The American Mafia - Who Was Who: Petrosino

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Carey, Arthur (1866-1952) - New York PD

Born New York City, July 1866.
Died New York City, Dec. 13, 1952.

Arthur A. Carey was a second-generation police officer who served for almost forty years on the New York Police Department and led the department's Homicide Bureau for eighteen years.

He reportedly was born on Staten Island in July 1866 (a birth year of 1865 is sometimes seen) into the already large family of Henry and Elizabeth Carey. Henry, born about 1824, was an immigrant from Ireland; Elizabeth, born about 1830, was a native New Yorker. Arthur was raised in an Irish neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan.

Henry had died by the time of the 1880 federal census. With several children already off on their own, Elizabeth then was raising Arthur and three other siblings in an apartment on Christopher Street in Manhattan.

Arthur joined the police force on March 1, 1889. He learned his craft under Chief Inspector Thomas Byrnes and Captain George W. McClusky. He was made a detective in 1892.

He took a bride, Lucy, in 1895. They eventually had seven children together. The family lived at first at 124 West 115th Street in Manhattan, but subsequently moved north to the Bronx. They lived in a number of locations in that borough, including an apartment on Nelson Avenue near Boscobel, within the Highbridge neighborhood, and a private home at 2792 Bainbridge Avenue, just northwest of Fordham University and the New York Botanical Garden.

Around the turn-of-the-century, Arthur's police work focused almost exclusively on homicide cases. He participated in the investigation of the 1903 barrel murder case and in the related arrest of the dangerous Tomasso "the Ox" Petto.

Carey was promoted to lieutenant in 1906 and captain the following year. He assumed temporary leadership of homicide detectives in 1908. Carey was moved out to command a Brooklyn precinct between 1910 and 1914 but then returned to the Homicide Bureau.

As a "murder man," Carey was regularly called upon to investigate the most horrific of crimes. He was a leader in the investigation of the 1920 Wall Street terrorist bombing that claimed dozens of lives. In 1921, he worked on a case in which the upper half of a woman, who had been beaten and strangled to death, turned up in a sewer excavation at Long Island City. He also worked on a number of gangland murders, including the Barrel Murder, the 1921 killing of Joseph "Joe Pep" Viserti and the 1928 killing of Arnold Rothstein.

He reached the rank of deputy inspector in 1926. Late in 1928, Police Commissioner Grover A. Whalen forced him into retirement, as the centralized detective system was dismantled.

He briefly continued his work as a sleuth for the Westchester County district attorney. In this period, Arthur, his wife and three of their children, lived on Seminary Avenue in Yonkers.

Carey's autobiographical Memoirs of a Murder Man was released in 1930. The book focuses on Carey's detective work in homicide cases and features a chapter on the Morello Mafia's infamous 1903 Barrel Murder. (Read this chapter on our website.)

By 1935, Arthur and Lucy were in retirement, living a 321 Bedford Park Boulevard in the Bronx, quite close to their former Bainbridge Avenue home.

Carey died Dec. 13, 1952, at his Bronx residence. He was 86 years old. His two oldest sons, Donald and Arthur Jr., had followed him into the New York Police Department. They were serving as detectives at the time of his death.

Sources:

New York State Census of 1915.
New York State Census of 1925.
United States Census of 1870.
United States Census of 1880.
United States Census of 1900.
United States Census of 1930.
United States Census of 1940.
Anderson, Isaac, "A murder man blows the gaff on crime," New York Times, July 6, 1930, p. Book Review 13.
Carey, Arthur A., with Howard McLellan, Memoirs of a Murder Man, Garden City NY: Doubelday, Doran and Company, 1930.
"Arthur Carey, 87, ex-inspector, dies," New York Times, Dec. 14, 1952, p. 90.
"Detectives say they hope to find driver of horse," New York Evening World, Sept. 27, 1920, p. 8.
"Half of slain woman's body found in pool," New York Tribune, Oct. 23, 1921, p. 8.
"'Joe Pep,' ruler of Little Italy in Harlem, slain," New York Tribune, Oct. 14, 1921, p. 1.

Petto, Tomasso (1879-1905)

Born Province of Palermo, Sicily, c1879.
Killed Browntown, Pittston, PA, Oct. 21, 1905.

