The Grocery Conspiracy

1908. A look at an orga­nized Mafia con­spir­a­cy to com­mit bank­rupt­cy fraud by con­ceal­ment of assets, amount­ing to $500,000.

Ignazio Lupo Mugshot (1903)
Ignazio Lupo Mugshot (1903)

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 72nd 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 39th Street, where he worked along with his broth­er, Gio­van­ni Lupo.1

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.2

William Flynn, chief of the Secret Ser­vice, who had an informed knowl­edge of Lupo’s meth­ods, described how Lupo threat­ened other busi­ness­es:3

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.4

Other Mafioso also ran gro­cery stores across New York. Sev­er­al of them were con­sid­ered to be “branch stores” of Lupo’s net­work:5

  • 9 Spring Street — run by Anto­nio Cecala.6
  • 593 Flush­ing Avenue — run by Antoni­to Pas­sanan­ti.7
  • 235 East 97th Street — run by Domeni­co Milone.8
  • 307 East 71st Street — run by Carlo Costan­ti­no.9
  • 150 Eliz­a­beth Street — “owned by Lupo”.10
  • Gio­van­ni Pec­o­raro, who also ran a gro­cery store, showed debts to the same cred­i­tors as Lupo in 1909.11

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.12 Many other Ital­ian stores in the city began to fail at the same time, esti­mat­ed at six in Brook­lyn and eleven in Man­hat­tan.13 The New York author­i­ties soon realised they were fac­ing an organ­ised con­spir­a­cy14 with the com­bined lia­bil­i­ties across Brook­lyn and Man­hat­tan esti­mat­ed at $500,000.15

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.16

Goods totalling around $50,000 were tracked down to a Jer­sey City pier ready to be trans­port­ed to Italy,17 with fur­ther stock dis­cov­ered on a Man­hat­tan pier. Some items, includ­ing meat and lard had already been shipped to Italy.18 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,19 and anoth­er ware­house on Wash­ing­ton Street dis­closed even more.20

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

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.22

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.23 He also acted as rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the Ital­ian Mer­chants Pro­tec­tive Asso­ci­a­tion, and had a con­struc­tion com­pa­ny involved with erect­ing apart­ment hous­es.24

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”.25 He had known the fam­i­ly for many years, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly rep­re­sent­ed them in sev­er­al civil cases,26 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.27

In 1914, Sait­ta was tried and con­vict­ed for grand lar­ce­ny in the Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions.28 He was charged with retain­ing pro­ceeds from import­ed Ital­ian lemons, and as a result was dis­barred on July 6, 1914.29

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.30

The report closed by say­ing:31

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.32
  • 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”.33
  • Sait­ta acted as attor­ney for Sal­va­tore Manzel­la, an Ital­ian gro­cer who had con­nec­tions with Ignazio Lupo.34
  • His son, Philip W. Sait­ta, did busi­ness with Lupo’s whole­sale store on Mott Street, involv­ing gro­cery goods and loans.35
  • 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 1903.36
  • Sait­ta acted as attor­ney for Ignazio Lupo in a busi­ness mat­ter.37
  • 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.38
  • He had deal­ings with Bia­gio Calan­dra, an Ital­ian gro­cer who was arrest­ed for mur­der and insur­ance fraud, who also had con­nec­tions with Ignazio Lupo.39

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.40

The busi­ness­es list­ed in the courts accu­sa­tion and press reports were:41

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

Lupo was the first to dis­ap­pear in the scheme, leav­ing debts of around $100,000,42 and was con­sid­ered to be “at the bot­tom of the alleged swin­dle”.43 Before he dis­ap­peared, Lupo had large busi­ness trans­ac­tions with Philip Sait­ta’s son44 , and received cash advances from Sait­ta, that were paid on his bills of lad­ing.45

❖ 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.46

❖ 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.47

❖ Manzella Bros. 189/196 Elizabeth St. and 1096 3rd 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.48 Philip S. Sait­ta later acted as Manzel­la’s attor­ney.49

❖ 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”.50 He was a direc­tor of the J. Rumore Real­ty Com­pa­ny. John Rumore, an under­tak­er based at 2089 2nd Av, had direct deal­ings with the Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative.51

