“Former Moneta Resident Given Term of Ten Years,” The Porcupine Advance (Timmins). December 23, 1930

“Former Moneta Resident Given Term of Ten Years,” The Porcupine Advance (Timmins). December 23, 1930. Page 06.—-Anchrio Sanguigno, Alias Tony Romano, Given Heavy Term on Charge of Robbery Under Arms at Toronto. Was in Court Here One Time by Acquitted.—-Those who noted last week the sentencing at Toronto of Anchiro Sanguigno, aged 40 years, to ten years in the penitentiary on a charge of attempted robbery, while armed, and shooting with intent, may not have known that the accused was a former resident of Timmins, having lived in Moneta, and being well-known to the police here. He was a frequenter of gaming houses while here and went under the name of Anchiro Sanguigno, Tony Sanguigno and Tony Romano here. He left here a couple of years ago and since then he has gotten into more or less serious trouble. In addition to the charge on which he was sentenced to ten years, Toronto police say he is also wanted across the boundary line on a charge of murder. While resident in this district Sanguigno was far from popular with the police. They claimed that he did not work and they also suspected him of certain breaches of the law. Eventually a little more than two years ago a warrant was issued for his arrest on a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, the assault charges against him being that he was accused of almost severing a man’s nose from his face. The man in question claimed that he had been playing cards in the house and Sanguigno requested some money from him. When he refused to hand over any money, according to the story of the man in court, Sanguigno cut him across the face with a knife, almost severing the nose from the face. The man spent considerable time in hospital but eventually recovered. Later Sanguigno was arrested and tried here on the assault case. He pleaded not guilty and told so fair a story that he was acquitted. Shortly after his acquittal he left Timmins and so far as can be learned has only been back here once and that time only for a brief visit. When the case against Sanguigno was in progress in Toronto the Timmins police recognized the picture of the accused man as that of the former resident here. Enquiry to the Toronto police force brought confirmation of the identity of the man, scars on his forehead and one finger making the identification quite complete.[AL: Sanguigno was also known as Angus Sanguine, the name he was committed to the penitentiary under as inmate #2021. After the riot of October 1932 at Kingston Penitentiary, Sanguigno used the opportunity, like many others, to complain about his experiences to the government investigators. Sanguigno complained that he was sick with the flu, got pills, then had his job changed in the prison kitchen to dish washer - a position he thought was dangerous to his health. Indeed, he felt “they did not give me a chance - I was shoved around.” He blamed several other inmates, including a man named King, a forger doing a three year term, for conspiring and spreading rumours about Sanguigno so that he “lost my job.” In anger, he slapped this man in the face and picked several fights. When brought before the acting warden, Inspector of Penitentiaries Gilbert Smith, Sanguigno said he could proof this conspiracy, but Smith told he “I do not believe you at all.” and gave Sanguigno “15 meals [bread and water], shackled to the bar and 20 days [lost] remission. They put me down in the hole sick and took everything out of my pocket - also the pills the doctor gave me.” It took three days for any medical aid to be given, and he was sick almost three months and lost his position in the kitchen. Although this seems like paranoid nonsense, it was not uncommon for officers and their trusted inmate helpers to bully and harass certain inmates in order to keep the rest in line. Sanguigno was sent to the stone shed, the center of trouble and resistance in the penitentiary. He got on better with the men there, but “when the trouble started, the guys told me to go on strike and I said, ‘It is like this - I have been in trouble myself and nobody helped me out and when I was sick no one helped me out…I am doing my time and nobody else’s.” This is the classic selfish but self-defensive claim of prisoners in the face of collective resistance to the rules, and despite his claimed opposition, Sanguigno joined the October 13 strike that started the riot “because everybody else did.” He felt singled out because of his poor English, and told the Smith he wasn’t involved - but got 2 days remission taken away. He blamed an officer, Mr. Burke, for starting all the trouble, and continued for the next few weeks after the riot to fight with other inmates who thought he was a snitch. Indeed, Sanguigno felt increasingly persecuted and paranoid, and was eventually shifted to a new work site in early 1933. He spent considerable time sick in the hospital due to complications from the flu, and was released in 1937, to be extradited to the United States for an outstanding murder warrant.] -- source link

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