's parents Antonio and Lucia Arbano live at 284 Elizabeth.
     Arbano was born in Italy.  Arbano in boyhood wanted to be a priest and attended the 
Church of the Transfiguration in Mott Street for a long time.  About five years before he 
became estranged from the Church and became a radical.

-------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Thursday 1915.03.04:

     Frank Abarno & Carmine Carbone said the plot was the work of Amedeo Polignani, 
the policeman when arraigned before Judge Swann...Abarno laughed a good deal and 
seemed more at ease.
     "He did all the work," said Abarno, "or at least 75 per cent of it."
     "Who did the rest?" asked Judge Swann.
     "We just helped," said the defendant.
     "He did the main part - bought all of it but the wire, sugar, and cord."
     "How do you plead?" asked Judge Swann.
     "I am guilty of doing it," said Abarno, "but I didn't mean any harm.  It was the other 
man's idea."
     Carbone corraborated this, saying that the other man, "the policeman," had told them 
that the best place to put a bomb was in a church.  The defendants were not represented 
by council, but Abarno protested that he wanted to get a lawyer of his own.
     "I don't want any lawyer assigned by the court," he said.  "He'd get us a long 
sentence...
     bail fixed at $25,000 each
     Then Abarno began to talk again, and assured the Judge that the bomb was intended as 
a protest against the present condition of society..."when I got into the church I didn't 

light the bomb, because there were so many people around that I was afraid some of them 
would be killed.  We did it simply to make the rich realize the condition of the poor; and, 
" he added laughing, "they realize it now all right."
     Abarno said that he met "Baldo" about three months ago at a meeting of the Gaetano 
Bresci Circle.
     "...I am a Free thinker and don't believe in any church, but I don't believe in blowing 
up people who don't agree with me.  I don't believe in blowing anybody up..."
     "Baldo lies, and the police lie when they say my bomb was lighted.  It was not.  They 
split the end and tore itoff to make it look that way."
     "In my own family," said Abarno, "there are twelve people.  The old man is working 
as a boot black and doesn't get very much.  I got $11 a week, but they have to eat at 
home.  Just because I've had work since the Italian-Turkish war was over didn't make me 
so blind that I couldn't see those around me who had no work.  Rags to wear, and not 
enough of them.  Scraps to eat, and sometimes not even scraps.  Those are things you 
people don't know about.  You don't see it as we do.  The rich people know and are 
responsible for all this, but they wouldn't make a change.  I guess they will now, We have 
waked them up."
     Abarno was an electrotyper
     Abarno said he was born in Italy and came to this country when he was eight years 
old.
     "I never got into trouble with the police," he said, "except when I was a little boy and 
stole some cakes.  And then my mother got me out for $2.  The only trouble with me is 
that I read too much.

------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Friday 1915.03.05:

     Francis J. Greco of 320 Broadway appeared at the Tombs yesterday and said that he 
had been employed to defend Abarno (hired by the Bresci circle) but the prisoners 
accepted Simon O. Pollock [employed by radical Italian newspapers] of 302 Broadway as 
their council when he arrived later.  Pollock was associated with William G. Kier.
     Carbone was arrested outside his home in East 67th Street.

------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Tuesday 1915.03.31, page 8:
Police had tested Cathedral Bomb
     Laboratory had shown, from samples, its power and time they had to pinch fuse
     Sleuths praised in court
Prosecutor, opening Anarchist Trial, says worshippers were left in no danger.
     Assistant District Attorney Arthur Train...interested a large audience for two hours 
yesterday afternoon in the court of Judge Charles C. Nott, Jr.
     Mr. Train's narrative marked the close of the first day fo the trial, the morning session 
and most of the afternoon having been given to choosing a jury.
     The work of selecting a jury then proceeded, the questions asked by Mr. Train 
indicating that his chief aim was to keep out of the box persons holding views in favor of 
anarchy or socialism.
     ...Mr. Train...aquitted the police of the charge that they had endangered the lives of 
many persons in the cathedral by knowingly permitting the anarchists to carry lighted 
bombs into the building.

------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Wednesday 1915.03.31:

     30 Anarchists fail to shake Polignani
     confronted in court, sleuth denies any one ever heard him propose bomb plot
     Polignani on stand for three hours in afternoon
     30 men brought in - Polignani denied he asked each one to join him in a bomb plot
     Polignani admitted that he bought most of the ingredients that went into the bomb, that 
he took pieces of the fuse to police headquarters to be tested before it was put into the 
bomb, that he rented the room where the bomb was made, that he kept the key, and that 
he had not yet been repaid the money he spent.
     "The stuff I bought," he said, "was the antimony, the potash, and some iron for the 
bomb case under Carbon's orders."
     ...the renting of a room at 1,907 Third Avenue...
     The trial will be resumed at 10:30 this morning.