❖ 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.52

❖ 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.53 Among Bono’s cred­i­tors were the Lake Erie Wine Com­pa­ny, the same cred­i­tor as Catal­do and Pas­sanan­ti.54

❖ 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 1921.55

❖ 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.56 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 1909.57

❖ 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.58

❖ Rando Bros. 24 Stone St. NY

Saitta’s “Arch Real­ty Con­struc­tion Com­pa­ny” list­ed Frank and Giuseppe F. Rando as direc­tors.59

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.60 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.61

The Evening Telegram con­tend­ed that Lupo had also been using prop­er­ty to raise money:62

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 1907.63 A few days before his dis­ap­pear­ance, Lupo took three mort­gages on the prop­er­ties, one from Anto­nio Rizzo,64 and anoth­er from Joseph Di Gior­gio65, a wealthy fruit importer who had pre­vi­ous­ly been bombed by the Black Hand.66 Philip W. Sait­ta wit­nessed Lupo col­lect­ing $8,500 from Di Gior­gio’s office short­ly before he fled the city.67

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.68 The build­ings were even­tu­al­ly put up for pub­lic auc­tion in late 1909.69

In 1910, Lupo was ques­tioned in court about his busi­ness fail­ure, which he attrib­uted to the 1907 Bankers’ Panic”:70

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:71

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.72Philip S. Sait­ta, who acted as Manzella’s attor­ney, later retract­ed these state­ments.73 Manzel­la then failed to appear as a wit­ness for the pros­e­cu­tion against Lupo, and the extor­tion charges were dropped.74

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”.75

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”.76

The Others

Accord­ing to the writ­ings of William J Flynn, other Mafia organ­i­sa­tions failed at around the same time as the gro­cers:77

❖ The Roma Construction Company

Run by Anto­nio Pas­sanan­ti and Carlo Costan­ti­no. The pair had been con­nect­ed to the gro­cery con­spir­a­cy,78 and were sus­pect­ed of being employed by Lupo to “run two of his branch stores”.79 They fled to Sici­ly in early 1909, and were later arrest­ed in con­nec­tion with the mur­der of NYPD Lt. Pet­rosi­no.80

Bal­das­sarre Ceola, the police com­mis­sion­er of Paler­mo, wrote a report on the Pet­rosi­no case in April 1909:81

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:82

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,83 both of whom were with Lupo at the time of his arrest for coun­ter­feit­ing in 1910.84 The soci­ety also had prop­er­ty deal­ings with Carlo Costan­ti­no from the Roma Con­struc­tion Com­pa­ny,85 and the Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative.86 Paler­mo, who was impris­oned along with Lupo in 1910, was described as:87

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”.88 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.89 He was later want­ed by the police for grand lar­ce­ny in con­nec­tion with his dis­ap­pear­ance.90

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.91 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.92 How­ev­er, he was impris­oned on the coun­ter­feit­ing charge for 30 years at Atlanta Pen­i­ten­tiary.93

