The Grocery Conspiracy

The Crime

Ignazio Lupo had worked in the gro­cery busi­ness in Paler­mo with his father since 1887. Legal pro­ceed­ings were held against him in March 1899, after he shot a busi­ness rival in his store. Based on the tes­ti­mo­ny of his own employ­ees, Lupo was con­vict­ed of “delib­er­ate and wil­ful mur­der”. But he had already fled the coun­try, arriv­ing ille­gal­ly in New York dur­ing 1898.

Lupo con­tin­ued to work in the gro­cery busi­ness, and opened sev­er­al out­lets in New York City. His first store was on East 72^nd Street with a cousin named Sait­ta, later he moved the busi­ness to Brook­lyn. In 1901, he moved back to Man­hat­tan open­ing a store at 9 Prince Street. When his father arrived in 1902, they opened a retail gro­cery store “Rocco Lupo & Sons” at 310 West 39^th Street, where he worked along with his broth­er, Gio­van­ni Lupo.¹Lupo’s his­to­ry: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347Store name: NARA. RG87. T915-106 Daily Reports of … Con­tin­ue reading

He opened his flag­ship store at 210 – 214 Mott Street. The New York Times described it as “eas­i­ly the most pre­ten­tious mer­can­tile estab­lish­ment in that sec­tion of the city, with a stock of goods over which the neigh­bour­hood mar­velled … Lupo’s hors­es and deliv­ery wag­ons were the best that had ever been used in the neigh­bour­hood”. The turnover of the busi­ness reached between $500,000 and $600,000 a year.²New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 13, 1909.New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 5, 1908Turnover: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe … Con­tin­ue reading

William Flynn, chief of the Secret Ser­vice, who had an informed knowl­edge of Lupo’s meth­ods, described how Lupo threat­ened other busi­ness­es:³The Wash­ing­ton Post. May 3^rd, 1914. p8

The small Ital­ian gro­cers of the dis­trict were forced to buy their sup­plies from this store. If they did not their estab­lish­ments were in dan­ger of being wrecked by bombs or burned … By intim­i­dat­ing the local gro­cers into trad­ing at their whole­sale store, Lupo and Morel­lo accom­plished a dou­ble pur­pose. They swelled their so-called legit­i­mate prof­its and were able to get rid of some of [their] coun­ter­feit money.

Lupo import­ed Ital­ian goods from his brother-in-law, Francesco Gam­bi­no, via an import com­pa­ny run by Frank Zito. In Feb­ru­ary 1903, a con­sign­ment of empty olive oil cans labelled “Rocco Lupo & Sons” was sent by Gam­bi­no to the “Lupo Broth­ers”. The cans were impound­ed for inspec­tion by the Secret Ser­vice, after they learnt of a telegram sent by Vito Cas­cio­fer­ro, that led them to believe the gang were smug­gling coun­ter­feit cur­ren­cy into the city.⁴Gam­bi­no and Zito: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347Gambino is list­ed in Lupo’s prison file … Con­tin­ue reading

Other Mafioso also ran gro­cery stores across New York. Sev­er­al of them were con­sid­ered to be “branch stores” of Lupo’s net­work:⁵The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 31, 1911
Mott and Spring Streets: New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908

• 9 Spring Street — run by Anto­nio Cecala.⁶Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 3479 Spring Street was list­ed under Ignazio Lupo’s name: Trow’s Gen­er­al … Con­tin­ue reading
• 593 Flush­ing Avenue — run by Antoni­to Pas­sanan­ti.⁷Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 10, 1908. p.2
• 235 East 97^th Street — run by Domeni­co Milone.⁸William J. Flynn, The Bar­rel Mys­tery. New York, The James A. McCann Com­pa­ny, 1919. p.216 p.247
• 307 East 71^st Street — run by Carlo Costan­ti­no.⁹The Evening Telegram. New York. April 6, 1909. p2The New York Times. New York. April 7^th, 1909Costantino’s store was a known hang­out for Black Hand crim­i­nals, he fled the store after it went … Con­tin­ue reading
• 150 Eliz­a­beth Street — “owned by Lupo”.¹⁰Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Feb­ru­ary 10, 1910. p18
• Gio­van­ni Pec­o­raro, who also ran a gro­cery store, showed debts to the same cred­i­tors as Lupo in 1909.¹¹Described as “the pro­pri­etor of a large wine deposit, and he has more prop­er­ty.” — Flynn, The Bar­rel Mys­tery. p.81Debts: Real estate record and builders’ guide. Feb­ru­ary 1909. V.83 p.378, p.625, … Con­tin­ue reading

