The Tragedy at Washington Square Park

Sunday April 14, 1907 was a beautiful early spring day in Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan, the park with the iconic grand arch. Late in the afternoon, hundreds of families were enjoying the last hours of their weekend. A minor jostle in a restroom quickly spiraled to a major altercation as a man named Salvatore Governale, a recent immigrant from Sicily, pulled a gun and began firing. Two shots went into the air, but a third shot hit and fatally wounded a 19 year old boy.

At this point two things happened: hundreds of families stampeded out of the park in a panicked frenzy, and a mob formed and chased Governale south out of the park down Thompson Street (Fifth Avenue terminates on the north side of the park—if it continued south it would be along Thompson Street).

A few blocks south near Houston Street, George Sechler was working a plain clothes assignment with the NYPD. Another officer, Alfred Selleck, was also working in the area and the two of them, seeing an angry mob chasing a man with a gun coming toward them, ducked into a tenement building (still there today in a much trendier neighborhood). The trapped Governale ran into the building, but was immediately thwarted by a locked inner-door.

There are dozens of accounts of what happened next, differing in some of the details. My account which follows comes from reading everything and determining the most likely logical sequence.

Governale crouched out of sight as Selleck ran into the foyer. Governale’s gun held five rounds, three of which had already been fired in Washington Square Park. Governale shot Selleck in the upper chest just as Sechler rushed in behind him. George is credited with shielding Selleck from another shot, which resulted in he himself being wounded in the lower gut by the fifth and final bullet. George is further credited with, despite being seriously wounded, pummeling Governale senseless and dragging him out onto the stoop to turn him over to a police sergeant who had arrived on the scene, before collapsing on the sidewalk.

Both wounded officers were taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, some 8 blocks away. George remained conscious, but quickly understood that his gut wound was surely mortal. It was a legally important detail that George understood his grave situation, because it played into the procedures that were followed by the other officers as he made deathbed declarations that would later be used to convict Governale.

All accounts agree that early-on George requested that his wife and 6 week old daughter be brought to the hospital so that he could see them. Laura was indeed summoned from her Brooklyn home and a scene played out where she, holding the baby, was taken over the Brooklyn Bridge and transferred to a waiting Police Commissioner’s car and brought to the hospital. Accounts differ as to whether George succeeded in seeing his family. Several papers published an account of the baby being placed in Georgeʼs arms before he was taken to surgery. Other accounts state that this was a story made up by overzealous reporters and that George was taken to surgery and died before he could see his family. Alfred Selleck died two days later of his wound. Ruth, the baby, was my grandmother.

Much more to come in upcoming installments…