Lt. Petrosino Murder
1909. A leading Italian New York policeman, who made it his mission to smash the Black Hand & Mafia gangs, is murdered in the line of duty.
Petrosino death threat
Joeseph Petrosino
Antonio Passananti
Carlo Costantino
Vito Cascioferro
Joeseph Petrosino
Giuseppe Michele Pasquale Petrosino, born in Salerno, August 30th 1860, a past police informer, rose through the ranks of the NYPD after joining in 1883. He became the leading Italian policeman in New York, fluent in every Italian dialect, and knowledgeable of underworld crimes. Petrosino realised that American Law was unable to deal with Italian crime in an effective way, so he gradually earned a name for himself by reverting to his own methods of dealing with criminals. He was never afraid to use force when questioning suspects or arresting criminals. He was said to have worked tirelessly and without fear, hunting his criminals day and night, harassing their friends and family for information and frequenting their known hangouts.
He was assigned to investigate the Italian underworld as early as 1890, and promoted to a sergeant of detectives by the president of the Police Commission board, Theodore Roosevelt in 1895.
Vito Cascioferro, who had travelled to New Orleans after being questioned over the “Barrel Murder”, arrived back in Sicily during 1904, obviously concerned over the troubles Lt Petrosino had caused him during the investigation, including his application for American citizenship which had been blocked by the charges.
In 1905 the board of Aldermen in New York agreed to the formation of a squad of exclusively Italian policemen. Petrosino set up an intelligence network within Little Italy. Using informers and spys he began to build up huge files against large underworld figures.
In 1905 Petrosino requested Federal funding to help with the eradication of New Yorks gangs.
Unless the Federal Government comes to our aid New York will awaken some morning to one of the greatest catastrophes in history. You may think I am foolish making this statement, but these Black Hand blackmailers are growing bolder every day.
In a little while they will turn their attentions to the American people and pursue the same tactics and methods they now employ in dealing with the Italians. Not even in Italy does so bad a condition of affairs exist as in New York at the present day.
Only the national government can save this situation for us. As the law stands at present we are helpless to a great extent against these desperadoes. They know the penal code from end to end. I have information that there are not less than 30,000 members of the Camorra in this country, working under twelve leaders stationed in the principal cities.
In 1906 Theodore A. Bingham became Police Commissioner. he stated:
From this moment on, the goal of my life shall be to crush the “Black Hand” and to destroy these vile foreign criminals who have come to disrupt the serenity of our peaceful land.
Commissioner Bingham fully supported the needs of the Italian branch, and within four months it grew from five members to twenty five, plus a second detachment of ten men in Brooklyn under the command of Antonio Vachris was formed. Petrosino was promoted to Lieutenant, but he still harboured great frustration over the American courts inability to deport any captured criminals. Cases were dismissed on technicalities as quickly as Petrosino could arrest the criminals.
Raffaele Palizzolo, an ex-member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, arrived in New York from Palermo on Monday 8th June, 1908. He stayed at the home of Dr G. A. Purpura, 157 E 116th Street.
Palizzolo had been tried, along with Giuseppe Fontana and Nicolo Trapini, for the 1893 killing of a Palermo political figure, Emanuelo Notarbartolo. The trial became famous in Italy, it cost Palizzolo over 150,000 lire, half of which was donated from Sicilians in America, and also cost the Italian government over 20,000,000 lire. Palizzolo had originally been sentenced to thirty years for the killing of Notarbartolo, who was at the time his political opponent. However, the sentence was quashed and Palizzolo, Fontana and Trapini were released.
Amazingly he was given a warm reception by the Italian Consul General when he arrived in the US in 1908. He was reported to visit Giuseppe Fontana, who was currently staying in Westchester County, and also Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo. Petrosino publicly commended Palizzolo, saying he was a “gentleman and a scholar”. However other reports suggest that, out of the public eye, Petrosino “persuaded” Palizzolo cut his visit short and head back to Sicily.
Secret Service branch
In February 1908, Police Commissioner Bingham was asked of his plans to eradicate the Black Hand. He claimed his request for $25,000 to establish a secret detective service was turned down by the Aldermen. He also said the Lt. Petrosino and his squad were too well known in the Italian quarter to be of any assistance.
The Black Hand fear became such a problem that a special Italian branch of the police had to be formed. The New York Times ran this story on the new force :
NEW SECRET SERVICE TO BATTLE “BLACK HAND’
Police Commissioner Theodore A. Bingham, finally has his secret service. It is a secret in every sense of the word, since no one at 300 Mulberry Street except Lieutenant Petrosino and Bingham himself knows its membership. Substantial funds for the maintenance of the Secret Squad have been made available to the Commissioner, but this is all he will say. He refuses to discuss their source, confining himself to the assurance that it is not public money. It is generally believed that the money was contributed by a number of prosperous Italian merchants and bankers across the city, aroused by the wave of extorsions in recent years.