In late Novem­ber 1908, Lupo dis­ap­peared from New York owing up to $100,000 to his cred­i­tors, among whom were list­ed a trust com­pa­ny; a New York bank; and food and wine mer­chants.¹²The Sun. New York. Sep­tem­ber 6, 1908
New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908
New York Times, New York. March 17, 1909 Many other Ital­ian stores in the city began to fail at the same time, esti­mat­ed at six in Brook­lyn and eleven in Man­hat­tan.¹³The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 9, 1908
The Sun. New York. Decem­ber 8, 1908
The Sun. New York. Decem­ber 13, 1908
New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908 The New York author­i­ties soon realised they were fac­ing an organ­ised con­spir­a­cy¹⁴The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 8, 9, 10. 1908 with the com­bined lia­bil­i­ties across Brook­lyn and Man­hat­tan esti­mat­ed at $500,000.¹⁵New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio LupoRecords of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box … Con­tin­ue reading

Twelve war­rants were issued by Court Receiv­er, Charles Cohn, for “fraud­u­lent dis­po­si­tion of prop­er­ty, and with con­spir­a­cy to defraud mer­chants”. Ben­jamin Less­er, attor­ney for Lupo’s cred­i­tors sus­pect­ed that a fur­ther ten busi­ness­es were involved.

Receiv­er Cohn became sus­pi­cious after find­ing one of the stores emp­tied of stock, even though they had been sup­plied with “thou­sands of dol­lars of wine dur­ing the past few days”. He was tipped off about the con­spir­a­cy by a book­keep­er from one of the stores, who had been offered $100 to “keep his mouth shut”. Cohn, and the book­keep­er both received death threats.¹⁶Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping

Goods totalling around $50,000 were tracked down to a Jer­sey City pier ready to be trans­port­ed to Italy,¹⁷New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 14, 1909
New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 5, 1908 with fur­ther stock dis­cov­ered on a Man­hat­tan pier. Some items, includ­ing meat and lard had already been shipped to Italy.¹⁸The New York Times. New York. Novem­ber 14, 1909
Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clip­ping In an attempt to dis­guise the source of the goods, com­pa­ny names and details had been removed from the bar­rels and crates, but agents con­nect­ed to the sup­pli­ers man­aged to iden­ti­fy the stock. A store­room at Twen­ty Fourth street and First avenue was raid­ed, reveal­ing a fur­ther $6,000 worth of prop­er­ty,¹⁹Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clip­ping and anoth­er ware­house on Wash­ing­ton Street dis­closed even more.²⁰The Sun. New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908

The bank­rupt­cy courts auc­tioned off the reclaimed stock, along with other assets from Lupo’s store. The items were list­ed as:²¹The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 21, 1908

large stock of Ital­ian wines, liquors. gro­ceries, bar­rels of claret, port and other wines, vine­gar, bar­rels of soda, bags of beans, peas, nuts, salt, bales of stock fish, cases of soap, starch, wash­ing pow­der, mac­a­roni, bologna; also fix­tures, con­sist­ing of safe, revolv­ing chairs, desks, seal­er, let­ter press …

The Brains

Egypt­ian born, Philip S. Sait­ta, was the son of an Ital­ian Min­is­ter to Egypt. He began his career in the gro­cery busi­ness, but was best known for his work as a New York attor­ney, spe­cial­is­ing in rep­re­sent­ing fruit importers.²²The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay Col­lege of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Trial Tran­scripts of the Coun­ty of New York. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions 1883 – 1927. #1857 Philip S. Sait­ta. 1914/3/20

Sait­ta was a well edu­cat­ed man with a great knowl­edge of the gro­cery busi­ness; in 1908 he spoke in front of con­gress in “Tar­iff hear­ings before the Com­mit­tee on Ways and Means of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ where he ‘rep­re­sent­ed the fruit deal­ers and importers of New York” and the Ital­ian Cham­ber of Com­merce, and spoke about remov­ing the tar­iff on Ital­ian lemons import­ed into Amer­i­ca.²³Tar­iff hear­ings before the Com­mit­tee on ways and means of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives V.4 Sched­ules F‑I. 1908 – 1909. p.4021
The New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 20, 1908 He also acted as rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the Ital­ian Mer­chants Pro­tec­tive Asso­ci­a­tion, and had a con­struc­tion com­pa­ny involved with erect­ing apart­ment hous­es.²⁴The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay Col­lege of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Trial Tran­scripts of the Coun­ty of New York. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions 1883 – 1927. #1857 Philip S. Sait­ta. 1914/3/20

