by Bruno, Joe
The mayhem caused by the Black Hand bank bombings forced the residents of Little Italy to lose faith and trust in the local banks. The day the Pati bank closed, the crowd in front of his bank, which had packed Elizabeth Street from Houston to Prince Street, began to hurry towards the next largest Italian bank: F. Acritelli & Son, at 239 Elizabeth Street. After the depositors had made a run for their money, this bank was forced to close too.
To show how ambivalent the Italian press was about the Black Hand situation, in February of 1908, before the bombing of Pati’s and Bonomolo’s banks, 500 Italians held a meeting at the offices of Bollettino della Sera, an Italian newspaper edited by Frank L. Frugone. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the Black Hand extortion scheme and what they could do about it. Yet oddly, the Italian newspaper’s position was that the entire situation was overblown by the American press and American law enforcement.
The speakers at the meeting said that the Black Hand existed only in Sicily and was a “mild form of the Mafia.”
Robert Park wrote the following in his 1921 publication, Old World Traits Transplanted:
“The Italian press got as much news value as possible out of the situation, and threw the blame on the Americans, claiming that they had admitted too many Italian criminals, and that the American police and court systems were defective in comparison with the Italian’s. The Italian papers protested violently against the blackening of the Italian name. The Bollettino claimed that ‘the fear of the Mafia is in great part a product of the reporter’s fancy.’ The Bollettino resented the fact that the odious word ‘Mafia’ is continually thrown in our faces.”
However, after the epidemic of bank bombings, the Bollettino began to change its tune.
In April of 1908, the Bollettino ran an editorial that called on, “Italians to rise up and put a stop to the crimes which are besmirching the Italian name.”
A few days later, another editorial entitled The Cry of Alarm warned that the “doors of this country would be closed to Italians if the Black Hand atrocities continued.”
A third editorial entitled Against the Black Hand, advised all honest Italians “to aid Police Commissioner Bingham by sending him all threatening letters, and information about Black Handers and idle Italians, with a description of individuals.”
*****
The man who was the biggest thorn in the side of the Black Hand was Police Lieut. Joseph Petrosino.
Petrosino was born in 1860 in Padula, Campania, in the southern tip of Italy near Naples. When he was a child, Petrosino’s parents sent him to live with his grandfather in America. Soon after Petrosino arrived in America, his grandfather was killed in an automobile accident. As a result, Petrosino was briefly sent to an orphanage. However, the presiding judge in Petrosino’s custody case, feeling sorry for the young boy, took Petrosino into his own home until Petrosino's parents arrived from Italy.
While waiting for his parents to travel across the Atlantic (they arrived in America in 1874), Petrosino lived with the politically-active Irish judge and his family. As a result, Petrosino received a fine education, which increased his chances of obtaining a decent job in America; unlike the other poor Italian immigrants who were arriving from Italy in droves.
Because of the Irish judge's connections in the political arena, on Oct. 19, 1883, Petrosino became a New York City police officer.
When he started “on the job,” Petrosino's mentor was Police Inspector Alexander “Clubber” Williams, who was called “Clubber” because of his fondness for battering unruly arrestees with his police baton (club) to keep them in line. Williams took a liking to Petrosino (it was reported Petrosino wielded a mean police baton, too), and as a result, Petrosino rose quickly up the ranks in the New York City police department.
Petrosino’s speedy promotions were mostly the result of hard work and dedication, but also because Petrosino had been born in Italy and could speak the Italian language fluently. This made it possible for Petrosino to infiltrate the Italian crime circles, which were operating openly in New York City.
In 1895, Petrosino was promoted to detective and assigned to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which was populated by a large contingent of Italian immigrants, including Joe Morello, Ciro and Nick Terranova, and Ignazio “Lupo the Wolf” Saietta. The short, stocky, bull-necked, and barrel-chested Petrosino was a familiar sight on the streets of Little Italy. He was recognizable by his large pumpkin head and a pockmarked face, which had an extreme reluctance to smile.
Petrosino first achieved prominence when he investigated the infamous “Barrel Murder” of 1903.
