Extortion

 I am really impressed how many late 1ate 19th and early 20th century mass murders seem to be of Italian-Americans with arson and explosives.  The Mafia was already a major problem in Italian-American communities before Prohibition increased their wealth and power.

Batavia, N.Y. (1919)

09/25/1919: Restauranteur Carlo Trimarchi had received three threatening letters.  He apparently responded incorrectly, so the murderer (extortionist?) set off a bomb in a house that Trimarchi owned and occupied.  Trimarchi, his wife, and their two sons were injured as “the house was literally blown to pieces.” Their tenants on the second floor, Joseph Battagli, wife, and son died.

Category: residential

Suicide: no

Cause: unknown

Weapon: explosives[1]

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[1] "Bomb Kills Three; Father, Wife And Babe Dead," Bridgeport Times And Evening Farmer, Sep. 25, 1919, 1.

I have classified this as cause unknown because while the threatening letters were probably extortion,  "Nice restaurant you have here.  It would be a shame if something happened to it."  But fortunately, the Sullivan Law made it harder to intimidate small businessmen with a gun.