Sait­ta acted as attor­ney for the Musi­ca fam­i­ly in 1913, who were accused of “hav­ing swin­dled a chain of twen­ty two banks in [Amer­i­ca] and Europe out of more than $1,000,000 through alleged manip­u­la­tion of invoic­es”.²⁵The Sun. New York. March 31, 1914
New York Tri­bune, New York. April 14, 1914
New York Times. New York. March 20, 1913 He had known the fam­i­ly for many years, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly rep­re­sent­ed them in sev­er­al civil cases,²⁶The Sun. New York. March 23, 1913. p.3 but was accused of only offer­ing them his legal ser­vices after they had hand­ed over their pri­vate papers and valu­ables. Reports show that Sait­ta was served with a writ in 1913 for hold­ing prop­er­ty belong­ing to the fam­i­ly.²⁷Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. April 13, 1914
New York Times. New York. March 20, 1913

In 1914, Sait­ta was tried and con­vict­ed for grand lar­ce­ny in the Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions.²⁸The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay Col­lege of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Trial Tran­scripts of the Coun­ty of New York. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions 1883 – 1927. #1857 Philip S. Sait­ta. 1914/3/20 He was charged with retain­ing pro­ceeds from import­ed Ital­ian lemons, and as a result was dis­barred on July 6, 1914.²⁹Year­book / The Asso­ci­a­tion of the Bar of the City of New York. 1915. p.148

Towards the end of the trial, Sait­ta was con­front­ed with a ten page report pre­pared by Assis­tant Dis­trict Attor­ney William Hay­ward. He was accused of being con­nect­ed with bank­rupt­cies, bogus finan­cial trans­ac­tions, and of hav­ing con­nec­tions with the Mafia.³⁰The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay Col­lege of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Trial Tran­scripts of the Coun­ty of New York. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions 1883 – 1927. #1857 Philip S. Sait­ta. 1914/3/20Brooklyn Daily … Con­tin­ue reading

The report closed by say­ing:³¹New York Tri­bune, April 14, 1914

The Police Depart­ment of this city, as well as many well informed busi­ness men, believe that the defen­dant has been the mas­ter mind and legal advis­er to the Mafia, and has been in close asso­ci­a­tion as advis­er and friend of some of the most dan­ger­ous and noto­ri­ous crim­i­nals for years

The accu­sa­tion cer­tain­ly holds some weight:

• In 1909, Mafioso Giuseppe Morel­lo was seen vis­it­ing Saitta’s office at 258 Broad­way.³²Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347Saitta shown at 258 Broad­way: Tar­iff hear­ings before the Com­mit­tee on … Con­tin­ue reading
• In the weeks lead­ing up to Saitta’s 1914 trial, lawyer Charles H. Deull from DA Whitman’s office con­tact­ed the New York Secret Ser­vice to ascer­tain if they had any infor­ma­tion on “Fil­ip­po Sait­ta, who was a close asso­ciate of Lupo’s”.³³Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion. RG87 T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937. William Flynn. 18 March, 1914
• Sait­ta acted as attor­ney for Sal­va­tore Manzel­la, an Ital­ian gro­cer who had con­nec­tions with Ignazio Lupo.³⁴The Evening Telegram. New York. March 23, 1909
• His son, Philip W. Sait­ta, did busi­ness with Lupo’s whole­sale store on Mott Street, involv­ing gro­cery goods and loans.³⁵The Sun. Novem­ber 14, 1909. p.10The New York Times. New York. Novem­ber 14, 1909Father and son: New York Pas­sen­ger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892 – 1924. Sait­ta fam­i­ly, 01 Oct, 1903Father and son: … Con­tin­ue reading
• An arti­cle about Saitta’s con­vic­tion, sub-headed “Defend­er of Noto­ri­ous Crooks”, claimed he had rep­re­sent­ed “Lupo the Wolf’, and “Petto the Ox’ from the famous “Bar­rel Trial” in 1903.³⁶Daily Her­ald. April 14, 1914
  The Buf­fa­lo Express, April 11, 1914
• Sait­ta acted as attor­ney for Ignazio Lupo in a busi­ness mat­ter.³⁷The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay Col­lege of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Trial Tran­scripts of the Coun­ty of New York. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions 1883 – 1927. #1857 Philip S. Sait­ta. 1914/3/20
• He incor­po­rat­ed a com­pa­ny in 1913 with Frank Zito, a busi­ness­man with con­nec­tions to Giuseppe Morel­lo and Ignazio Lupo. Zito and his wife were god­par­ents to Lupo’s daugh­ter Angeli­na.³⁸Real estate record and builders’ guide. 1913. V.92 p.320Morello vis­it­ed Zito’s office in 1909. He import­ed pro­duce from Lupo’s brother-in-law in Paler­mo: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court … Con­tin­ue reading
• He had deal­ings with Bia­gio Calan­dra, an Ital­ian gro­cer who was arrest­ed for mur­der and insur­ance fraud, who also had con­nec­tions with Ignazio Lupo.³⁹Sait­ta & Calan­dra: New York Times. New York. Sep­tem­ber 8, 1915. p.14Calandra mur­der: New York Daily Tri­bune. New York. July 21, 1906. p.3Calandra Fire: Pear­son­’s Mag­a­zine. V.29 (Jan-June 1913) … Con­tin­ue reading