Tomasso Petto, also known as Luciano Perrino (also written about as Luciano Parrino and Tom Carrillo), was a brutal enforcer for the early Morello Mafia in New York City. He participated in counterfeiting operations and "Black Hand" extortion schemes. After establishing himself as a Black Hand leader in northeastern Pennsylvania in 1905, he was murdered in an apparent gangland "hit."

Petto acquired the nickname "Il Bove," meaning "The Ox," because of his physique. He stood about five-feet-eight-inches tall and weighed approximately 220 pounds, nearly all of it muscle. His shoulders, arms, legs and neck were massive. Once, when he was being placed under arrest, he put his arms around the body of a detective - said to be the most powerfully built man on the New York police force - and nearly squeezed the life out of the man.

Petto became the prime suspect in the Barrel Murder case of April 1903, when police found him in possession of a pawn ticket for a watch owned by the victim, Benedetto Madonia. The murder was closely linked with the counterfeiting operations of Mafia boss of bosses Giuseppe Morello - a disciplinary action against Madonia's imprisoned brother-in-law Giuseppe DiPrimo, who was believed (wrongly) to have cooperated with the authorities. Though Petto was indicted for the murder, he never stood trial. State witnesses hesitated to testify against him, evidence linking him to the murder was lacking and there was official confusion over his identity - some mixed him up with Morello mobster Giovanni Pecoraro. After months locked in the Tombs prison awaiting trial, Petto was discharged on Jan. 29, 1904.

He returned to his old haunts on Mulberry Street and Mott Street and celebrated his release with friends. U.S. Secret Service operatives kept an eye on him, as he remained a counterfeiting suspect. During the evening of Jan. 29, he reportedly received a telephone call at a Mott Street restaurant. After the call, he apologized to his friends and quickly left the city. Secret Service agents tracked him to Port Chester, New York. He did not remain in Port Chester for long.

In the spring of 1905, Petto reportedly ran into some trouble with the Secret Service, as he had been involved in the sale of unlicensed cigars in West Virginia. He and his young family had just settled into a new residence in Old Forge, Pennsylvania (between Scranton and Pittston), when he was arrested for the offense and made to pay a heavy fine.

Petto, his wife and two young children relocated to Browntown, just south of Pittston, in the summer of 1905. There, under the name of Luciano Perrino, he quickly established himself as leader of a band of Black Hand terrorists. As fronts for his underworld activities, he opened a grocery and a butcher shop along South Main Street in the downtown area, a short distance from the Susquehanna River.

At about the time of his arrival, a Browntown resident named Frank Culloro was murdered. Culloro's body was found along Cork Lane near an old mine shaft. His head was found later at the bottom of the shaft. Some in the area believed the newcomer was responsible.

On the evening of Saturday, Oct. 21, 1905, Petto remained at his butcher business until quite late and then began the long walk across town to his home on Lincoln Street. At about 10:30, just a few paces from his front door, he was alerted to some danger and pulled out the .38-caliber revolver he carried with him. He would not have the opportunity to use the weapon. At that moment, he was struck in the right side by a blast of small-caliber shot fired at close range. The pellets embedded into his right arm, right side and right hip. At almost the same moment, additional shots were fired, and larger caliber slugs pierced Petto's body.

A large chunk of lead tore into the right side of his chest and proceeded downward, severing the spinal column and leaving the body below the spleen, leaving a gaping exit wound. Another projectile, more than a half inch in diameter and with jagged edges, struck Petto between his eighth and ninth ribs and lodged in his liver. A third slug smashed Petto's handgun and ripped apart his hand. A fourth cracked into his right elbow and smashed the bones almost to dust.

Neighbors initially thought little of the autumn evening explosions, as hunting was common in the area. But the blasts brought Petto's wife out of the house. She found her husband dead on the ground. She saw little if anything of the gunmen who took his life. At a coroner's inquest the next week, she testified that she recalled seeing one man dressed in white in the area.

