Antonio Nardello (1864 – May 28, 1886) was an Italian serial killer who robbed and murdered three men in Maryland and Washington, D.C. between 1884 and 1885. Convicted of one murder, he was sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 1886.
Early life
Antonio Nardello was born in Naples, Italy. At the time of his birth, his father was imprisoned for twenty years for brigandage, and Nardello never saw him. In 1883, he emigrated to the United States, working at various times in New York, Chicago and finally in Cecil County, Maryland, where he was employed as a laborer by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Murders
Brosnan
On April 1, 1884, aiming to rob a fellow laborer along the Philadelphia Road in Gunpowder, Maryland, Nardello killed a man named Brosnan, known by his nickname "The Blacksmith". Another employee, Juliano, was erroneously convicted of the crime and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He was exonerated only after Nardello confessed to the crime shortly before his execution two years later.
Antonio de Balbo
On May 19, 1885, a laborer named Charles Bushel was searching for a stray cow near his Cecil County homestead when he accidentally discovered the body of a man on a hill, partially covered with leaves and hidden in a bush. The right side of his skull had been crushed, and judging by the advanced state of decay of the flesh on his face and hands, he had been murdered upwards of months prior. No valuables were found on the body, only a ticket from the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad line between Wilmington, Delaware and Chester, Pennsylvania and a letter written in Italian, dated November 1, 1884 and addressed to a man named 'Antonio Sibbini'. An autopsy of the body concluded that he had died from blunt force trauma, likely inflicted with a club or cane, but no positive identification of the deceased could be ascertained. It was speculated that the victim had been an employee of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and when the authorities questioned the workers, they claimed most of them suspected a fellow countryman, one Antonio Nardello, might've been the killer, but he had left for Baltimore in December 1884. With no clues leading to the identity of either victim or killer, the deceased's remains were buried, and the case faded into obscurity.
The truth was revealed on the day of Nardello's execution, when he confessed to the murder of a fellow railroad worker, Antonio de Balbo. In his testimony, he had boarded at the victim's home and knew that de Balbo had cash on him, and on December 19, 1884, he asked him to accompany him on a walk. While de Balbo was distracted, Nardello pulled out a gun and shot him, taking his watch and money, which he later sold in Baltimore, before concealing the body in the bushes. Although there were discrepancies in his confession, key among them being that de Balbo had been shot instead of bludgeoned to death, the authorities still considered his confession credible based on the circumstances, and officially closed the case.
Carmine Rotunno
On August 1, 1885, citizens living close a newly built reservoir near Howard University in Washington, D.C. lodged complaints about a foul smell emanating from an old, abandoned shack in the farm of Curtis Gilbert. When they entered one of the rooms on the second floor, they discovered the decomposing body of a man lying on the floor. At his glance, nothing suspicious about his death was noted, until the officers noticed the huge gash on his neck, as well as blood splattered on the floor and walls. Not long after, the decedent was identified as a middle-aged Italian immigrant named Carmine Rotunno, a laborer and shoemaker who lived at a nearby boarding house. He was last seen on the early morning of July 29, accompanied by one Antonio Nardello, another laborer with a reputation for being a lazy man who preferred to spend his money and time gambling. Despite warnings from his co-workers, Rotunno accompanied Nardello, as the latter had promised him work, and was never seen alive again.