Dur­ing the trial, ADA Hay­ward accused Sait­ta of being involved with a bank­rupt­cy con­spir­a­cy using a net­work of New York gro­cery stores.

The Conspiracy

Hay­ward asked Sait­ta if he had induced Charles A. Edwards of the Anglo-South Amer­i­can Bank to loan $300,000 to Ital­ian gro­cers and busi­ness­es, that were non­col­lec­table due to the gro­cers being miss­ing or repu­di­at­ing their sig­na­tures mak­ing the doc­u­ments worth­less.⁴⁰Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. April 4, 1914.The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay Col­lege of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Trial Tran­scripts of the Coun­ty of New York. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions 1883 – 1927. #1857 … Con­tin­ue reading

The busi­ness­es list­ed in the courts accu­sa­tion and press reports were:⁴¹Other busi­ness­es list­ed were:Anastasi Broth­ers — 167 West 4^th Street, New YorkPi­etro Peiri & Bro — 233 West Street, New York­Sal­va­tore Como & Paolo Di Dato — 24 Mott Street, New YorkC.E. … Con­tin­ue reading

❖ Ignazio Lupo. 210 Mott St. and 9 Spring St. NY

Lupo was the first to dis­ap­pear in the scheme, leav­ing debts of around $100,000,⁴²The Sun. New York. Decem­ber 13, 1908
The amount Lupo owed to his cred­i­tors varies between sources. The most com­mon amount was $100,000 and was con­sid­ered to be “at the bot­tom of the alleged swin­dle”.⁴³The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 9, 1908 Before he dis­ap­peared, Lupo had large busi­ness trans­ac­tions with Philip Sait­ta’s son⁴⁴The Sun. New York. Novem­ber 14, 1909. p10The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay Col­lege of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Trial Tran­scripts of the Coun­ty of New York. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions 1883 – 1927. … Con­tin­ue read­ing , and received cash advances from Sait­ta, that were paid on his bills of lad­ing.⁴⁵Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping

❖ Antonio Passananti. 593 Flushing Av. Brooklyn

Pas­sanan­ti was report­ed to have made large pay­ments to Lupo short­ly before his own whole­sale wine store simul­ta­ne­ous­ly failed with $15,000 of debt. His busi­ness, which had been report­ed as sus­pi­cious by the NYPD Ital­ian Branch, was also sus­pect­ed to be a branch store of Lupo’s own gro­cery net­work. He had pre­vi­ous­ly been arrest­ed for extor­tion, and was later arrest­ed in Sici­ly in con­nec­tion with the mur­der of Lt. Pet­rosi­no.⁴⁶Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 8. 1908.Brooklyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 10. 1908. p2Grocery net­work: The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 31, 1911Petrosino mur­der: The Ori­gin of … Con­tin­ue reading

❖ Lupo & Lo Presti. 419 – 421 Jefferson St. NY

A whole­sale and retail gro­cery busi­ness run by Gio­van­ni Lupo, broth­er of Ignazio Lupo. Gio­van­ni had pre­vi­ous­ly worked with his broth­er in the failed Mott Street store, but left six months prior to its fail­ure to set up his busi­ness in Hobo­ken with Giuseppe Lo Presti.⁴⁷Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347Giuseppe Lo Presti was list­ed as a friend in Lupo’s prison file: Atlanta … Con­tin­ue reading