Although several men were brought to justice for killing a man named Benedetto Madonia (then stuffing him into a barrel and leaving the barrel on the street), Petrosino knew the man who ordered the murder was Joe Morello. However, knowing and being able to prove it were two different things. Morello skated on the Barrel Murder charges, but Morello was now directly in Petrosino’s crosshairs. In the following years, Petrosino did everything he could to make Morello’s and the other Black Hander’s lives miserable.
One such instance occurred in the case of famous Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso. Caruso, who was then singing at the Metropolitan Opera House, received a Black Hand letter demanding that he pay $2,000, or else. To avoid a big headache, Caruso decided to pay the amount requested. Yet before he could do so, he received a second Black Hand letter which raised the demand to $15,000.
Caruso immediately contacted Lieut. Petrosino, the leader of the “Italian Squad,” which was created in 1905 by Police Commissioner Theodore Bingham. After reading the second letter sent to Caruso, Petrosino directed Caruso to comply with the letter’s demands and to drop off the money at a pre-arranged place directed by the Black Hand letter. When the two Italian Black Handers arrived to pick up the cash, Petrosino slapped the cuffs on them, and to punctuate the arrest, he gave them a few slaps with his police baton.
In 1906, acting on information given to him by an informant, Petrosino got a warrant to investigate a horse stable (later called the Murder Stables) at 304 108th Street in Italian Harlem.
Upon his arrival at the stable, Petrosino ordered his men to dig up the grounds. When they did, they found the remains of more than 60 human bodies.
The owner of the stable was none other than “Lupe the Wolf” Saietta.
When approached by Petrosino, Saietta feigned innocence, saying, “I am only the owner of the property. I am not responsible for the actions of my tenants.”
Saietta provided Petrosino with a list of names of his supposed “tenants.” Although all the names provided by Saietta had Italian surnames, Petrosino could not determine if these men actually existed, or were just a figment of Saietta’s imagination.
Not being able to cuff Saietta legally, Petrosino paid a little visit to Saietta in Saietta's Little Italy grocery store.
The New York Times reported, “Petrosino walked up to Lupo and said something in a low voice. Then the detective's fist shot out and Lupo fell to the floor. Petrosino, according to several eyewitnesses, gave Lupo a “severe beating.”
Soon after his trouncing at the hands of Petrosino, Saietta met with Joe Morello and the Terranova brothers.
Raising a glass of wine in a toast, Saietta told his fellow Black Handers, “He has ruined many. Here's a drink to our success here and the hope of debt to him. It is a pity that it must be done stealthily – that he cannot first be made to suffer, as he has made so many others suffer. But he guards his hide so well that it will have to be done quickly.”
In early February 1909, New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Bingham decided, that in addition to the “Italian Squad,” he would form a 14-man “Secret Service” branch of the New York City Police Department. Bingham appointed Petrosino as the leader of the Secret Service and gave him the directive to “crush the Black Hand and drive the anarchists from the city.”
However, the Secret Service was not so secret after all.
Days aft
er the creation of the Secret Service squad, Police Commissioner Bingham directed Petrosino to travel to Palermo on the island of Sicily to gather documentation on Sicilian immigrants in the United States who were wanted for serious crimes in their native land. The plan was to get the goods on these men, then deport them to Italy to stand trial for their crimes. Petrosino’s trip was supposed to be such a secret that his squad was told Petrosino was home sick with a serious illness.
However, on Feb. 20, 1909, just days before Petrosino was scheduled to depart for Italy aboard the liner Duca di Genova, the New York Herald published an article detailing Petrosino’s supposedly secret trip (the source of these leaks was later determined to be Police Commissioner Bingham himself).
Even though it was now common knowledge in New York City and around the world that Petrosino was traveling to Sicily in order to expedite the deportations of hundreds of Italian criminals in America, Petrosino foolishly thought the Sicilian Mafia, like the American Mafia, would never kill a policeman of Petrosino’s stature.
