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 72nd Street with a cousin named Saitta, he later 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 criminal 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 a telegram sent by Vito Cascioferro led them to believe the gang were smuggling counterfeit currency into the city.⁴

Other Mafioso also ran grocery stores across New York City. 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 raided storeroom at Twenty Fourth street and First avenue revealed a further $6,000 worth of property,¹⁹ and a 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 the “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 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 Lupos”.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 Avenue, 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 company imported 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, he was also listed as a signatory requesting Lupo’s full pardon from parole in 1921. Zito was shown as a signatory during Philip 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. Lupo had a contract with the Rando & Rando company in Messina and would ship grocery goods from New York. 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 leased the properties to Antonio Rizzo⁶⁴ and took a mortgage 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 prosecution’s 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 whose 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

In late 1909, when Lupo returned to New York 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 passed away in late 1917.⁹⁴