Petrosino realized that American law was far to relaxed, and was not capable of dealing with mafiosi. He said :
There is only one thing that can wipe out the Black Hand, and that is the elimination of ignorance. The gangsters who are holding Little Italy in the grip of terror come chiefly from Sicily and Southern Italy, and they are primitive country robbers transplanted into cities. This is proved by their brutal methods. No American hold-up man would ever think of stopping somebody and slashing his face with a knife just to take his wallet. Probably he would threaten him with a pistol. No American criminal would blow up a man’s house or kill his children because he refused to pay fifty or a hundred dollars. The crimes that occur among the Italians here, are the same as those committed at one time by rural outlaws in Italy; and the victims, like the killers, come from the same ignorant class of people. In short we are dealing with banditry transplanted to the most modern city in the world.
Petrosino travelled to Italy in February 1909, in his notebook he carried the names: Giuseppe Morello, Ignazio Lupo, Giuseppe Fontana, Carlo Costantino and Antonino Passananti, The idea was to collect their penal certificates to aid their extradition from the United States.
Petrosino thought his mission would be kept secret, but before he had even arrived in Italy his story was in the New York papers. On February 20th 1909, Police Commissioner Bingham was interviewed in the New York Times about the formation of the new secret police squad. When asked about Petrosino’s current location he answered “Why, he may be on the ocean bound for Europe for all I know.” Although it is claimed the details of Petrosino’s trip were leaked well before this in the foreign language press.
Sailing to Sicily around the same time as Petrosino, were Carlo Costantino and Antonino Passananti. Upon Costantino’s arrival he sent a telegram to Giuseppe Morello, 360 East 61 Street, New York :” I LoBaido work Fontana”. After a few days with their families, Costantino and Passananti visited Vito Cascioferro.
Petrosino killed
On Friday, March 12th, 1909, Petrosino was shot and killed in Piazza Marina, Palermo. He left the restaurant in Café Oreto after being visited by two men, whilst he was standing outside he was shot at four times, two men were then seen running from Piazza. Petrosino had become the first, and only, NYPD officer to be killed on foreign soil whilst on duty. On his person was found his notebook, containing the names of the criminals he come to collect information about, and also a new addition of the name Vito Cascioferro.
Two men were arrested, they had been seen in the café with Petrosino. The first man was Paolo Palazzotto, who’s name had been on Petrosino’s list, and had been deported from New York by Petrosino for “Black Hand” crimes in Brooklyn. The second man was Ernesto Militano, a vicious local criminal.
Another witness 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 over the following forty-eight hours. Only Vito Cascioferro and Passananti were not picked up.
Meanwhile the world was in uproar, the story had broken in the papers, and a wave of Italian hatred travelled through New York. President Roosevelt passed comment on the sadness of the affair, and reporters scanned the globe for interviews with anarchist groups, in the hope for a lead story.
Baldassare Ceola, the police commissioner of Palermo drew three early hypothesis on the Petrosino murder:
1. Petrosino was killed by Paolo Palazzotto, the Brooklyn Black-Hander, for his harsh treatment whilst in America.
2. Petrosino was killed by the Mafia, before he could block their access to the United States.
3. Petrosino was killed by the “Black Hand”, before he could collect their penal certificates and expel them from America.
In a later report the police commissioner spoke of the questioning of Carlo Costantino and Antonino Passananti, the two men who had arrived the same time as Petrosino. 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.
On 3rd April, 1909, Vito Cascioferro, was arrested in connection with the murder. Among his possessions were: a visiting card from “Vito LoBaido, Brooklyn”, and hand written notes of defence prepared for two friends, both of whom had previous charges of counterfeiting, a photo showing Costantino, Morello, Cascioferro, Frank Aiello, Fontana and others. Cascioferro pleaded innocence and provided a strong alibi.
On July 17th 1909, Baldassare Ceola, was relieved of his position as the police commissioner of Palermo, and on the same day Theodore Bingham was stepped down as police commissioner of New York.
In January 1911, almost one year after his imprisonment for counterfeiting, Giuseppe Morello was reported to have spoken to the Attorney representing the US authorities about the murder of Petrosino in the hope of shortening his sentence. No evidence has ever been found of this.
In July 1911, the Sicilian Court of Appeals released Cascioferro, Costantino and Passananti due to insufficient evidence.