Leaving behind his wife and three-year-old daughter, Petrosino boarded the Duca di Genova, which was bound for Genoa, Italy (in northern Italy – the opposite end from Sicily), using the alias “Simone Velletri.” He carried on board only two yellow suitcases.
At first, Petrosino, staying surreptitiously in first-class, locked himself in his room and had his meals delivered to him. But after a few days, Petrosino ventured topside and told the passengers he met that he was on his way to Italy to find a cure for a digestive discomfort.
However, since Petrosino’s face had been often splashed across the front pages of the New York City newspapers, it was almost impossible for him not to be recognized. One person who did recognize Petrosino was the ship's purser, Carlo Longobardi. Petrosino begged Longobardi not to tell anyone on the ship about his true identity.
After a few days at sea, Petrosino ran into a shady character who called himself Francesco Delli Bovi. Petrosino thought he recognized this man, but not under the name Delli Bovi. When the ship docked in Genoa, Petrosino tried to follow Delli Bovi, but the mysterious man disappeared.
Petrosino did not stay in Genoa, but instead he took the first train available to Rome. In Rome, Petrosino went directly to the United States Embassy to meet Ambassador Lloyd Griscom. The purpose of this meeting was for Petrosino to gather information about as many as 200 Italian criminals living in the United States whom Petrosino wanted deported to Italy.
While Petrosino was in Rome, the Italian newspaper L'Araldo Italiano ran an article detailing Petrosino’s Italian excursion, saying that Petrosino’s final destination was Palermo, Sicily. This article, which only could have been leaked from inside the New York City Police Department, was rerun in several other European newspapers, the most notable of which was the New York Herald's European edition.
While walking the streets of Rome, Petrosino bumped into two journalists with whom he had a passing acquaintance in New York City. Petrosino told the scribes that his trip was a secret, and he begged them not to write anything about him being in Italy. The men told Petrosino his visit was not so secret at all, and the story of his arrival in Italy had been in all the European newspapers, including that his final destination was Palermo.
This information spooked Petrosino, and he decided not to travel directly to Palermo. Instead, he quietly boarded a train for Naples, which is in the southern part of Italy’s mainland. In Naples, Petrosino bribed the captain of a small ship to take him to Palermo.
On Feb. 28, when Petrosino arrived in Palermo, he was certain he had not been followed. However, he was still oblivious to the fact it was not safe for him in a town teeming with cutthroat Mafiosos who knew why he was there.
Petrosino, who should have had eyes in the back of his head in Palermo, strutted around town with a minimum of caution. Although he registered at the Hotel de France under the fictitious name of Guglielmo De Simone, Petrosino inexplicably opened a bank account under his own name at the Banca Commerciale. To compound his foolhardiness, Petrosino dined nightly at the Café Oreto and even told the waiters his real name. Petrosino foolishly figured that a famous police officer like Lieut. Joseph Petrosino was safe in the streets of Palermo, a town noted for its treachery.
By March 7, after meeting several times with Mr. Bishop of the American Consul in Palermo, Petrosino had accumulated more than 100 more penal certificates for wanted criminals in Sicily, making his total tally of Italian men he wanted deported from the United States to Italy at more than 300.
On March 6, Petrosino met Baldassare Ceola, the Commissioner of Police in Palermo. Ceola was unimpressed with Petrosino’s competence.
In a letter to the prefect of Palermo, Ceola wrote, “I saw at once that Lieut. Petrosino, to his disadvantage, was not a man of excessive education.”
Ceola also felt that Petrosino was imprudent, since Petrosino turned down the services of a police bodyguard. Also, Mr. Bishop of the American Consul forbade Petrosino to take a trip into the interior of Sicily. But Petrosino told Mr. Bishop he was afraid of nothing.
Back in New York City, Joe Morello and Ignazio Saietta were getting daily reports on Petrosino’s activities from their moles in Palermo. While in New York City, Petrosino was almost untouchable, because, as Saietta told Morello, “Damn detective. The devil guards himself too thoroughly. When he walks it is with a loaded revolver in his hand covered by a pocket and two policemen without their blue coats walk near him eyeing everyone.”
