THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MAFIA

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MAFIABecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Vito Cascioferro. can be considered the link between criminal organizations from Sicily with those already branched in the United States. His unwavering ambivalence allows him to build a network of trafficking, connivance, favors, murders, also making use of popular support that sees in him a champion of the oppressed, at that time he becomes in the eyes of his countrymen a Godfather.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Contrary to popular belief, the Mafia made its first officially documented appearance in the United States in 1890 in New Orleans and not New York. On October 5, 1890, New Orleans police chief Captain Hennessy was killed in an ambush by some men, In that city in the south of the United States there was a feud between the criminal families of the Provenzano and that of the Matragna. Following the murder, 19 Italian residents were arrested there. The suspects were imprisoned in the parish prison. At the end of the trial in March, some of them were acquitted. This determined the inhabitants' violent reaction so much so that the next day a huge crowd formed outside the prison. The troublemakers forced the prison doors and 11 of the arrested were lynched to death. Notable is the ruling of the Grand Jury of New Orleans, which in 1891, called to rule on those criminal facts, ruled: "The extent of our investigation has identified the existence of the secret organization called mafia."Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in Em.By 1900, the center of economic development was New York, one of the most prosperous and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Eighty percent of the biggest billing companies in America were based in this metropolis. Everything was happening in those streets, in fact you crossed the capitals from Wall Street with the labor of Italian migrants landed by the transatlantic at Ellis Island.In the island were waiting for a hundred inspectors and health officers inside a huge center for immigration.By 1910, the number of Italians living in New York was nearly half a million, two-thirds of whom were men. They lived in promiscuity and in the almost total absence of hygiene.The neighborhoods in which immigrants went to live were the oldest in the city, occupied by two generations before by the Irish. It was Elizabeth and Mulberry Street.The only advantage over those who worked in Italy was the salary. Decidedly higher in the United States of America. Even if life cost much more Italian immigrants, enduring tremendous deprivations, were able to put something aside and then send it home.Immediate were the clashes with the Irish community already present in New York. The two communities immediately began a real racial conflict.In those years, the Irish controlled the metropolis through Tammany Hall, an Irish political organization. It was clear that social political control was carried out with violence.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in EmInitially, counterfeiting and the spending of counterfeit notes was, together with the crimes of extortion and kidnapping, one of the first criminal activities, or rather a racket, in which the Italian criminals arrived in the new continent. On July 5, 1865, the federal government, and precisely the Treasury Department, set up secret services to counter counterfeiting. The first phenomena were evident in several cities in the United States such as New Orleans, Washington, Pittsburgh, and clearly they could not miss in New York. The American intelligence branch was headed by an Irish officer named William Flynn. He was an imposing man, very astute and determined. At the end of the 19th century the situation in that metropolis was very serious. A large number of counterfeit notes and coins circulated.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in EmIn the early years of the twentieth century a wave of terror unprecedented in peacetime crossed the United States. The members of the secret organization threatened to kill the members of the Italian community if they did not agree to pay. The acolytes of the black hand burned or blew up the houses, kidnapped the children of the victims, so much so that in 1899 in Brooklyn it was already a habitual phenomenon. There were cases in which the torturers, armed with guns and knives, faced in broad daylight on the street the victims. The leaders of the Black Hand were originally members of the Sicilian Mafia. Many of the worst criminals had emigrated, along with the many honest Italians, to the USA.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

The activity of extortion always began with a latch letter of which a dark association called The Black Hand materializes. What was a letter of scrocco? It was an extortion letter that was delivered to Italian families who had a minimum of income aggredibile. The extortion letters were written with several dialects, from this it was deduced that they were certainly written by people from different regions of Italy.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in EmIt is not the American dream that pushes Italian migrants to reach the American shores. Therefore to understand the phenomenon it is necessary to ask two questions.Who were the migrants? Why were they willing to risk their lives, and that of their loved ones, by traveling in inhumane conditions in the third class of ocean liners for about two weeks?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in EmThanks to the investigations of the Secret Services aimed at the contrast and the falsification and spending of counterfeit banknotes in New York, the evidence was gathered that it operated "The most secret and terrible organization in the world" as the eminent New York Times wrote defining the mafia.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in Em. Giuseppe Morello was another and dangerous, he used to wear a .45 caliber pistol on his belt and a knife tied to his left leg, the tip of which was covered with a small cork to avoid injury while walking. He arrived in the United States of America in 1982. He was born in Corleone in 1867. He escaped from Sicily because he was suspected of a murder and abigée and was also convicted of the crime of counterfeiting coins and spending false coins. In the period between 1898 and 1899 Morello most likely resumed the activity of forger. He could make use of a network of small drug dealers and some workers capable of mixing inks and making clichés for printing.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in Em. Ignazio Lupo was born in Palermo in March 1877. His family of origin was part of a Palermo mafia gang and he himself was part of a gang of extortionists. In 1898, following a quarrel in his shop, Salvatore Morello shot and killed a trader competing with him. As a result of this crime, on March 12, 1899, Lupo was sentenced to twenty-one years for premeditated murder. A year before the sentence became enforceable, favored by his family, he illegally expatriated to New York.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in Em. The crimes for which the Morello gang was suspected were numerous and varied. Most of these went undiscovered but three murders were initially attributed to New York's first Mafia family. In reality in all three cases the accusations failing to stand in the courts ended up exonerating the members of the coterie.In this podcast we will deal with two of the three bloody facts. The third, that is, what will come down to our days as the "Case of the crime of the barrel" we will deal with in another podcast in a very thorough manner.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