❖ Manzella Bros. 189/196 Elizabeth St. and 1096 3^rd Av. Brooklyn

After Manzel­la’s gro­cery busi­ness was judged bank­rupt with lia­bil­i­ties reach­ing $32,000, one of his cred­i­tors was shown to be Philip Saitta’s son. He is also shown in records with the Mafia owned con­struc­tion com­pa­ny, The Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative Asso­ci­a­tion Amongst Cor­leonese, where he is named in mort­gage trans­fers and sub­or­di­na­tions.⁴⁸The Evening Telegram. New York. March 23, 1909Real estate record and builders’ guide. V.80 p.505 p.644Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative back­ground: The Ori­gin of Orga­nized Crime in Amer­i­ca. David Critch­ley. … Con­tin­ue read­ing Philip S. Sait­ta later acted as Manzel­la’s attor­ney.⁴⁹The Evening Telegram. New York. March 23, 1909
Sait­ta & Thiele: Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.546

❖ Sebastiano Cataldo. 165 Elizabeth St. NY

Catal­do, a whole­sale liquor deal­er, dis­ap­peared at the same time as Lupo, his lia­bil­i­ties were “stat­ed to aggre­gate many thou­sands of dol­lars”.⁵⁰The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908 p.5 He was a direc­tor of the J. Rumore Real­ty Com­pa­ny. John Rumore, an under­tak­er based at 2089 2^nd Av, had direct deal­ings with the Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative.⁵¹Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.104Trow copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry of the bor­oughs of Man­hat­tan and the Bronx. p.679Rumore as under­tak­er: Depart­ment of … Con­tin­ue reading

❖ Frank Zito. 24 Stone St. NY

Zito and his wife were god­par­ents to Lupo’s daugh­ter Angeli­na. His import com­pa­ny shipped in pro­duce from Francesco Gam­bi­no, Lupo’s brother-in-law based in Paler­mo. Zito had cor­re­spon­dence with Lupo after his impris­on­ment in 1910 hav­ing appeared as a char­ac­ter wit­ness on his behalf, and was list­ed as a sig­na­to­ry request­ing Lupo’s full par­don from parole in 1921. Zito was also shown as a sig­na­to­ry dur­ing Phillip S. Saitta’s pre­sen­ta­tion to con­gress in 1908. The “New York Fruit Exchange Incor­po­rat­ed’, which was described as the “largest and most influ­en­tial body of its kind”, list­ed Zito as a trustee of the com­pa­ny.⁵²Mafioso Giuseppe Morel­lo vis­it­ed Frank Zito’s office in 1909: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347Gambino … Con­tin­ue reading

❖ John Bono & Co. 252 Avenue A. NY

Bono, a whole­sale wine deal­er, was the first arrest made in the scheme. A book­keep­er from his store “squealed”, and con­fessed the scheme to the receivers. Bono had fled his store, but was later arrest­ed on Broad­way and charged with grand lar­ce­ny.⁵³The Sun. New York. Decem­ber 13, 1908
Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clip­ping Among Bono’s cred­i­tors were the Lake Erie Wine Com­pa­ny, the same cred­i­tor as Catal­do and Pas­sanan­ti.⁵⁴Evening Post, New York Decem­ber 4^th, 1908
New York Daily Tri­bune. New York. Decem­ber 5, 1908

❖ A. Viviano & Sons. 238 Elizabeth St. NY

Anto­nio Viviano had offered him­self as sure­ty when Lupo was arrest­ed on coun­ter­feit­ing charges in 1903. He was also given as a busi­ness ref­er­ence by Domeni­co Milone who front­ed a gro­cery busi­ness dis­trib­ut­ing coun­ter­feit money for Lupo and Morel­lo. His son, Luigi Viviano, had cor­re­spon­dence with Lupo after his impris­on­ment in 1910, and was list­ed as a sig­na­to­ry in request­ing his full par­don from parole in 1921.⁵⁵Anto­nio sure­ty: U.S Cir­cuit Court for the South­ern Dis­trict of New York. Crim­i­nal Case Files. C2870. U.S vs Lupo & Inz­er­il­loDomeni­co Milone: Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion. RG87 … Con­tin­ue reading