------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Thursday 1915.04.01, page 6:

No Danger in Bomb, New Defense Plea
Call Cathedral officials to prove police gave assurances against damage
Court bars false whisker
Refuses to have detective make up before jury - Prosecutor Train on stand

     Attorney Simon Pollock...said the defense would show that the bomb was no more 
powerful than a big firecracker, that the police staged the whole affair as a bit of "play-
acting," and that the cathedral officials had been told that the bomb amounted to nothing 
or they would not have allowed the Cathedral to be invaded by a "horde of detectives 
bent on staging there the play of capturing a bomb maker."

saw Bomb lighted
     "I [Det. George D. Bernitz] approached in the only way I could to cover Abarno, and 
when he glanced at me and saw my feebleness and my gray hair he leaned over his bomb 
again and touched a lighted cigar to it.  Then of course, I caught him in my arms and 
tossed him to the dectives disguised as scrubwomen."
     "I threw him into their arms because I had to take care of the lighted bomb.  I picked 
up the bomb, snuffed out the light, and cut off a section of the fuse to keep as evidence."
     From D.E. Roelkey, a Heath Department chemist, the mixture of antimony, sulphur, 
potash, and brown sugar in the bomb was one of the weakest of explosives.  He testified 
to elaborate tests he made and said: "I found this explosive almost exactly equal in power 
to black powder."
     Lawyer Pollack held up the bombs and asked the jurors to see that they were mere tin 
cans with bits of wire wrapped around them and an explosive inside that would not 
surpass in power an ordinary fire cracker.  Mr. Pollock continued throughout the day to 
belittle the bombs and to try to prove that they would not have endangered anybody's  life 
if they had exploded in the cathedral.
     Train takes stand
     Assistant District Attorney Arthur Train, took the stand to tell about the bombs and the 
confessions made in his presence.  He had not intended to be a witness, but he found that 
a police stenographer who took the interview could not read his notes with sufficient  
clearness to testify.
     Mr. Train did not object to the effort fo the defense to show that the bombs were not 
dangerous.  He said Abarno tried to convert him to anarchism, and argued that he had no 
intention of harming any one, but did not want to damage the cathedral as a protest 
against the service of the church to the rich.
     Bomb scare in court.
     Pollock said powder from bomb would "merely fizzle like a fizzling fire cracker if I 
should light it.  And you know that if I threw it on the floor it would not go off and would  
not harm any of you if it did."
     He made a move as if to throw the bottle on the floor and two court attendants ran to 
rescue the bottle.
     Polignani was hissed by anarchist women in the corridor...
     The trial will be resumed at 10:30 o'clock today.

------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Friday 1915.04.02, page 7:

In Cell for Threat at Bomb Trial
Judge Nott orders arrest of Anarchist Giving Death Sign to Polignani
Carbone tells his story
Swears he knew nothing of explosives of anarchy till police sleuth taught him

     Giuseppe Aita of 378 Central Ave., Brooklyn taken to the Tombs
     Carbone's story made Detective Polignani as completely the originator and builder of 
the plot...
     His first lessons in anarchy...he got from Detective Polignani.  "Every book they 
found in my room Polignani bought for me.  Even the book called 'Health' that told how 
to make bombs, Polignani bought and give to me.

------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Saturday 1915.04.03, page 16:

Detective Lit Bomb
Abarno tells court

Alleged Plotter Swears Cigar
Polignani Bought for Him
Had Gone Out

Feared Mutilation Threat

Witness says Sleuth Terrorized 
Him with Tales of Vengeance
if He Faltered

     Abarno's mother and sister testified of their efforts to raise him as a religious and 
dutiful boy.
     Abarno freely admitted that he carried the bomb, but his voice rose as he shouted: 
"The Police lied when they said here in court that I lit the fuse to the bomb."
     He said he was held to Polignani's plan by fear of threats...
     ...When the police seized me the bomb was in my pocket where I had determined to 
keep it.  They pulled it out of my pocket.  My cigar that the police spy gave me went out 
before I got inside the cathedral.  It was out all the time I was kneeling in a pew where I 
was when the detectives grabbed me.
     "After they grabbed me and took the bomb from my coat pocket a detective lit a match 
and touched the end of the fuse with it..."
     The trial will be resumed at 10:30 this morning.