Following the inquest, the coroner's jury decided that Petto was killed by person or persons unknown. No clues were ever found to the identities of Petto's killers, but many were sure they knew who was responsible. Newspapers and law enforcement officers speculated that Giuseppe DiPrimo, recently released from Sing Sing Prison, had avenged himself on the murderer of his brother-in-law Madonia. It was a good story, but Petto reportedly had many enemies other than DiPrimo. William Flynn of the U.S. Secret Service stated that DiPrimo could have had nothing to do with the Petto killing, as he was not yet out of prison at the time it occurred. (The timing of DiPrimo's release is uncertain as of this writing. He was sentenced to four years and could have been paroled in plenty of time to track down and kill Petto. If not paroled, his sentence with good time allowance would have expired too late.)

Petto was buried in the Market Street Cemetery, also known as St. John the Evangelist Cemetery, in Pittston. After the household contents were sold off, his wife took the children to New York City and moved in with her parents there.

See also:

Sources:

"Came from Buffalo,” Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel, Apr. 21, 1903, p. 7.
"Mafia murder gang are all in police net," New York Evening World, April 25, 1903, p. 1.
"No pistols for Mafia," New York Evening World, April 29, 1903, p. 2.
"Have complete chain of evidence," New York Tribune, April 30, 1903, p. 6.
"Six held in Mafia case," New York Evening World, May 8, 1903, p. 1.
"'The Ox' goes free in barrel murder," New York Evening World, Jan. 29, 1904, p. 2.
"'The Ox' may yet be put on trial," New York Evening World, Feb. 3, 1904, p. 5.
"Black Hand leader killed," Scranton PA Republican, Oct. 23, 1905, p. 4.
"Mysterious murder in village of Browntown," Pittston PA Gazette, Oct. 23, 1905, p. 1.
"No clue discovered," Wilkes-Barre PA Record, Oct. 24, 1905, p. 5.
"Perino murder still unsolved," Scranton PA Truth, Oct. 24, 1905, p. 1.
"No clue whatever yet," Pittston PA Gazette, Oct. 24, 1905, p. 1.
"Petto, the Ox, murder victim," New York Sun, Oct. 24, 1905, p. 5.
"May have good clue," Pittston PA Gazette, Oct. 25, 1905, p. 1.
"Revenge on Black Hand," Washington Post, Oct. 26, 1905, p. 1.
"The murder mystery," Pittston PA Gazette, Oct. 27, 1905, p. 1.
"Parrino inquest," Wilkes-Barre PA Record, Oct. 28, 1905, p. 5.
"Reign of crime near Pittston," Wilkes-Barre PA Times Leader, Dec. 20, 1905, p. 26.
Carey, Arthur A., with Howard McLellan, Memoirs of a Murder Man, Garden City NY: Doubelday, Doran and Company, 1930, p. 121.
Flynn, William J., Daily Report, April 20, 29, 30 1903, Department of the Treasury, United States Secret Service Daily Reports, R.G. No. 87, Roll 109, Vol. 9, National Archives.
Flynn, William J., The Barrel Mystery, New York: James A. McCann Company, 1919, p. 13-14, 16-17, 22.
Petacco, Arrigo, translated by Charles Lam Markham, Joe Petrosino, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974, p. 9, 14.

DiPrimo, Giuseppe (1874-?)

b. Lercara Friddi, Sicily, c.1874.
d. Unknown.

Giuseppe DiPrimo (the surname is sometimes written De Priema or De Primo) was a New York City counterfeiter associated with the Giuseppe Morello Mafia. DiPrimo was imprisoned at Sing Sing with Isadoro Crocevera, Giuseppe Giallombardo and Salvatore Romano in March of 1903 after being convicted of passing counterfeit currency in Yonkers, New York.

During the course of the counterfeiting investigation, Secret Service Agent William Flynn allowed DiPrimo's underworld associates to believe that DiPrimo was providing evidence against them. Flynn did this in an effort to convince the other suspects to cooperate. The ploy was unsuccessful. DiPrimo's perceived violation of the underworld code had an undesired effect. It led to the brutal Mafia slaying of his brother-in-law Benedetto Madonia (the "Barrel Murder").

Newspapers of the time, unaware of Flynn's manipulations, attributed Madonia's killing to a squabble over counterfeiting racket proceeds. In a series of articles published years later, Flynn fessed up to the divide-and-conquer effort that cast suspicion on DiPrimo and triggered the April 1903 murder of Madonia.