❖ Antonio Collora. 1024 Wallabout Market. Brooklyn

Col­lo­ra, a Brook­lyn based mer­chant, dis­ap­peared after clear­ing the assets from his busi­ness. Sus­pect­ed of being part of the scheme, he was adjudged bank­rupt.⁵⁶The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 9, 1908. p.2
NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clip­ping Col­lo­ra’s wag­ons were spot­ted out­side Domeni­co Milone’s store in 1909. The dri­ver was seen to be argu­ing with Anto­nio Cecala, both known asso­ciates of Lupo. Giuseppe Morel­lo was seen vis­it­ing Col­lo­ra’s busi­ness in Octo­ber 1909.⁵⁷Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion. RG87 T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937. William Flynn. Octo­ber, 1909

❖ Abele Corillo. 990 Atlantic Avenue. Brooklyn

Coril­lo was anoth­er wine mer­chant who dis­ap­peared with the oth­ers in the scheme. He later had a peti­tion in invol­un­tary bank­rupt­cy filed against his busi­ness.⁵⁸The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 9, 1908. p.2
NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping

❖ Rando Bros. 24 Stone St. NY

Saitta’s “Arch Real­ty Con­struc­tion Com­pa­ny” list­ed Frank and Giuseppe F. Rando as direc­tors.⁵⁹Trow copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry of the bor­oughs of Man­hat­tan and the Bronx. p.38
Trow copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry of the bor­oughs of Man­hat­tan and the Bronx p.40

The Money

The accu­sa­tion put to Sait­ta was that he had induced the Anglo-South Amer­i­can Bank to loan $300,000 against bills of lad­ing from the gro­cers involved.

The New York Times stat­ed that in the weeks before Lupo’s dis­ap­pear­ance he had “pur­chased about $50,000 worth of mer­chan­dise … most of it he put in ware­hous­es after­ward, either sell­ing the bills of lad­ing or obtain­ing loans on the foods.”⁶⁰New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 5, 1908 and that he had secured his money using bills of lad­ing for the “enor­mous amount of stock that [he] gen­er­al­ly car­ried in his estab­lish­ments at Mott and Spring Streets.”⁶¹New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908

The Evening Telegram con­tend­ed that Lupo had also been using prop­er­ty to raise money:⁶²The Evening Telegram. New York. Jan­u­ary 11, 1910

The police say [Lupo] fur­nished the secu­ri­ty upon which the gro­ceries were stocked. The scheme was start­ed by secur­ing a house val­ued at more than $75,000 on which Lupo paid $3,000 and gave a mort­gage. By refer­ring this house as secu­ri­ty the back­ers of the gro­cery chain got cred­it in lots of $2,000 until they had $100,000 worth.

Prop­er­ty records show that the The Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative con­veyed two six storey ten­e­ments to Lupo in 1907.⁶³Real estate record and builders’ guide. Sep­tem­ber 28, 1907. V.80 p.499 A few days before his dis­ap­pear­ance, Lupo took three mort­gages on the prop­er­ties, one from Anto­nio Rizzo,⁶⁴Real estate record and builders’ guide. Decem­ber 5, 1908. V.82 p.1097Rizzo is list­ed for exam­i­na­tion, and shown as a rent col­lec­tor, in Lupo’s bank­rupt­cy file: U.S. Dis­trict Court for the South­ern … Con­tin­ue read­ing and anoth­er from Joseph Di Gior­gio⁶⁵Real estate record and builders’ guide. Decem­ber 5, 1908. V.82 p.1103The New York Times. New York. Jan­u­ary 22, 1909. Busi­ness Trou­blesThree mort­gages: Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. … Con­tin­ue read­ing, a wealthy fruit importer who had pre­vi­ous­ly been bombed by the Black Hand.⁶⁶Busi­ness back­ground: Pro­ceed­ings of the Com­mit­tee on the mer­chant marine and fish­eries in the inves­ti­ga­tion of ship­ping com­bi­na­tions under House res­o­lu­tion 587. p.783Business his­to­ry: Men of mark in … Con­tin­ue read­ing Philip W. Sait­ta wit­nessed Lupo col­lect­ing $8,500 from Di Gior­gio’s office short­ly before he fled the city.⁶⁷The Sun. Novem­ber 14, 1909. p,10

