Wife Shoots John Scardina

Date: 3 Dec 1925 [unknown]
Location: Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
Surnames/tags: Scardina-17 Haring-689

John Scardina (abt.1875-1925)
CASE NUMBER: 8997
SCARDINA, JOHN � AGE 49 � SHOT TO DEATH 10:10 PM, AT HOME, 544 MILWAUKEE AVE. DURING A DOMESTIC QUARREL, BY HIS WIFE, BLANCHE SCARDINA, WHO AT FIRST STATED HE HAD BEEN KILLED BY TWO MEN. ON 12/5/25 SHE WAS HELD BY THE CORONER.22 DIST. DEC. 1925 NO BILL.^[1]

Accused by her ten year old foster son, Mrs. Blanche Scardina admitted today that she and not two mysterious men, as she at first said, shot and killed her husband, John, 49, in a quarrel about a meal she had prepared and which he refused to eat.
The boy said his foster parents had been drinking. Scardina attempted to strike his wife on the head with a revolver when she wrenched it out of his handand shot him through the heart, the boy told officers. ^[2]

Scardina Boy, 10, May Be Kidnapped Son of Musician
Chicago, Dec. 7 (AP) -- Ten-year-old Samuel Scardina, whose story caused the arrest of his stepmother, Mrs. Blanche Scardina, for the murder of her husband, may be the kidnaped nephew of a musician once famous in New York.
Ten years ago Samuel, was left with Mrs. Scardina by a Mrs. Dazelle who said the baby's uncle was a noted New York musician. Mrs. Dazelle never returned and the identity of the uncle never was established, Mrs. Scardina told police. She has asserted that sheis the daughter of the late Court Haring, prominent lumber dealer, and that she deserted her first husband, Raoul Vanier, an attorney, for Scardina, known to the police as a bootlegger and gunman.^[3]

Husband Aids Wife in Trouble She Left Him, But He's Forgiving
Chicago. (UP) -- Alone with her thoughts, thinking of the days when she left a home, a husband's adoration, and two little girls, for a man "who laughed at love", Mrs. Blanche Scardina sit in a murderer's cell.
Her thoughts took her back to a day 10 years ago when she laughed at love and convention, and scorned the laws for a dancing man with money.
Then those same thoughts bring her down to the present. She visions the body of her "sheik," dead by her own hand. She's thinking of the day when she must stand trial for the murder of John Scardina, her man without conventions.
Oh, I was a fool, an infatuated fool to leave Raoul. (Raoul Vanier, her first husband) the man who really loved me. I adored him, and yet, I sacrificed both of us for that man who laughed at love. I thought I didn't care; but I learned I was wrong. I week after I defied the conventions to go to John Scardina, I knew I had made a horrible mistake, and sure of Raoul's love, I begged him to take me back. It was too late.
But Raoul said:
"I will help her. I will do all in my power to save her, because she is innocent. She is innocent because that man beat her, dragged her down until in misery she killed him. I have retained an attorney."
The attorney is the same who 10 years ago got a divorce for Raoul Vanier; now he comes back as the defender of the woman who left "her love."
Mrs. Scardina has other trouble. A 10-year-old boy, Samuel, whom she has raised since he was nine days old, may be taken from her. She has admitted that the boy is not her own.^[4]

No Bill
This phrase, endorsed by a grand jury on the written indictment submitted to it for its approval, means that the evidence was found insufficient to indict.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: THE HISTORY OF HOMICIDE IN CHICAGO, 1870-1930, BASED ON OVER 11,0000 CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT HOMICIDE REPORTS.. CASE NUMBER: 8997. CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT HOMICIDE RECORD INDEX. ©2012 Leigh Bienen, Northwestern University School of Law. (https://homicide.northwestern.edu/database/8680/).
2. ↑ 1925 > December > 4: "The Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin)"
   1925 > December > 4 > image 6 of 30
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Image (accessed 30 March 2022)
3. ↑ Kidnapped? Newspapers.com - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle -Brooklyn, New York - 7 Dec 1925 - Page 2 - Page 5. (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98738859/kidnapped2/?xid=637)
4. ↑ Knoxville News (Knoxville, Tennessee) 17 December 1925, page 10 Genealogybank https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:14295375D79CAB51@GB3NEWS-15C656770C112F16@2424502-15C63D76D9562FB2@9-15C63D76D9562FB2 : accessed 8 March 2021
5. ↑ Justia. Legal Dictionary. No Bill (US Courts). https://www.justia.com/dictionary/no-bill/#:~:text=This%20phrase%2C%20endorsed%20by%20a,was%20found%20insufficient%20to%20indict.

See Also