Secret Service surveillance of the Morello organization gave authorities information on the Barrel Murder perpetrators even before they could identify the victim. Flynn's agents had spotted Morello gangsters with a newcomer to the city on the night before a dead body matching the newcomer's description was found in a barrel on a city sidewalk. Morello and a number of his men immediately were rounded up for the homicide. The victim's identity could not be established until Flynn suggested that NYPD Detective Joseph Petrosino take a photo of the murdered man to show to DiPrimo in Sing Sing Prison. DiPrimo recognized it as his visiting brother-in-law, Madonia.

Most of the suspects were quickly released. Morello enforcer Tomasso Petto was indicted for the Madonia murder. Of those arrested, he was the only one bearing incriminating evidence - a pawn ticket for DiPrimo's watch. Identification of the defendant proved to be a problem, and the case against Petto went nowhere. He was eventually released and fled the city.

DiPrimo reportedly swore revenge against the Lupo-Morello organization for Madonia's death. It was widely believed and widely published (in stories that appeared to use NYPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Petrosino as source) that DiPrimo tracked Petto to the northeastern Pennsylvania communty of Browntown and killed him there in October 1905. William Flynn insisted, however, that the timing was wrong for DiPrimo to be the killer, as he had not yet completed his prison term at the moment Petto was shot to death. (This is a close call. Available prison records show an entry date for DiPrimo but not a release date. He could have been paroled long before the date of Petto's murder, but his earliest release with good time allowance would have been too late - around the middle of November 1905.)

DiPrimo traveled back across the Atlantic. According to legend, he later was gunned down in Italy.

Related Links:

Informer (Apr 2010): Morello-Lupo Counterfeiting Trial

Sources:

"Caught with counterfeit money," New York Tribune, Jan. 2, 1903, p. 9.
"New counterfeit fives," New York Evening World, Jan. 3, 1903, p. 1.
"Counterfeit $5 bills," New York Times, Jan. 4, 1903, p. 2.
Flynn, William J., Daily Report, April 20, 29, 30, 1903, Department of the Treasury, United States Secret Service Daily Reports, R.G. No. 87, Roll 109, Vol. 9, National Archives.
"Came from Buffalo,” Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel, Apr. 21, 1903, p. 7.
"Mysterious murder in village of Browntown," Pittston PA Gazette, Oct. 23, 1905, p. 1.
"Black Hand leader killed," Scranton PA Republican, Oct. 23, 1905, p. 4.
"No clue discovered," Wilkes-Barre PA Record, Oct. 24, 1905, p. 5.
"No clue whatever yet," Pittston PA Gazette, Oct. 24, 1905, p. 1.
"Petto, the Ox, murder victim," New York Sun, Oct. 24, 1905, p. 5.
"May have good clue," Pittston PA Gazette, Oct. 25, 1905, p. 1.
"Revenge on Black Hand," Washington Post, Oct. 26, 1905, p. 1.
"Di Primo one who hated him," New York Sun, March 14, 1909, p. 2.
Sing Sing Prison Inmate Register, New York Department of Correctional Services, Series B0143, New York State Archives, Albany, NY, No. 54088, p. 269.
Flynn, William J., The Barrel Mystery, New York: James A. McCann Company, 1919, p. 13-14, 16-22.
Petacco, Arrigo, translated by Charles Lam Markham, Joe Petrosino, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974, p. 9, 14.

Cascioferro, Vito (1862-1943)

Born Bisacquino, Sicily, 1862.

Died Pozzuoli, Italy, c1943.

Cascio Ferro was an influential Mafia leader on both sides of the Atlantic. It appears that much of the growth and cooperation of the early American Mafia was due to his conscious effort. A political radical, as a young man he embraced leftist causes, including the rise of labor and the anarchist philosophy.

Cascio Ferro was raised in the interior of western Sicily and became well known in the communities of Bisacquino, in Palermo province, and Burgio and Bivona, in Agrigento province (all south of Corleone). He spent several years in New York and New Orleans before returning home. His influence over Mafiosi in the New World added to his underworld prestige in Sicily. He kept in close touch with Mafiosi in both American cities through the 1900s and apparently worked with the transplanted criminals on a counterfeiting racket.