Seven months after Lupo’s dis­ap­pear­ance, he was sum­monsed by the Supreme Court of New York in rela­tion to the build­ings. Oth­ers named in the sum­mons were Joseph Di Gior­gio, Anto­nio Rizzo, The Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative, and Giuseppe Morel­lo.⁶⁸New York Daily Tri­bune. New York. July 6, 1909. p.11 The build­ings were even­tu­al­ly put up for pub­lic auc­tion in late 1909.⁶⁹The New York Times. New York. Octo­ber 4, 1909. p.15

In 1910, Lupo was ques­tioned in court about his busi­ness fail­ure, which he attrib­uted to the “1907 Bankers’ Panic”:⁷⁰Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347

In 1908, on account of bank­ing trou­ble cri­sis, busi­ness went bad … He had friends he could go to get loans once in a while to pay his notes … Before the finan­cial cri­sis he bought some prop­er­ty where he invest­ed all his money … He had stuff in bond and he had bills for those goods and had bor­rowed money on them.

The pros­e­cu­tions main wit­ness from Lupo’s trial said that he had over­heard con­ver­sa­tion frag­ments dur­ing the time he had spent with the Mafia gang:⁷¹Black Hand con­fes­sions 1910’, Box 1, Lawrence Richey Papers, Her­bert Hoover Pres­i­den­tial Library — full version

There was some talk of the fail­ure of Lupo in his bank on Eliz­a­beth Street, and how [Giuseppe Paler­mo] and Uncle Vin­cent had also failed on Eliz­a­beth Street, mak­ing much money thereby

The bank­rupt gro­cer, Sal­va­tore Manzel­la, claimed his busi­ness had been ruined by an extor­tion scheme run by Lupo. He tes­ti­fied that for over three years he, and oth­ers, had been a vic­tim of extor­tion from Lupo. Manzel­la also claimed that Lupo, one week before he dis­ap­peared, had vis­it­ed his store and taken over $1000 in cash at gun­point. But detec­tives claimed that the money was given to Lupo more than a week after his cred­i­tors and receivers had begun to look for him.⁷²The Sun. New York. March 17, 1909
The New York Times, New York. March 17, 1909
The New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 18, 1909
The Sun. New York. Novem­ber 18, 1909. p12Philip S. Sait­ta, who acted as Manzella’s attor­ney, later retract­ed these state­ments.⁷³The Evening Telegram. New York. March 23, 1909
Sait­ta & Thiele: Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.546 Manzel­la then failed to appear as a wit­ness for the pros­e­cu­tion against Lupo, and the extor­tion charges were dropped.⁷⁴New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 23, 1909

The con­spir­a­cy had a dev­as­tat­ing effect on inno­cent busi­ness­es. Jacob Kulla, a whole­sale deal­er who’s sales exceed­ed two mil­lion dol­lars a year, was adjudged bank­rupt in Jan­u­ary 1909. His insol­ven­cy was, in part, attrib­uted to “the recent fail­ures of Lupo and other Sicil­ians in the gro­cery and wine trade”.⁷⁵The Sun. New York. Jan­u­ary 5, 1909. p.11

When Lupo returned to New York, in late 1909, to face his cred­i­tors, he dubi­ous­ly explained that his busi­ness had been ruined by threats from the Black Hand, who had forced him to pay $10,000 before he fled the city. His tale caused some under­stand­able dis­be­lief as Lupo him­self had been “cred­it­ed by the police with being trea­sur­er and head of the Black Hand”.⁷⁶New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 13, 1909
The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Feb­ru­ary 17, 1910

The Others

Accord­ing to the writ­ings of William J Flynn, other Mafia organ­i­sa­tions failed at around the same time as the gro­cers:⁷⁷The Wash­ing­ton Post. July 12, 1914

❖ The Roma Construction Company

Run by Anto­nio Pas­sanan­ti and Carlo Costan­ti­no. The pair had been con­nect­ed to the gro­cery con­spir­a­cy,⁷⁸The Evening Telegram. New York. Jan­u­ary 11, 1910 and were sus­pect­ed of being employed by Lupo to “run two of his branch stores”.⁷⁹The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 31, 1911 They fled to Sici­ly in early 1909, and were later arrest­ed in con­nec­tion with the mur­der of NYPD Lt. Pet­rosi­no.⁸⁰The Ori­gin of Orga­nized Crime in Amer­i­ca. David Critch­ley. Rout­ledge 2009. p.68

Bal­das­sarre Ceola, the police com­mis­sion­er of Paler­mo, wrote a report on the Pet­rosi­no case in April 1909:⁸¹Joe Pet­rosi­no. Arri­go Petac­co. Macmil­lan New York 1974 p.171

