
We now know the names of the Newton, Mass. homicide victims, as revealed (per the Boston Globe) in an announcement from their family: Bruno and Jill D’Amore, and Jill’s mother, Lucia Arpino. After finding an obituary for Lucia’s late husband, Alberto, I figured out their names but withheld them out of concern that the family had not been fully informed. Alberto was 87 years old when he died in 2014.
The D’Amores and Arpinos kept low public profiles. Readily available public records are few. I found a ship manifest from 1960 listing Lucia, Jill (full name Gilda), and Don Arpino, Jill’s surviving brother, as Italian immigrants and an old Newton city directory for Alberto and Lucia giving his profession as a brass polisher.
The family’s priest at Our Lady Help of Christians church, Father Dan Riley, told the Globe that they were “the best vision you could have of a Catholic Italian-American family,” with “warmth, a tomato garden outside, hospitality. They were just great people.”
The D’Amore-Arpinos were highly unlikely victims of violent crime in a place where it rarely happens. Locals commenting on social media couldn’t recall any multiple homicides in recent Newton history and just one homicide.
As of Monday evening, police were still investigating.