The character on which this case revolves is Antonio Comito. Born in 1880 in Catanzaro, before emigrating to New York in June 1907, he had worked as a typographer. Once in the United States of America he tells of living at 72 James Street. He found a job as a printer in a printing house on Park Row. Comito, despite being married in Calabria, a New Yorker with a partner named Katrina Pascuzzo.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

In January 1909, media were procured for printing the counterfeit dollars. Therefore Comito and the men on the farm began printing Canadian $ 5 proof bills. Immediately after obtaining the first Cinà and Cicala prints, with printed proofs, rolled up in a newspaper, they left for New York to have their quality checked. After three days they returned with the new arrangements. The counterfeiters were told to print more tickets in a darker shade. Counterfeiting Canadian banknotes was very complex and tiring.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

In the summer of 1909, the secret services received complaints from banks and shop owners for the large amount of counterfeit currency injected. initially the investigations did not lead to concrete results. Then a turning point came when William Flynn went to Pittston, Pennsylvania to investigate. It was a very dirty and very violent coal city. There was the presence of many Italians and the flow of counterfeit money was substantial. The investigative activity rewarded the diligent investigators, in fact a Sicilian named Sam Locino was identified.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Once the secret service agents had a clear idea of ​​the organization that dealt with the counterfeiting and the sale of fake dollars, they began to plan the capture of the members of the Morello gang. The difficulty of the operation was due to the timing for proceeding with the arrest and searches. In fact, it was necessary to undertake the raids at the same time in several places in order not to benefit the members of the gang not involved in the first instance. The director of intelligence gathered all the men in New York to make as many raids as possible at the same time.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in Em. With most of the Morello gang members effectively detained, the trial date was set for January 26, 1910 in New York at the Houston Street Federal Courthouse. The defendants were 9 and judge George Ray presided over the jury. An elderly magistrate who had already tried counterfeiting cases. Lupo and Morello had hired the lawyer Mirabeau L. Towns for their defense. He was a highly qualified American lawyer, with the advantage of speaking in Italian.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in Em. On April 14, 1903, a barrel with the body of a man came to New York on East 11th Street. The victim had his throat cut from ear to ear, and his head was almost detached from the trunk with eighteen stab wounds to the neck. The body had been compressed into the barrel with the head resting between the knees. The suspects of this murder, who were also arrested, were the most representative members of the Banda Morello, which was the first Mafia family in New York.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Music by Syon (Thomas Nicosia) Prelude in EmThe case of the murder of the barrel passed to Detective Sergeant Arthur Carey. He was the first investigator with experience in homicide cases to conduct the investigation. The sergeant advanced a hypothesis, namely that he was an Italian and that the murder was probably linked to one of the many feuds that took place in Little Italy. For that case, the intervention of the only policeman that the New York Police Department could have successfully investigated, namely Sergeant Joe Petrosino, was required. Following the reading of the newspaper, a character that we have now learned to know and observe has an important clue for the identification of the corpse found inside the barrel. It was the head of the New York Secret Service, the stubborn and brilliant investigator William Flynn.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.

Despite the arrests carried out by the New York Police Department against members of the Morello gang, the investigations into the crime of the barrel do not seem to bring decisive elements for the resolution of the case. The turning point came with the arrival of an anonymous letter. In which it was written verbatim:“I know who the man found in the barrel is. He came from Buffalo to get some money ... he was convicted of selling counterfeit banknotes. The police have arrested the right people, get inmate Giuseppe Di Primo to Sing Sing, promise him freedom, and he will tell you many things, do as I tell you and you will know everything. We salute you. Your friends S.T. "Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-the-american-mafia--4722947/support.