His 1901 voyage to New York was reportedly triggered by increased attention to his activities by the Italian police. When in New York, he reportedly stayed with members of the Morello-Lupo Mob. The group's leader, Giuseppe Morello, had been a top lieutenant in the Mafia of Corleone, Sicily, before fleeing to the U.S. in the early 1890s to escape prosecution for murders and forgery. During Cascio Ferro's visits, he is credited with helping American mobsters refine their practices for extorting protection money from businesses. According to legend, Cascio Ferro showed the gangs they could maximize profits by extorting sums that were not financially damaging to the businesses - a practice called "wetting the beak."

He is believed to have visited Sophia Knieland Bresci at her New Jersey home. She was the widow of Gaetano Bresci, the anarchist assassin who took the life of Italy's King Umberto I before apparently committing suicide in an Italian prison.

On May 21, 1902, Cascio Ferro was arrested along with several other members of a coin counterfeiting gang, in which Salvatore and Stella Frauto were prominent members. The other suspects were convicted and sent to prison, but Cascio Ferro escaped prosecution. Police considered him a suspect in the New York City "Barrel Murder" of Benedetto Madonia in 1903, but Cascio Ferro avoided arrest in that matter by traveling to New Orleans. By 1904, he had returned to Sicily.

He is thought to have organized and participated in the assassination of Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino of the New York Police during Petrosino's official visit to Sicily in 1909. Legend says Cascio Ferro excused himself from a dinner party at the home of a Sicilian government official, borrowed his host's vehicle and went to deliver the coup de grace shot to the head of Petrosino. Then, he returned to complete his friendly visit with the official. Though arrested in connection with the slaying of Petrosino, Cascio Ferro's distant alibi prevented authorities from prosecuting him.

Police arrested Cascio Ferro during a round up of underworld characters during the First World War, but again they could not make charges stick. The underworld leader continued to grow in strength and influence. He is said to have assembled a fleet of merchant vessels that were employed in the transport of stolen cattle from Sicily to the coast of North Africa and to have corrupted politicians and police officials to provide a protective screen for his various criminal endeavors.

The authorities believed early in 1925 that Cascio Ferro was responsible for ordering the murders of two uncooperative extortion targets, Francesco Falconieri and Gioacchino Lo Voi. The 63-year-old Cascio Ferro was charged with ordering the murders, and 40-year-old Vito Campegna of Prizzi was charged with carrying out the orders. Cascio Ferro managed to arrange a release on bail, and the murder charges were briefly forgotten.

With Benito Mussolini's Fascists taking power in Italy, Cascio Ferro faced his most determined and ruthless enemy. The Mussolini government late in 1925 sent Cesari Mori to Sicily to serve as prefect of Palermo, a police position with extraordinary authority. Cascio Ferro was again arrested on the duel murder charges in the spring of 1926. He was held for several years before being brought to trial in 1930 - just as the Castellammarese War was breaking out in the U.S. Mafia. He was convicted in July and sentenced to spend nine years in prison solitary confinement. The Fascist government may have wanted him behind bars as much for his leftist political leanings as for his prominence in the Mafia underworld, and appears to have had no plans ever to release him. His prison sentence took him first to Ucciardone and then to Portolongone before a transfer to Pozzuoli, where he would spend the rest of his life.

The date of his death is generally given as 1945, but author Arrigo Petacco ("Joe Petrosino," 1974) found evidence of Cascio Ferro's demise in summer of 1943. Petacco said the Mafia leader was left behind in his cell when other inmates of Pozzuoli prison were evacuated in advance of the Allied invasion. The author says Cascio Ferro died of thirst. Other sources claim he was killed as a result of Allied bombing.

Related Links:

Informer (Apr 2010): Morello-Lupo Counterfeiting Trial

Petrosino, Joseph (1860-1909) - New York PD

Born Padula, Italy, Aug. 30, 1860.

Killed Palermo, Sicily, March 12, 1909.

Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino achieved great success in the fight against Italian and Sicilian organized criminal groups in the United States. When he attempted to take the fight to the Mafia's home island, he was assassinated.

