Eva Centini’s divorce petition made headlines. Her husband John had left her and their six young children in Oakland, California with no intention of returning.
The papers were eager to print Mrs. Centini’s story, especially after she informed them that this wasn’t the first time he had left. In 1908, Centini went to Italy for a month, without telling his wife of his plans. While he was there, he married another woman.
John came back to California, without mentioning the new wife, and resumed his usual habits. Many things are left to the reader’s imagination, including how Mrs. Centini learned of the other woman.
As you might have guessed, the marriage wasn’t a successful one. The Centinis had married in Italy in 1892 and came to California with the plan of making their fortune. Their intention was to return to Italy one day. But the couple quarreled frequently. According to his wife, John Centini was extremely jealous and paranoid. At times, he accused her of poisoning his food.
The couple started and dropped a number of divorce suits over the years.
In 1911, John left again, this time taking the family’s savings of $8,500 (roughly a quarter of a million dollars in 2025). This time, Centini was courteous enough to leave a letter for his wife. Eva Centini couldn’t have liked what she read. In fact, it was the key piece of evidence she submitted with her divorce petition.
Centini wrote that he was deserting his wife because he was afraid if he stayed any longer, he would kill her. “I would have stabbed you a thousand times and then set your body afire if I had remained. I went away in order not to kill you, and it may be I am doing a great wrong in not killing you.”
On March 20, 1912, the courts finalized the Centini divorce.
I love stories that include personal letters, which is how I happened to read this story. But something about this tale doesn’t add up for me. The letter John left behind doesn’t match the circumstances Eva Centini described. Everything we know of her husband–his jealousy and paranoia–comes through her. We have only her word that he left his family destitute for another woman and that he took their savings.
We can only divine John’s side of the story by his letter, but that seems to indicate he left his wife because he hated her. Jealous men don’t typically run away from the women they’re obsessed with, do they?
What do you think? Am I too critical of Mrs. Centini’s story?
old spirituals 
If the letter was really from her husband, it was the smart play to get a divorce. You don’t want to wait around and see if he meant it.
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I must agree! If someone confesses they’d like to stab you a thousand times, even if they don’t try to go through with it, you have to figure it probably won’t be a pleasant interaction.
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Being a naturally suspicious person my thoughts instantly question whether Eva made John disappear. A woman known to be a serial killer is called a “Black Widow.” Eva may not have been a Black Widow, but she may have reached, as Popeye always says, a level that she “stood all she could stands, she could stands no more;” so she “helped” John into his next life.
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Whoa, I didn’t think she might’ve killed him. But it’s a reasonable guess. I’m falling down on the job!
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I expected better from you 😂
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I’ll do better 😇
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I would like to know if the letter was verified to be the husband’s handwriting and was the money he supposedly left with kept under the mattress, therefore, no bank records. What did the police think happened?
With six children, there’s not much time in a day to even sit down, much less dispose of a body. I wonder if her lifestyle became a little better since the hidden money (supposing she killed her husband) was all hers now. Did she remarry? There are so many questions, but sometimes life is better than fiction. She was either telling the truth or she got away with murder.
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Those are really good questions! I was thinking she was embarrassed that he left her. They mentioned a safety deposit box in the article so it had to have been at the bank, but there was no investigation. The police seem to have taken Mrs. Centini’s word for it that her husband went off to live with the other woman in Italy. The courts believed her too and gave her the divorce. If she was a murderer, she got away with it!
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checking the husband’s handwriting is a good idea!!
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I thought the same thing, Judy. Absent the mention of the handwriting being investigated I assumed it was not.
Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take a minutes in hopes of finding an answer to the question. A cursory check revealed only one very short story about Eva Centini. It was in the March 9, 1911, Oakland Enquirer. The snippet told of Eva Centini being in court suing for divorce before Judge Ellsworth, fighting to be awarded community property valued at $9,000. The Judge asked her for the birth dates of her ten children. Eva told the Judge she could not recite the dates without consulting the family Bible. Knowing she attempted to claim the community property in a divorce from John places a new light on the case.
Just below the story of Eva was another snippet of news. It was regarding criminal court and a handwriting expert, Carl Eisenchemmel, who testified in a case against Fred F. Webster, charged with having “mulcted” A. W. Bayles out of $80. That substantiates the used of handwriting experts by law enforcement.
PS – I love the use of the word “mulcted,” which means “extract money,” but usually in terms of a tax or fine.
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The word “mulcted ” is a new one for me! I love learning those old words that are obsolete. Jax, your research was very good and answered a few questions. They now have 10 children, but Eva can’t remember their birth dates? John either stayed around for several more years for four more children to be born, or John was murdered and Eva had taken up with another man, having four more children. Maybe that’s why the judge wanted their birth dates. How could Eva sue for nine thousand dollars if John had taken off with the money? I would love to know what John did for a living to be able to save that much money and support such a huge family!
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Judy, my guess is that Ole John was associated with the “Mob” and ended up on the wrong side of the organization. Perhaps that is how he accumulated the large sum of money. The Black Hand got its retribution.
The Mafia was not just in New York, New Jersey and Chicago. It was in New Orleans and the West Coast. As recently as 2012, the authorities arrested 45 individuals of the Old Burn Out Gang Mafia, after an 18-month investigation that included wiretaps. It was one of the largest in the history of Oakland. And they confiscated 22 guns.
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AH! This is great detective work!
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Jax, that actually was in the back of my mind! Lol. The Mob was very much here in Las Vegas when my parents moved our family here in 1962. We saw Lefty Rosenthal’s car the day after it was blown up. He escaped with minor injuries. Tony Spilotro owned a great place called The Food Factory and we loved to eat there. All of his kids worked there. One of my friends husbands is a relative of the Station Casino people. She has some really good stories! My brother worked in IT at the Desert Inn, Stardust, Caesars Palace and Sunrise Hospital, which were all connected. Vegas was the safest city on earth back then if you didn’t cross the Mob! You could be right about John’s demise and Eva was innocent.
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I bet you could write a really good book, Judy!
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As bad as the MAFIA was, one good thing it did was develop a wide area of road in the Nevada desert into one of the best vacation and entertainment centers in the United States, thanks to “Bugsy” Siegel.
I had family that live in “Vegas” for years and my visits there are very memorable. Anyone who suffers from insomnia should live in “Vegas.” No matter the time of day, one only has to go to a casino to be entertained . . . no money is required. Just find a comfortable seat and observe the interesting sights offered at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Watching people has convinced me the Lord has a sense of humor.
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I’m sold! I need to go back and visit!
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I would love for my friend and her husband to write a book, but I don’t think they want to end up in a barrel in Lake Mead! Lol
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Yikes! Best not to risk it.
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Oh, so true! My mom would pick me up from school and take me to this huge grocery and department store called Vegas Village. We would get an ice cream cone, sit on a bench and people watch. There were some of the oddest people that passed by and one time a showgirl in all of her costume, makeup and headdress passed by!
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Even showgirls get hungry 😉
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