Antonino Passananti
Alias:
Born:
Nationality: Sicilian
Died: March 6 1969
Where: Partinico
Cause: Shot in head
Killer: n/a
Antonino Passananti and Carlo Costantino sailed to Sicily around the same time as Lieutenant Petrosino. Upon their arrival Costantino sent a telegram to Giuseppe Morello, 360 East 61st Street, New York : ” I LoBaido work Fontana”. After a few days with their families, Costantino and Passananti visited Vito Cascioferro.
A witness to the Petrosino murder alerted the police to the fact that the day before he had seen Carlo Costantino and Antonino Passananti. The police were unaware that these two men had returned to Palermo, and began to investigate. Carlo Costantino and many other suspects were arrested. Only Vito Cascioferro and Passananti were not picked up.
In a written report of the Petrosino murder the police commissioner spoke of the questioning of Carlo Costantino and Antonino Passananti. The report referred to the cable message, sent upon their return to Sicily, to Morello in New York: “I LoBaido work Fontana”. The report claimed that LoBaido was a fictitious name used by Passananti. Costantino had been found with photographs of a New York shop under the name “PECORARO-LOBAIDO”. The report concluded that Carlo Costantino and Antonino Passananti were the likely perpetrators of the crime, with Vito Cascioferro the mastermind.
Passananti managed to escape the sweeping arrests made in connection with the Petrosino murder. His criminal record in Sicily shows many further crimes and arrests until he killed himself on March 6, 1969.