On a visit to Palermo in western Sicily, officially to gather information on the identities of Mafiosi who might have fled to the U.S., Petrosino was shot through the body, in the throat and in the head while he stood beside a garden in the Piazza Marina on March 12, 1909. He was 48.

His visit to Sicily was supposed to have been a secret. But many sources agree that Police Commissioner Bingham released fairly specific information about the trip through the New York Herald and other newspapers before Petrosino landed in Europe. Mafiosi in the U.S. were able to mobilize their Old World fellows to act against the lieutenant.

Many believe Vito Cascio Ferro, a Mafia leader on both sides of the Atlantic, organized and/or participated in the assassination. (An often retold and probably untrue story has Cascio Ferro excusing himself from a dinner party thrown by a local government official to do the deed. Cascio Ferro promptly returned to dinner afterward.) It is also known that several mafiosi traveled to Sicily just before the attack on Petrosino.

Petrosino joined the New York City police department in 1883, despite failing to meet the department's height requirement. Capt. "Clubber" Williams was his mentor. He rose through the ranks, reaching the detective sergeant level in 1895 under then-police commissioner (and later U.S. President) Theodore Roosevelt.

Petrosino would be considered brutal by today's standards. He did not hesitate to use threats and force to extract information from street thugs. While his tactics would be frowned upon by many today, they were accepted at the time (forensic science was in its infancy) and highly effective. Petrosino was placed in charge of the Italian Squad, a group of Italian and Sicilian officers whose job was to check organized criminal activity in ethnic neighborhoods.
Petrosino's greatest successes came against transplanted Neapolitan criminals - those belonging to the Camorra. He was less fortunate in dealing with the Sicilian Mafiosi, but may have been on the verge of acquiring some very effective tools in the form of documentary evidence from Italian police agencies.

Among Petrosino's more noteworthy adventures were: saving Angelo Carbone from execution by extracting a murder confession from another man; deporting Camorra leaders Tony Strolle and Enrico Alfano; and identifying both the victim and the perpetrators of the infamous barrel murder in 1903 (though the ring leaders, including Ignazio Lupo, Vito Cascio Ferro and Giuseppe Morello, managed to escape prosecution).

Many of Petrosino's cases were chronicled in a 1914 series of newspaper articles by A.R. Parkhurst under the title, "Perils of Petrosino." His career was also the subject of a number of pulp fiction volumes in the U.S. and Italy.

Related links:

Oldfield, Frank (1867-1916) - Postal Inspection

Born Ellicott City, Maryland, Jan. 1867.

Died Athens, Ohio, May 25, 1916.

John Frank Oldfield, who went by the name of "Frank," and his younger brother Clarence for a time held local government jobs in their native Howard County, Maryland. They were key men in the Republican Party of Ellicott City (at a time when political rallies often were indistinguishable from street gang clashes). Into the late-1890s, Frank Oldfield served as the sheriff of Howard County.

During the Administration of President William McKinley, Frank Oldfield joined the United States Postal Inspection Service, while Clarence Oldfield became an inspector for the Customs Service. Continued political activity momentarily cost Frank Oldfield his job in the fall of 1899. After his return to the Postal Inspection Service, Frank Oldfield became the most renowned member of what was at the time the highest ranking federal law enforcement agency.

Oldfield worked primarily in the Midwest, but he also had occasion to travel. His authority as a postal inspector gave him law enforcement powers throughout the U.S.

In the early 1900s, he assisted in the conviction of a former congressman for taking bribes related to the purchase of postage stamp dispensing machines. Oldfield also cracked down on several Ohio postmasters he found were taking money from the till and some postal patrons who were using the mails for gambling and pornography.

Oldfield mobilized local government agencies against a growing ring of Mafia black handers in Ohio known as the Society of the Banana. While many of the underworld group's illegal activities were not mail-related, the Society's practice of extorting money through mailed threats brought the case to Oldfield's desk. He succeeded in breaking up the ring, led by Salvatore Arrigo, Francesco Spadera and Salvatore Lima, by 1909.