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 1917.94

Cred­its

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

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
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 – 347
Store name: NARA. RG87T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937.
Explo­sion at store: New York Times, New York. March 201905
2New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 13, 1909.
New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 5, 1908
Turnover: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347
3The Wash­ing­ton Post. May 3rd, 1914. p8
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 – 347
Gam­bi­no is list­ed in Lupo’s prison file cor­re­spon­dence: Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio Lupo
Telegram and ship­ment: NARA. RG87T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937.
5The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 31, 1911
Mott and Spring Streets: New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 61908
6Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347
9 Spring Street was list­ed under Ignazio Lupo’s name: Trow’s Gen­er­al Direc­to­ry of the Bor­oughs of Man­hat­tan & Bronx City of New York, New York for 1907-08
Cecala also had a gro­cery busi­ness on Mott Street before it went bank­rupt: ‘Black Hand con­fes­sions 1910’, Box 1, Lawrence Richey Papers, Her­bert Hoover Pres­i­den­tial Library — full version
7Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 10, 1908. p.2
8William J. Flynn, The Bar­rel Mys­tery. New York, The James A. McCann Com­pa­ny, 1919. p.216 p.247
9The Evening Telegram. New York. April 6, 1909. p2
The New York Times. New York. April 7th, 1909
Costantino’s store was a known hang­out for Black Hand crim­i­nals, he fled the store after it went bank­rupt: New York Her­ald. New York. April 7th1909
10Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Feb­ru­ary 10, 1910. p18
11Described as “the pro­pri­etor of a large wine deposit, and he has more prop­er­ty.” — Flynn, The Bar­rel Mys­tery. p.81
Debts: Real estate record and builders’ guide. Feb­ru­ary 1909. V.83 p.378, p.625, p.963
12The Sun. New York. Sep­tem­ber 6, 1908
New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908
New York Times, New York. March 171909
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 61908
14The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 8, 9, 101908
15New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908
Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio Lupo
Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping
16Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping
17New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 14, 1909
New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 51908
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
19Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping
20The Sun. New York. Decem­ber 61908
21The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 211908
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
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 201908
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
25The Sun. New York. March 31, 1914
New York Tri­bune, New York. April 14, 1914
New York Times. New York. March 201913
26The Sun. New York. March 23, 1913. p.3
27Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. April 13, 1914
New York Times. New York. March 201913
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
29Year­book / The Asso­ci­a­tion of the Bar of the City of New York. 1915. p.148
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. 1914/3/20
Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. April 131914
31New York Tri­bune, April 141914
32Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347
Sait­ta shown at 258 Broad­way: Tar­iff hear­ings before the Com­mit­tee on ways and means of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives V.4 Sched­ules F‑I. 1908 – 1909. Page 4021
33Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion. RG87 T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937. William Flynn. 18 March, 1914
34The Evening Telegram. New York. March 231909
35The Sun. Novem­ber 14, 1909. p.10
The New York Times. New York. Novem­ber 14, 1909
Father and son: New York Pas­sen­ger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892 – 1924. Sait­ta fam­i­ly, 01 Oct, 1903
Father and son: Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. March 29, 1913
Father and son: 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 Philip S. Sait­ta. 1914/3/20
36Daily Her­ald. April 14, 1914
The Buf­fa­lo Express, April 111914
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
38Real estate record and builders’ guide. 1913. V.92 p.320
Morel­lo vis­it­ed Zito’s office in 1909. He import­ed pro­duce from Lupo’s brother-in-law in Paler­mo: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347
Zito was a sig­na­to­ry request­ing Lupo’s full par­don in 1921: Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo
After he was impris­oned in 1910 Lupo had cor­re­spon­dence with Frank Zito: Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio Lupo
39Sait­ta & Calan­dra: New York Times. New York. Sep­tem­ber 8, 1915. p.14
Calan­dra mur­der: New York Daily Tri­bune. New York. July 21, 1906. p.3
Calan­dra Fire: Pear­son­’s Mag­a­zine. V.29 (Jan-June 1913) p.298
Calan­dra acquit­tal: New York Times. New York. April 14, 1908
Cases against Calan­dra: 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. #601 #946
Calan­dra and the Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative: Real estate record and builders’ guide. V.80 p.644
Lupo had cor­re­spon­dence with Calan­dra whilst in prison: Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio Lupo
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 Philip S. Sait­ta. 1914/3/20.
Records show that Philip S. Sait­ta had con­veyed a prop­er­ty via his son, Philip W. Sait­ta to a Chas A. Edwards in Novem­ber 1907: Real estate record and builders’ guide. 1907. V.80 p.861
41Other busi­ness­es list­ed were:
Anas­tasi Broth­ers — 167 West 4th Street, New York
Pietro Peiri & Bro — 233 West Street, New York
Sal­va­tore Como & Paolo Di Dato — 24 Mott Street, New York
C.E. Thurston Com­pa­ny — 97 War­ren St, New York
A.A. Pur­pu­ra — 1030 Wal­labout Mar­ket, Brook­lyn
also M. Aiel­lo, Selafane Broth­ers, S. Cabal­lo, and L. Bonnano.

