Jun 30, 2026 · 26 min · 11 segments
Two friends set off for a walk along a set of railroad tracks in Wisconsin, but only one returns alive. Exactly what happened on a snowy winter’s day in 1920 near a once bustling limestone quarry is…
[gentle music] Around noon on Friday, February sixth, nineteen twenty, a man named Dominic Manna was walking along some railroad tracks near Belgium, Wisconsin, after spending the day bird hunting and hanging out with some work friends near the Lake Shore Stone Company quarry, when he noticed a friend walking up ahead of him.
About ten to fifteen feet in front of him was fellow Italian immigrant and coworker, August Falcinelli.
Depending on which source material you read, August's last name is spelled slightly differently.
Some coverage has it spelled Falcinelli with an A, and others spell it Falcinelli with an O, which could cause one to pronounce it differently.
And as a proud great-granddaughter of Italian immigrants whose last name is D'Ambra, I know misspellings are common and mispronunciations are my daily reality.
Anyway, Dominic was at least a decade younger than August, but the pair seemed to know one another well because they'd both worked for Lake Shore Stone Company while it had been operational.
According to coverage by the Sheboygan Press, Dominic had even moved in with August and his wife at some point before securing his own place, so the duo was used to bumping into one another on a fairly regular basis.
In fact, according to court documents, they'd seen each other earlier that morning while hanging out with a group of men at the quarry's machine shop.
And the night before, they'd been together at the Falcinelli's home and shared a meal while playing cards.
Now, even though the stone company had recently shut down operations at the quarry, many folks who'd been employed there still lived close by.
So there was usually lots of activity in the remaining buildings, like the machine shop and the blacksmith shop.
And it seems August knew that Dominic had spent the morning unsuccessfully hunting birds with a double-barrel shotgun, because when he noticed the twenty-nine-year-old coming up behind him, he started to say something to the effect of, "If I see any crows..." But his words were cut short because just then, Dominic suddenly tripped over, according to at least one source, an old steam pipe between two railroad tracks.
The next thing he knew, August stepped backwards about a couple feet, then fell down in the snow, dead.
[body thuds] Seemingly horrified by what had just happened, Dominic immediately left his gun on the ground and ran back to the quarry's machine shop to tell one of the guys he and August had just been hanging out with that he needed some help.
The coworker and Dominic ran back to August, but there was nothing either of the men could do for him.
After that, Dominic walked to where he lived and changed his clothing before returning to where August was at.
But by that time, another coworker had come by and seen August, and that guy asked Dominic what in the world had happened Dominic explained that he'd shot August by accident.
He even showed that other guy where he claimed to have tripped on the railroad tracks, and where the hammer on his shotgun had been bent out of place and broken.
Immediately after talking to that guy, Dominic called the Ozaukee County District Attorney to report what had happened, and shortly after that, the DA alerted the sheriff.
By 2:00 PM, the sheriff's office arrived at the section of railroad tracks where August's body was.
When authorities found the 41-year-old, he was lying face up in the snow about two feet off a nearby roadway.
[gentle music] Around noon on Friday, February sixth, nineteen twenty, a man named Dominic Manna was walking along some railroad tracks near Belgium, Wisconsin, after spending the day bird hunting and hanging out with some work friends near the Lake Shore Stone Company quarry, when he noticed a friend walking up ahead of him.
About ten to fifteen feet in front of him was fellow Italian immigrant and coworker, August Falcinelli.
Depending on which source material you read, August's last name is spelled slightly differently.
Some coverage has it spelled Falcinelli with an A, and others spell it Falcinelli with an O, which could cause one to pronounce it differently.
And as a proud great-granddaughter of Italian immigrants whose last name is D'Ambra, I know misspellings are common and mispronunciations are my daily reality.
Anyway, Dominic was at least a decade younger than August, but the pair seemed to know one another well because they'd both worked for Lake Shore Stone Company while it had been operational.
According to coverage by the Sheboygan Press, Dominic had even moved in with August and his wife at some point before securing his own place, so the duo was used to bumping into one another on a fairly regular basis.
In fact, according to court documents, they'd seen each other earlier that morning while hanging out with a group of men at the quarry's machine shop.
And the night before, they'd been together at the Falcinelli's home and shared a meal while playing cards.
Now, even though the stone company had recently shut down operations at the quarry, many folks who'd been employed there still lived close by.
So there was usually lots of activity in the remaining buildings, like the machine shop and the blacksmith shop.
And it seems August knew that Dominic had spent the morning unsuccessfully hunting birds with a double-barrel shotgun, because when he noticed the twenty-nine-year-old coming up behind him, he started to say something to the effect of, "If I see any crows..." But his words were cut short because just then, Dominic suddenly tripped over, according to at least one source, an old steam pipe between two railroad tracks.
The next thing he knew, August stepped backwards about a couple feet, then fell down in the snow, dead.
[body thuds] Seemingly horrified by what had just happened, Dominic immediately left his gun on the ground and ran back to the quarry's machine shop to tell one of the guys he and August had just been hanging out with that he needed some help.
The coworker and Dominic ran back to August, but there was nothing either of the men could do for him.
After that, Dominic walked to where he lived and changed his clothing before returning to where August was at.
But by that time, another coworker had come by and seen August, and that guy asked Dominic what in the world had happened Dominic explained that he'd shot August by accident.
He even showed that other guy where he claimed to have tripped on the railroad tracks, and where the hammer on his shotgun had been bent out of place and broken.
Immediately after talking to that guy, Dominic called the Ozaukee County District Attorney to report what had happened, and shortly after that, the DA alerted the sheriff.
By 2:00 PM, the sheriff's office arrived at the section of railroad tracks where August's body was.
When authorities found the 41-year-old, he was lying face up in the snow about two feet off a nearby roadway.
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