A Newark high school principal who was shot to death in front of his home in North Arlington, N.J., last week was killed with the same .22â€caliber weapon used in at least three recent gangland slayings, according to reports of ballistics tests rereleased by the Bergen County Prosecutor's office.
The 35-year-old principal, James J Quell Jr., was shot last Wednesday night as he arrived at his home after attending a political rally in the Ironbound section of Newark, where he grew up.
The police, who found $1,900 in cash and a number of sports betting slips in his wallet, said Mr. Quell had been the target of Essex County investigations into gambling and a questionable $9 million construction cost overrun at Newark's East Side High School, where he was the principal.
According to Bergen County's first assistant prosecutor, Raymond A. Flood, the eight bullets removed from Mr. Queli's body matched those taken from the bodies of three men slain in the metropolitan area since 1976.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Earlier Victims Listed
They were identified as Vincent Capone, who was killed in Hoboken in 1976; Frank Chin, a professional wiretapper murdered in his Manhattan apartment building in January 1977, and Thomas Palermo, a Brooklyn man found slain in Queens in April 1977.
Mr. Capone and Mr. Chin had been considered potential witnesses against John DiGilio, an associate of the Vito Genovese crime “family†who was convicted in 1975 for plotting to steal files on his alleged loansharking activities from the Newark office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In reporting the ballistics tests performed by the New York City Police Department, Mr. Flood said the bullets from Mr. Queli's body had also been linked to .22â€caliber gun barrel found on Monday by a North Arlington man raking leaves.
Mr. Flood speculated that the killer might have discarded the gun barrel because he was afraid that witnesses had noted the license number of his car as fled the murder scene.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
The Quell murder is the latest in series of mystery slayings across the country that have been linked to .22-caliber guns — lowâ€power weapons that had rarely been used in gangland murders before.
Since 1975 the F.B.I. has compiled a list of about 25 men, including police inform-
ers and mob figures, who have been slain with .22's.
They include Sam Giancana, the Chicago Mafia leader killed in 1975, and Frank Bompensiero, a West Coast mob figure and F.B.I. informer, who was slain in San Diego in 1977.
The murder of Mr. Quell, who was slain in view of his wife and three young children, has drawn the attention of Federal authorities, including agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who filmed mourners at his funeral on Monday.
Nevertheless. Mr. Flood said, there are no suspects.
