There is an acquaintance who spoke with Romolo Algeni, probably shortly before his death. And he is an old friend of his, one of the many on whom he could count in Giulianova. This is the entrepreneur Peppino Marozzi, who, not hearing the morning greeting of “Pepito”, as everyone knew him, on the radio for a week, decided to call him. «I phoned him around half past five in the afternoon on Monday – says Marozzi – when in the USA it is around eleven and Pepito answered me. I asked him how he was and he reassured me “Everything is fine, Peppino, everything is ok”. Giulianova loses a friend and a fantastic person. Hello Romulus.”
Romolo Algeni died in New York due to an illness: “Pepito” was a restaurant manager from Abruzzo
POLICE INTERVENTION
Monday morning Pepito Algeni, 66 years old, from Giulia who emigrated to New York, he didn’t go to the restaurant where he worked, Paola’s on Medison Avenu, as a sommelier and restaurant manager. The next day one of his colleagues called home and, having received no answer, decided to inform the police, who went to the house, which is not far from the restaurant. The officers rang the doorbell of the house where Pepito lived alone. They didn’t have an answer and then the officers decided to break down the door and found him in the bathroom, lying on the floor, now dead. They found no signs of violence on the body, so, in agreement with the magistrate, they established that it was a natural death: the body was transported to the morgue and placed in a cold room, as is done when it is not exposed the body for the funeral.
He writes from New York, Dom Serafini: «I managed to speak with one of the managers of the Paola’s restaurant. The last time they heard from him was Sunday. Not seeing him at work and not answering the phone, they called the police who broke down the door and saw him dead in the bathroom. They gave me the reference number of the morgue and I will call today to find out more.” Now there is the problem of the funeral. His brother Francesco is not able to take on the paperwork to bring the body back to Italy and the costs, moreover, are very high.
FRIENDS
And then another friend of Pepito appears. This is Pierluigi Braca, also from Giulia, chef in a restaurant on the Teramo coast, who says: «Romolo and I were great friends until we were 18, then he left for the world: it was what he wanted to do. Returning to Giulianova would have been impossible for him, it was too small for him. Now that he is dead we talked to his family members here in the city. There are problems with a possible repatriation of the body and so I and some friends would like to find the sum to be able to do so. But even in this case, even for a collection, that’s a lot of money to put together. We spoke with the friend who was closest to him in New York, Bruno D’Ascanio, who will now contact the Italian Embassy. We need someone to recognize the body, but there is no relative or anyone who is a delegate. Only after this operation will it be possible to see how to bring him back to Italy. Perhaps with cremation, but it must be authorized and in this case too there are bureaucratic tasks.”
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