Four young men, of whom Coppola was one, were at work repairing an automobile in a Brooklyn street. A woman, the defendant’s wife, walked by on the opposite side. One of the men spoke to her insultingly, or so at least she understood him. The defendant, who had stopped behind to buy a newspaper, came up to find his wife in tears. He was told she had been insulted, though she did not repeat the words. Enraged, he stepped across the street and upbraided the offenders with words of coarse profanity. He informed them, so the survivors testify, that “if they did not get out of there in five minutes, he would come back and bump them all off.” Rejoining his wife, he walked with her to their apartment house located close at hand. He was heated with liquor which he had been drinking at a dance. Within the apartment he induced her to tell him what the insulting words had been. A youth had asked her to lie with him and had offered her two dollars…
People v. Zackovitz. Criminal Law. Kadish/Schulhofer/Steiker