Charles Thurston a pow­er­ful busi­ness­man, spoke at the The Annu­al East­ern meet­ings of the New York State Fruit Grow­ers Asso­ci­a­tion, and was a direc­tor of the Aetna Bank along­side the famous Simone Sait­ta — “lemon King of Amer­i­ca”.
State Fruit Grow­ers Asso­ci­a­tion: Pough­keep­sie Daily Eagle. New York. Feb­ru­ary 23, 24, 1911.
Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.719

42The Sun. New York. Decem­ber 13, 1908
The amount Lupo owed to his cred­i­tors varies between sources. The most com­mon amount was $100,000
43The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 91908
44The Sun. New York. Novem­ber 14, 1909. p10
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
Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 9, 1908. p2
45Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping
46Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 8. 1908.
Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 10. 1908. p2
Gro­cery net­work: The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 31, 1911
Pet­rosi­no mur­der: The Ori­gin of Orga­nized Crime in Amer­i­ca. David Critch­ley. Rout­ledge 2009. p.68
47Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347
Giuseppe Lo Presti was list­ed as a friend in Lupo’s prison file: Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio Lupo
48The Evening Telegram. New York. March 23, 1909
Real estate record and builders’ guide. V.80 p.505 p.644
Ignatz Flo­rio Co-Operative back­ground: The Ori­gin of Orga­nized Crime in Amer­i­ca. David Critch­ley. Rout­ledge 2009. p.45
49The Evening Telegram. New York. March 23, 1909
Sait­ta & Thiele: Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.546
50The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Decem­ber 6, 1908 p.5
51Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.104
Trow copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry of the bor­oughs of Man­hat­tan and the Bronx. p.679
Rumore as under­tak­er: Depart­ment of Health Report. p.209
Real estate record and builders’ guide. 1908. V.82. p.120
Real estate record and builders’ guide. V.80. p.497
Real estate record and builders’ guide. V.81. p.640
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 – 347
Gam­bi­no and Zito: Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347
Gam­bi­no: NARA. RG87T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937
Par­don from parole: Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo
Cor­re­spon­dence: Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio Lupo
Sig­na­to­ry for Sait­ta: Tar­iff hear­ings before the Com­mit­tee on ways and means. p.4035
Fruit Exchange Inc. : Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.860
’In­flu­en­tial body’ : Tar­iff hear­ings before the Com­mit­tee on ways and means of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. 1908 – 1909. Vol.IV. p.3979
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
54Evening Post, New York Decem­ber 4th, 1908
New York Daily Tri­bune. New York. Decem­ber 51908
55Anto­nio sure­ty: U.S Cir­cuit Court for the South­ern Dis­trict of New York. Crim­i­nal Case Files. C2870. U.S vs Lupo & Inz­er­il­lo
Domeni­co Milone: Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion. RG87 T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937. William Flynn. Octo­ber, 1909
Cor­re­spon­dence: Atlanta Fed­er­al Pen­i­ten­tiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE. #2883 Ignazio Lupo
Sig­na­to­ry: Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo
Anto­nio and Luigi as father and son: The Trow (for­mer­ly Wilson’s) copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry of New York City. 1906. p.753
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
57Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion. RG87 T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937. William Flynn. Octo­ber, 1909
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
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
60New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 51908
61New York Times, New York. Decem­ber 61908
62The Evening Telegram. New York. Jan­u­ary 111910
63Real estate record and builders’ guide. Sep­tem­ber 28, 1907. V.80 p.499
64Real estate record and builders’ guide. Decem­ber 5, 1908. V.82 p.1097