------------------------------------------------
New York Times, Tuesday 1915.04.13:
     
     Carmine Carbone and Frank Abarno, the anarchists accused of placing a bomb in St. 
Patrick's Cathedral during mass on the morning of March 2, were both found guilty at 
midnight last night by the jury which heard their case before Judge Nott in General 
Sessions.
     With the verdict of guilty the jurors made a recommendation to Judge Nott that he 
extend mercy to the two men.  
     Judge Nott, who had remained in the criminal courts building for six hours awaiting 
the verdict, thanked the jurors in dismissing them for the fair spirit in which they listened 
to the evidence.  He announced that he would pass sentence a week from next Friday, and 
would hear motions for an appeal or a retrial at that time.
     Conviction carries with it a penalty of imprisonment for twelve adn one half to twenty 
five years.
     Emma Goldman, after waiting for the verdict until 11:30 o'clock left the court room 
with a number of her women adherents, making remarks disparaging to the way the 
defence had been conducted.
     Lawyer Pollock for the defense insisted that it had been proven at the trial and 
admitted by the prosecution that the police spy bought the bomb materials, hired the 
room in which the bomb was built, mixed the materials he had bought, kept the key to the 
room, and led the expedition to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
     For the prosecution, Assistant District Attorney Arthur Train rested his case with a full 
admission that Detective Polignani did all of the things alleged by the defense in 
obtaining the bomb materials and helping to prepare them.
     But Mr. Train insisted that Polignani in buying and mixing the materials merely acted 
as a supposed tool of Carbone, who the prosecution charged, was the real engineer of the 
plot, and only bought such bomb materials as Carbone sent him for.
     The matter of Detective Polignani's interest in the case seemed to bother the jurors 
more than any other item of the testimony.  At 11:20 o'clock, after they had been 
deliberating over five hours the jurors sent word to Judge Nott that they wished to receive 
more complete instructions.
     When Judge Nott agreed to receive the jurors, they submitted in writing this question:
     "We request to be informed whether Detective Polignani was justified as an agent of 
the police in co-operating with the defendants to the extent of purchasing bomb 
materials."
     Judge Nott, in replying, said that the law did not consider a police officer guilty of a 
crime who co-operated with criminals in the consumtion of the crime because the intent 
of the criminals was to break the law, while the intent of the policeman was to obtain 
information about the plan to break the law and to prevent and thwart the plan.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

page 3, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York, Monday 1915.04.19:

BOMB PLOTTERS GET 6 TO 12 YEARS
Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone Sentenced for Cathedral Conspiracy.
Judge Exculpates Police.
Counsel for Defense Doubts That Public Approves Methods of Detectives in Case.

   Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone, found guilty last week of plotting to blow up 
St. Patrick's Cathedral, were sentenced each to a term of not less than six years 
and not more than twelve, in Sing Sing, by Judge Nott, in General Sessions, 
Manhattan, today.
   An arrest of sentence for one week to give the young men an opportunity to close 
up their affairs was granted.
   Judge Nott, in sentencing the young men, said he took into account the 
recommendation of clemency made by the jury that convicted them.
   "I have been very perplexed in trying to arrive at a proper decision in this case." 
he said.  "The crime has been a most serious one, and the punishment meted out 
must be a warning to others.  I do not wish to be unduly harsh, but the interests of 
justice demand that the public be protected.
   "I have no doubt that the defendants were moving parties in the manufacture 
and in the placing of the bombs.  It is true that the detective co-operated with 
them, but I do not believe the police were the instigators of the crime.
   The maximum penalty for the offense is twenty-five years.
   Simon O. Pollock, of counsel for the defense, said he believed public sentiment 
was not in accord with the policy of the Police Department "in singling out 
youngsters dominated by the superior minds of the police."  The jury did not 
believe the boys were morally guilty, Mr. Pollock said, but "on interpretation of the 
law by the presiding judge, they had to return a verdict of guilty."
   Amedeo Pulignano, the young detective through whose instrumentality the 
prisoners were arrested in the Cathedral, March 2, was not mentioned by name in 
the entire proceedings.  He was referred to by Judge Nott as the "Detective who 
co-operated with them."
   Abarno, an electrical helper, 23 years old, living in 284 Elizabeth street, and 
Carbone, a cobbler, 19, of 218 East Sixty-seventh street, both of Manhattan, were 
indicted March 3.  After a trial in which counsel for the young men accused the 
police of "framing up" and instigating the plot, the accused were convicted April 
12.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1917.06.05 World War I Draft Registration:
Frank Abarno
Home address    234 Mott, New York, NY
date of birth    June 7, 1891
born    San Fele, Potenza, Italy
citizen of Italy
Laborer
By whom employed    New York
where employed   Sing Sing Prison

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1920.01.06 at 112 Kent St., Trenton, New Jersey Census listing:
Abarno, Anthony, age 47, immigrated 1895, Alien, born Italy
Lucy, age 49, immigrated 1895, Alien, born Italy
Frank, age 26, immigrated 1895, Alien, born Italy
Mary, age 17, born New York
Joseph, age 16, born New York
Danial (sic), age 12, born New York
Anthony, age 10, born New York

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Social Security Death Index
Frank Abarno
153-05-6742
last residence   Trenton, NJ  08611
born 17 June 1891
died Apr 1978

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Links-Rechts Links