Roxy's Record Shop
Rocco Pizzutillo owned and operated this business during the 1960s. He was involved in a gun battle with several robbers on the evening of July 20, 1967.
‘Trail of Blood’ Leads to Bandit After Store Battle
Camden Courier-Post —
By James Riggio, Courier-Post Staff
A South Camden storekeeper was shot in the face last night as he fired four bullets into one of two men who held up Roxy’s Record Shop at 541 Mount Vernon Street. Both underwent emergency surgery at West Jersey Hospital following the gun battle shortly before 6 p.m.
The holdup suspect is listed in serious condition with bullet wounds of the abdomen, right thigh and two in the right arm. A hospital spokesman said Rocco Pizzutillo, 65, of 103 S. Haddon Avenue, Oaklyn, the storekeeper, is in satisfactory condition. The bullet entered Pizzutillo’s chin and came out the right side of his face, said the hospital official.
Man at Large
Police are seeking the second holdup man who escaped the store on foot following the gun fight. He is described as a Negro, 29 years old, about six-feet-two-inches tall, wearing a blue knit shirt and brown trousers, armed with a revolver and possibly from the Philadelphia area.
Det. Lt. Andrew McBurnie said the suspect, identified as Arthur Watson, 29, of the 700 block Winton Street, Philadelphia, has been placed under police guard at the hospital and was charged with armed robbery and atrocious assault and battery.
Watson was arrested about 10 minutes after the robbery by Det. Pete Sunkett and Ptl. Frank Matreale and James M. Anderson. The three policemen followed a bloody trail from the store to Amber Street, nearly four blocks away. They said the trail ended at the rear of a home bordering on the alley-like street.
Sunkett said Watson was found in the second-floor bedroom of Miss Teddy Malloy, 29, of the 400 block Kaighn Avenue, as he attempted to tie a towel around his badly wounded arm. Police questioned Miss Malloy, a columnist for a weekly newspaper, for more than an hour.
McBurnie said the bandits made off with an undetermined amount of money, some of which was recovered.
Police gave the following account of the robbery and shootings: Two men entered the record shop and asked Pizzutillo to show them some spiritual records. As he started to show them several albums, one of the men drew a pistol and announced it was a holdup.
Pizzutillo opened the cash register when he remembered he had a five-shot .32 caliber revolver in his pocket. He drew his gun and emptied all five shots, four of them striking one of the men. During the shooting, Pizzutillo was struck in the face by a single bullet.
During the gunfight, one of the bandits was reported to have shouted, “Give us the money and we’ll go.”
Cries for Help
A neighbor who said he lives directly behind the shop reported he heard Pizzutillo cry for help and when he looked out his rear window, saw a man running out the back door of the shop.
Police said they believed at least one of the gunmen fled from the front door which had what appeared to be a bullet hole in the glass.
Police said they recovered $41 of the stolen money which was found hidden under the bed in the room where Watson was arrested.