The medical examiner made its determination based on a body exam, hospital records and information about the crime provided by Ms. Paloglou. “Stabbed by other,” the death certificate reads. “Homicide.”

Born on Sept. 5, 1917, in Des Moines, Mr. Ciccarello did not stay long in the United States. His parents, who had come to the Midwest to work on the railroad, returned to Sicily with him when he was about 2, Ms. Paloglou said.

There, he lived a hard life working on a farm. His parents gave him away when he was about 10, Ms. Paloglou said. He later worked as a shepherd, at times sleeping on the ground. He longed for a better life, she added, “especially, as an American.”

In 1951, he returned to the United States. Two years later, he brought along a growing family, immigration records show: his wife, Carmela, and their two children, Salvatore, 6, and Angela, 4. Upon entry into New York, their names were erroneously recorded as Ciccarelli, but the family kept the old spelling.

Mr. Ciccarello found work as a porter in a building on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The family squeezed into an apartment more than two miles south, at 651 East Fifth Street, in what Ms. Paloglou — born there in 1957 — described as “a hard neighborhood.”

The story of his stabbing became a piece of family history, told and retold. It was hard to ignore: Mr. Ciccarello bore a foot-long scar on his torso — sternum to belly button — from the operation.

“He was walking from East Fifth Street and Avenue C,” Ms. Paloglou said. “It was a rainy morning, around 4 in the morning. He had on an old-fashioned raincoat.” He tried to continue on to work after the attack, but after seeing the blood, he returned home.