Rizzo is list­ed for exam­i­na­tion, and shown as a rent col­lec­tor, in Lupo’s bank­rupt­cy file: U.S. Dis­trict Court for the South­ern Dis­trict of New York. Bank­rupt­cy Cases. #11703
Rizzo is list­ed as the man­ag­er of a saloon at 8 Prince Street, a saloon once owned by Lupo: New York Evening Telegram. New York. May 7. 1903
Rizzo was also a sus­pect­ed Black Han­der, with con­nec­tions to the 1903Bar­rel Mur­der”: The Evening Telegram. New York. March 26, 1909 p.4. The Sun. New York. April 12, 1909. p.2
He was also named as a sig­na­to­ry on one of Giuseppe Morello’s let­ters: Flynn, The Bar­rel Mys­tery. p.211
65Real estate record and builders’ guide. Decem­ber 5, 1908. V.82 p.1103
The New York Times. New York. Jan­u­ary 22, 1909. Busi­ness Trou­bles
Three mort­gages: Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. 230/40/1/3 Box 956. Ignazio Lupo (NYPD news clipping
66Busi­ness back­ground: Pro­ceed­ings of the Com­mit­tee on the mer­chant marine and fish­eries in the inves­ti­ga­tion of ship­ping com­bi­na­tions under House res­o­lu­tion 587. p.783
Busi­ness his­to­ry: Men of mark in Mary­land. Biogra­phies of lead­ing men of the state. p.152
Busi­ness address: Blue book of Amer­i­can ship­ping. Marine and naval direc­to­ry of the Unit­ed States. p.418
Black Hand bomb­ing: The Ori­gin of Orga­nized Crime in Amer­i­ca. David Critch­ley. Rout­ledge 2009. p.30
Black Hand bomb­ing back­ground: https://www2.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=12137
Di Gior­gio is list­ed in Lupo’s bank­rupt­cy file: U.S. Dis­trict Court for the South­ern Dis­trict of New York. Bank­rupt­cy Cases. #11703
67The Sun. Novem­ber 14, 1909. p,10
68New York Daily Tri­bune. New York. July 6, 1909. p.11
69The New York Times. New York. Octo­ber 4, 1909. p.15
70Trial tran­scripts of the US Cir­cuit Court for the Dis­trict of New York, 1790 – 1912. USA vs. Giuseppe Cal­ic­chio et al. C2 – 347
71Black Hand con­fes­sions 1910’, Box 1, Lawrence Richey Papers, Her­bert Hoover Pres­i­den­tial Library — full version
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. p12
73The Evening Telegram. New York. March 23, 1909
Sait­ta & Thiele: Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.546
74New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 231909
75The Sun. New York. Jan­u­ary 5, 1909. p.11
76New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 13, 1909
The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Feb­ru­ary 171910
77The Wash­ing­ton Post. July 121914
78The Evening Telegram. New York. Jan­u­ary 111910
79The New York Times. New York. Decem­ber 311911
80The Ori­gin of Orga­nized Crime in Amer­i­ca. David Critch­ley. Rout­ledge 2009. p.68
81Joe Pet­rosi­no. Arri­go Petac­co. Macmil­lan New York 1974 p.171
82Cer­tifi­cate of Incor­po­ra­tion. #792/1906C
83Direc­to­ry of direc­tors in the city of New York. 1909 – 1910. p.454
The Trow (for­mer­ly Wilson’s) copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry of New York City. 1908. p.182
Cer­tifi­cate of Incor­po­ra­tion. #792/1906C
Giuseppe Paler­mo was also known as Sal­va­tore Sacaci­na as noted on his Atlanta Pen­i­ten­tiary admis­sion sheet in 1910
84The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. New York. Feb­ru­ary 81910
85Real estate record and builders’ guide. 1908. V.82 p.444
86Real estate record and builders’ guide. July 25, 1908. V.82 p.216
87Records of the Office of the Par­don Attor­ney. NARA Record Group 204. Giuseppe Palermo
88Flynn, The Bar­rel Mys­tery. p.231
89New York Times. New York. March 25, 1908. p.1
The Titusville Morn­ing Her­ald. Penn­syl­va­nia. March 25, 1908. p.1
New York Daily Tri­bune. March 25, 1908. p.2
The World. New York. March 24, 1908. p.1 Evening edi­tion
The Post-Standard. Syra­cuse. March 25, 1908. p.1
90‘Try­ing to Fool the Police’: Pear­son­’s Mag­a­zine (Jan.-June 1913) V.29 p.612
91New York Times, New York. Novem­ber 231909
92New York Times, New York. Feb­ru­ary 171910
93New York Times, New York. Feb­ru­ary 20, 1910
Records show that, in 1912, Lupo’s brother-in-laws were ‘were still extort­ing money from poor shop­keep­ers and oth­ers’: NARA. RG87T915-106 Daily Reports of Agents, com­piled 1875 — 1937
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