Carlo Costan­ti­no and Anto­nio Pas­sanan­ti returned unex­pect­ed­ly from Amer­i­ca, pass­ing off their sud­den jour­ney with the excuse that they sought there­by to escape pay­ments of some petty debts. Actu­al­ly, both bought large sums of money to Italy…

❖ The Co-Operative Society of Sicily

The pur­pose of the soci­ety was described as:⁸²Cer­tifi­cate of Incor­po­ra­tion. #792/1906C

The pro­mo­tion and encour­age­ment of mutu­al­i­ty and reci­procity in indus­tries and com­merce, through the estab­lish­ment of Co-operative stores and fac­to­ries in the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca … trade, deal in, and deal with goods, wares, mer­chan­dise and property

The soci­ety was based in Prince Street, with direc­tors includ­ing Carme­lo Naso and Giuseppe Paler­mo,⁸³Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.454The Trow (for­mer­ly Wilson’s) copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry of New York City. 1908. p.182Certificate of Incor­po­ra­tion. … Con­tin­ue read­ing both of whom were with Lupo at the time of his arrest for coun­ter­feit­ing in 1910.⁸⁴The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Feb­ru­ary 8, 1910 The soci­ety also had prop­er­ty deal­ings with Carlo Costan­ti­no from the Roma Con­struc­tion Com­pa­ny,⁸⁵Real estate record and builders’ guide. 1908. V.82 p.444 and the Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative.⁸⁶Real estate record and builders’ guide. July 25, 1908. V.82 p.216 Paler­mo, who was impris­oned along with Lupo in 1910, was described as:⁸⁷Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. Giuseppe Palermo

an Ital­ian Banker in the upper east side of New York … in 1907 he is sup­posed to have abscond­ed with a large sum of money which had been placed with him by Ital­ians of the neigh­bour­hood to be trans­mit­ted to Italy.

❖ Pasquale Pati & Son. 238 – 240 Elizabeth St. NY

Flynn wrote “Lupo was also on more than famil­iar terms with banker Pati”.⁸⁸Flynn, The Bar­rel Mys­tery. p.231 The banker he was refer­ring to was Pasquale Pati who ran a pri­vate bank on Eliz­a­beth Street, at one time hold­ing deposits totalling $1,500,00. In March 1908, Pati closed the busi­ness and fled, pro­claim­ing threats from the Black Hand.⁸⁹New York Times. New York. March 25, 1908. p.1The Titusville Morn­ing Her­ald. Penn­syl­va­nia. March 25, 1908. p.1New York Daily Tri­bune. March 25, 1908. p.2The World. New York. March 24, 1908. p.1 … Con­tin­ue read­ing He was later want­ed by the police for grand lar­ce­ny in con­nec­tion with his dis­ap­pear­ance.⁹⁰’Try­ing to Fool the Police’: Pear­son­’s Mag­a­zine (Jan.-June 1913) V.29 p.612

The Convictions

No con­vic­tions were made in con­nec­tion with the con­spir­a­cy that was described by ADA Hay­ward in 1914.

When Manzel­la failed to appear in court against Lupo in Novem­ber 1909, the extor­tion charges were dropped.⁹¹New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 23, 1909 Lupo was arrest­ed just months later for coun­ter­feit­ing, and was grant­ed an exten­sion of a month in which to file his appli­ca­tion for a dis­charge from bank­rupt­cy.⁹²New York Times, New York. Feb­ru­ary 17, 1910 How­ev­er, he was impris­oned on the coun­ter­feit­ing charge for 30 years at Atlanta Pen­i­ten­tiary.⁹³New York Times, New York. Feb­ru­ary 20, 1910Records show that, in 1912, Lupo’s brother-in-laws were ‘were still extort­ing money from poor shop­keep­ers and oth­ers’: NARA. RG87. T915-106 Daily … Con­tin­ue reading

After Philip S. Sait­ta’s 1914 trial he was sen­tenced to two-four years at Sing Sing. He sold his Brook­lyn house, described as “one of the finest in the Bay Ridge sec­tion”, which was later destroyed in a “sus­pi­cious’ fire”. He then passed away in late 1917.⁹⁴House fire: Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. March 22, 1916. p.2
Sold house: Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. March 23, 1916. p.8
Death: Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 24, 1917. p.22

Writ­ten by Jon Black, with thanks to David Critch­ley for his con­tri­bu­tions to the research.