Dozen Battles Draw 1000 as Victory March Pays Serenade

DOZEN BATTLES DRAW 1000 AS VICTORY MARCH PAYS SERENADE Youth Cut in Chest by Bullet; Bystander Cut on Head POLITICAL LEADERS PUT TO QUIZ BY DETECTIVES At least one person was shot and many were hurt in a street battle last night that was the aftermath of a bitter political contest at the primary election between rival Republicans factions in the Eighth ward. When nearly a score of police arrived in response to a riot call from Sixth and Viola streets a crowd of 1000 excited residents of the ward had gathered there and a dozen or more individual combats were in progress. Bullet Hits Boy Nicholas Sustich, 15, of 1804 Hale street, was treated at Cooper hospital for a flesh wound of the chest, which police said was caused by a ricocheting bullet. Joseph Samenick, 1005 South Sixth street, was treated at the West Jersey Homeopathic hospital for cuts on the forehead. He claimed to be an innocent bystander. Others were treated for minor injuries by local or family physicians, having been taken away from the scene of the riot by friends before the arrival of the police. Detectives investigated a report that Isaac D. Shute, former city detective and former county committeeman from the Eighth Ward, had been shot in the leg. According to Detective George Zietz, he learned from a member of Shute's family that he had received treatment by a physician for cuts of the right hand resulting from a fall. After questioning a score of persons at detective headquarters last night, including leaders of each of the rival Republican factions, John Hess, 34, of 1825 South Sixth street, was arrested on the charge of illegal possession of firearms and held in $1000 bail for a hearing in police court this morning. Parade Starts Melee According to Zeitz, the melee started when a parade led by Nicholas Scarduzio, of 1863 South Fourth street, a former summer policeman, stopped in front of the saloon of William Tansky, Jr., 1903 South Sixth street, two doors below Viola street. (Continued on Page Two) Boy Shot in Riot Over Ward Election (Continued from Page One) Tansky was unsuccesful candidate for the post of county committeeman in the Tuesday primaries. He was reputed to be backed by the Woodruff-Verga faction. The parade was in celebration of the victory of Dr. Orris W. Saunders, who won the Republican nomination for freeholder, defeating Walter Sekula, the incumbent, of Edmund A. Walsh, who defeated Tansky, and of Maime F. Piraine, re-elected county committeewoman over Theresa Malony Di Lello. The successful candidates were of the Baird-Baker faction. Walsh and Miss Piraine were in the parade, according to Zeitz. The celebration of victory had started the night before and centered largely throughout the day in the saloon of Celie Ellis, across the street from that of Tansky. More than 100 persons were in the procession, which was led by an improvised band of accordians, fifes, drums and bugles. When it stopped in front of the Tansky place, according to the police, Benjamin Tansky, 30, a brother of the proprietor, came to the door of the saloon and objected to the political jibes that were hurled by the parading factionalists. Bloody Free-For-All When the paraders remained, the police said, hot words were exchanged, a dozen or more others who were in the Tansky place came out, and the battle started. Eye-witnesses described it later as a bloody free-for-all in which fists and "billies" were used. The riot call was sent to police at 7.30. Motorcycle policemen converged to the scene and a squad of detectives arrived led by Zietz and including Leon Branch, Fiore Troncone and Richard Donnelly. Many of the combatants fled, but hundreds remained as police and detectives strove to locate the injured, most of whom had been removed. Scarduzio Beaten Badly They learned that Scarduzio had been badly beaten on the head and that two shots had been fired in the melee. According to Zietz, Hess admitted at detective headquarters that he had fired the shots from a revolver which he had procured from back of the Tansky bar, and that he had aimed the shots at the pavement for the purpose of "scaring" the parade crowd away. Benjamin Tansky told police that when he remonstrated with the rival political group about 15 of them attacked him. They knocked him down, he said, and poked him in the eye with a pole. He exhibited a black eye to substantiate his story. Zietz said he found a loaded revolver, with two shells fired, in a radio cabinet in the living room behind Tansky's barroom.