Rosario Borgio

In the fall of 1917, after years of being monitored, patted down, and otherwise harassed, Borgio declared war on the Akron police force, offering a bounty of $250 on all police officers in the city.[2][8] The first victim was Patrolman Guy Norris, who, while patrolling his beat, witnessed a robbery and was shot twice in the back when he confronted the burglar.[8][3][4] He was the first policeman in Akron to die while on duty.[10] On January 10, 1918, patrolmen Edward Costigan and Joe Hunt, also on patrol, were shot and killed.[3][11] Borgio targeted Costigan specifically because Costigan would stop him in the street and search him for concealed weapons whenever the two would meet following Borgio's concealed carry arrest.[4] A fourth officer, Gethin Richards, was killed on March 12, 1918.[10] He had been following two suspicious men when he was shot multiple times in the stomach.[8][4] Borgio reportedly held Richards' hands behind his back while Frank Mazzanno shot him. A passerby witnessed the murder and reported it to the police, who apprehended the killers shortly after.[8]

Akron police were initially unaware of Borgio's involvement and considered it might be the work of a murder ring.[8][12] After Detective Chief Harry Welch was given Tony Manfredi's name as a suspect, and subsequently found medical records detailing a bullet wound in the hand, Detective Chief Eddie McDonnell brought in Lt. Michael Fiaschetti from the NYPD head the mafia unit to consult.[13][14][15] Welch sent Fiaschetti information about Manfredi, thought to have fled to New York, and the address of a pool room Manfredi's relative owned.[14] Manfredi and James Palmeri were arrested at the pool room Welch described and were escorted back to Akron by Welch and Fiaschetti.[14] Detectives Welch, McDonnell, and Corey arrested an additional suspect, Pasquale Biondo, in a rooming house in Sandusky, Ohio.[14] Manfredi and Palmeri received life sentences; Biondo was sentenced to the electric chair.[14]

Borgio, along with accomplices Frank Chiavaro, Frank Mazzanno, and Pasquale's brother Lorenzo Biondo, were convicted.[2][16] Borgio and Mazzanno were sentenced to the electric chair and died minutes apart.[17][5] Chiavaro also died by electric chair.[14] James Palmeri and Tony Manfredi were sentenced to life terms in prison,[14] while Lorenzo Biondo's sentence was secretly acquitted by Gov. George White and he fled to Italy.[5] Borgio reportedly admitted to other crimes while awaiting death in hopes that it would delay or call off his execution.[8][5]

Borgio died by electric chair on February 21, 1919, at the Ohio Penitentiary.[18][3] In the weeks following his death, three more policemen were shot by angry Black Hand members, one of whom, Officer George Werne, died.[8][19]