During his investigation of the Society, Oldfield tracked down branches in Indiana, Illinois, New York, California and Oregon, and established links between the Arrigo-Spadera mob and the alleged assassins of both New Orleans' Police Chief David C. Hennessy and New York Detective Joseph Petrosino. In the summer of 1909, Oldfield arrested Charles Vicario at Bellefountaine, Ohio, charging him with being a fugitive and with having knowledge of the Petrosino assassin.

Oldfield and his family settled in the community of Athens, Ohio, about 75 miles southeast of Columbus. Oldfield spent his final years battling cancer. He died in Athens on May 25, 1916. A small news item in the newspaper of nearby Lancaster, Ohio, stated, "J.F. Oldfield, former postal inspector and famous as one of the shrewdest detectives in the federal service, died at his home here following a long illness from cancer. Oldfield gained national fame in the Black Hand cases in northern Ohio."

Fiaschetti, Michael (1881-1960) - New York PD

Born Morolo, Italy, Feb. 8, 1882.

Died Brooklyn, NY, July 29, 1960.

Detective Michael Fiaschetti might be forgotten but for a boastful 1928 autobiography entitled, "The Man They Couldn't Escape." (After a printing in England, it was published in the U.S. with the title "You Gotta Be Rough.") In the book, Fiaschetti describes his adventures as a member of and a commander of New York's Italian Squad.

A native of central Italy (about 50 miles east of Rome), Fiaschetti arrived in the U.S. about 1895. He and his family spent some time in the Boston area before moving to New York. Fiaschetti was naturalized an American citizen. He joined the New York Police Department in 1908 and was initially assigned to a beat in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Fiaschetti quickly won appointment to serve under Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino on the NYPD Italian Squad. He worked with Petrosino for just half a year. The young detective clearly idolized the tough Petrosino, who was known for somewhat brutal tactics. In his autobiography, he noted that he acquired a preference for physical force and a collection of knowledgeable stool pigeons over the subtler deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes. He also scoffed at the code of omerta. Criminals on their deathbeds may not inform on the guy who shot them, Fiaschetti argued, but that's only because there's no way that could benefit them (and it could be dangerous for the loved ones they leave behind). But, if given a choice between being sent up the river and ratting on a criminal confederate, Fiaschetti said nearly every underworld character would sing.

Fiaschetti battled kidnappers, black handers and lottery racketeers during his career. While he was not directly involved, the death of the powerful Giosue Gallucci, racket king of Italian East Harlem, occurred during Fiaschetti's tenure.

The Italian Squad was gradually dismantled after Petrosino's 1909 assassination in Sicily. The squad was briefly resurrected under Fiaschetti's leadership years later. In 1920, the new squad chief traveled to Italy in disguise, duplicating the assignment that cost Petrosino his life. Fiaschetti's "old school" methods and tactlessness with political leaders resulted in the end of the Italian Squad in 1922.

Fiaschetti ran a private detective agency for some time and toured the country giving lectures on law enforcement. He returned briefly to public service when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York appointed him third deputy police commissioner in charge of city markets. That position was eliminated in 1938.

He died in the summer of 1960 at the Veterans' Administration Hospital in Brooklyn.

Related Links:

Alfano, Enrico (c.1873-?)

Alfano, known as "Erricone," was one of New York detective Joseph Petrosino's great success stories of 1907. Believed to be the head of the Neapolitan Camorra organization in New York City, Alfano was arrested April 17 of that year as police raided East Side night spots checking patrons for concealed weapons. Petrosino reportedly recognized Alfano by a prominent scar on his face.

Following Alfano's arrest, the New York Tribune noted, "The populace considered Alfano in the light of a demigod; he was thought to be invulnerable to bullets and able at all times to escape his pursuers." The newspaper recalled that back in Naples, Alfano had eliminated a rival named Gennaro Cuocolo by denouncing him as a spy for the authorities. "The Camorra then condemned both Cuocolo and his wife to death, and they were brutally murdered." The body of Gennaro Cuocolo, stabbed numerous times, was discovered at Torre del Greco, outside of Naples, on June 7, 1906. The body of his wife, Maria Cutinelli Cuocolo, was found "horribly mutilated" in their apartment. Alfano was an early suspect in the murders, but, assisted by his godfather and priest, Rev. Ciro Vitozzi, he won his freedom and fled his homeland for the United States early in 1907.[1]