Both Mafiosos knew that in Palermo, Petrosino was a sitting duck for anyone brave enough to pull a trigger.
While Petrosino was still on board the Duca di Genova, thinking two moves ahead of Petrosino, Morello and Saietta sent two of their best killers - Carlo Constantino and Antonio Passananti - to Palermo to await Petrosino’s arrival. In Palermo, the two men hooked up with the top Mafioso in Sicily, a brutal thug named Don Vito Cascio Ferro. Cascio Ferro had a personal bone to pick with Petrosino, since in 1903, due to extreme pressure put on Cascio Ferro by Petrosino’s quest to find the killers in the “Barrel Murder,” the head Mafioso was forced to flee New York City and hurry back to Sicily.
On the rainy Friday night of March 12, 1909, Petrosino went to have his nightly dinner at the Café Oreto. He was wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella. Petrosino took his customary table with his back to the wall so that he could see anyone who entered the restaurant.
According to the waiters present, Petrosino was in the middle of his meal when two men came into the restaurant and marched to Petrosino’s table. These two men had a heated conversation with Petrosino, who did not rise from his chair, but instead dismissed the two men with an angry wave of his hand. After the men exited the restaurant, Petrosino threw three lira on the table and then quickly followed the men outside.
At 8:50 p.m., Petrosino was talking with the two men in the piazza of the Garibaldi Garden, when people nearby heard five shots ring out. When a passerby arrived soon afterwards, he found Petrosino dead, with bullet holes in his cheek, his throat, and in the back of his head. Petrosino’s revolver was held tightly in his hand, with two chambers empty.
Petrosino had documents in his pockets with names and information on several Sicilian criminals. There was also a postcard addressed to his wife, which said, “A kiss for you and my little girl, who has spent three months far from her daddy.”
Police reports said that three men were involved in Petrosino’s murder, one of whom was alleged to be Don Vito Cascio Ferro himself. When questioned later by the police, Cascio Ferro had an airtight alibi. He said at the time of Petrosino’s murder he was dining at the home of a Sicilian member of the Italian Parliament, and there were several honorable witnesses who could verify this fact.
However, a report was delivered to the police saying that Cascio Ferro had slipped away during dinner and was gone long enough to participate in Petrosino’s murder. This report also said Cascio Ferro then slipped back to the dinner party without anyone noticing he
had been absent.
Unfortunately, this report could not be confirmed.
Immediately after Petrosino’s murder, the police offered a 10,000 lira award (around $2,000 – a kingly sum at the time) for information leading to the arrest of Petrosino’s assassins. However, the local Mafia circulated word on the streets of Palermo that any snitches would receive the same treatment as Petrosino. As a result, no one was ever arrested for the murder of New York City Police Lieut. Joseph Petrosino.
Soon after Petrosino’s murder, a man called John Lupo, brother of Ignazio “Lupo the Wolf” Saietta, was heard saying in his Hoboken, N.J., store that one of the reasons Petrosino was killed was because of the vicious beating Petrosino had given Saietta in Saietta’s Little Italy grocery store.
The tremors felt in New York City caused by Petrosino’s murder were sudden and severe. Due to the newspaper leaks concerning Petrosino’s “secret” trip to Italy, Police Commissioner Bingham was immediately fired and his place taken by neophyte, William F. Baker, who oddly enough, in 1913, after an undistinguished career as New York City police commissioner, became president of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team.
However, the damage caused by Petrosino’s murder was already done. It was estimated that because of Petrosino’s demise in Palermo, hundreds of Italian criminals were allowed to stay in America, causing murder and mayhem in the New York City streets for the next two generations.
*****
At the time of Petrosino’s death, Saietta and Morello were running a counterfeiting operation originating in the sleepy upstate town of Highland, N. Y., 50 miles north of New York City. Saietta was the hands-on partner in the operation, while Morello continued operating their rackets in New York City.
After reading the news about Petrosino’s demise in a local Highland newspaper, Saietta turned to an associate named Zu Vincenzo.