Taken on June 27, 1930, after reporting to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola, Carlos Marcello, 20, faced a sentence of 9 to 14 years of hard labor for a crime he indisputably did not commit. After two younger teens robbed a local grocery store at gunpoint and fled in a stolen car, they were quickly apprehended, failing to account for the fact that the store’s owner easily recognized the boys and knew their families. To avoid prosecution, the boys alleged that Marcello, who was nowhere near the scene, had “masterminded” the botched heist, testifying against him at trial and courting the support of the local press, who presented the boys as victims of a manipulative, sophisticated, and brutal Sicilian criminal. Marcello knew the two teens, but there was no evidence corroborating the story they told authorities. Had Marcello, who was convicted of armed robbery and assault hired better legal counsel, he likely would have prevailed, a lesson he had to learn again, ne…