He was turned over to U.S. immigration authorities on April 22. Not formally charged with wrongdoing in the U.S., he was sent back to Europe as an unfit immigrant, due to his criminal past. He was turned over to French authorities in Havre and extradited to Italy.[2] The Italian government took charge of Alfano at Cherbourg in June and kept him under close guard on the trip back to Naples.[3]

Early in 1908, the New York Tribune reported that, in the absence of Erricone, a new New York Camorra chief had been chosen. He was Gaetano Esposito. Known by such nicknames as "the grand master" and "the snow seller," Esposito had recently been released after serving a term in the prison on Italy's Ventotene Island.[4]

Some believe angry Alfano allies were responsible for assassinating Petrosino as he traveled in Sicily in 1909.[5]

Back in Italy, Alfano and a number of codefendants stood trial at Viterbo for the Cuocolo murders. The trial lasted many months in 1911 and 1912 and included more than 700 witnesses. (One memorable moment in the trial occurred when defendant Corrado Sortino pulled his glass eye out of its socket and hurled it at the judge.) American authorities followed the trial closely, hoping it would cast some light on the unsolved Petrosino assassination.

Alfano denied involvement in the murders and membership in the Camorra. Of the Cammora, he stated, "I am neither its head nor its tail." Despite his denials, he and eight accomplices were convicted of murder on July 8, 1912. Seven other codefendants, acquitted of participation in the murders, were convicted of membership in a criminal association.

Alfano and codefendants Corrado Sortino, Antonio Cerrato, Giuseppe Salvi, Nicolo Morra, Mariano DiGennaro, Giovanni Rapi and DiMarinas were sentenced to thirty years in prison and ten years of police surveillance. The jury decided that Alfano, Rapi, DiMarinas instigated the murders, while Sortino was personally involved in both murders, Morra, Cerrato and DiGennaro were involved in the murder of Gennaro Cuocolo, and Salvi was involved in the murder of Maria Cuocolo. As the verdict was announced, DiMarinas slashed his own throat with a shard of glass. While the wounded defendant was removed from the court, Alfano shouted a protest against the injustice of the trial. during which his brother Ciro, once one of the defendants, died in prison.[6] Erricone reportedly was locked away in a prison on the island of Sardinia.[7]

The Italian government's most important witness in the trial, Gennaro Abbatemaggio, was a former Cammora member turned informant. Abbatemaggio later served his country with distinction during the Great War, receiving four medals. Early in 1921, as he faced arrest on a charge of fraud, Abbatemaggio shot himself through the chest, apparently attempting suicide. Enrico Alfano's sisters rushed to the hospital where surgeons tended to Abbatemaggio, hoping to secure from the wounded man an admission that his trial testimony had been false. They were prevented from seeing him.[8]

(It should be noted that Lt. Petrosino was far more effective at penetrating and intimidating the Camorra than the Mafia. His activity unintentionally may have given a competitive edge to the city's Mafia organization.)

Informer (Jan 2009): Martyr - Joseph Petrosino.

Notes:

"Alfano wanted in Italy," New York Tribune, April 20, 1907, p. 2; "All Italy awaits trial recalling Petrosino murder," New York Evening World, Feb. 25, 1911, p. 7; "Father Vitozzi testifies," New York Sun, April 7, 1911, p. 3.
"Camorrist in the toils," New York Sun, May 25, 1907, p. 3.
"Guard Camorra chief," New York Sun, June 27, 1907, p. 3.
"A new chief of the Camorra," New York Tribune, Feb. 16, 1908, p. 4.
"Arranging for trial of 300 Camorrists," Washington Times, Sept. 12, 1910, p. 2.
"Camorrist jury makes full sweep, finds all guilty," New York Evening World, July 8, 1912, p. 1; "Camorra verdict; all found guilty," New York Tribune, July 9, 1912, p. 1; "Cammora verdicts may be reversed," New York Times, July 16, 1922, p. E5.
Romano, Anne T., Italian Americans in Law Enforcement, Xlibris, 2010, p. 45.
"Abbatemaggio, informer on Camorra, shoots self," New York Tribune, Jan. 31, 1921, p. 3.