WHAT WAS THE MOTIVE FOR THE MURDER?
How do I know that Petto, the Ox, murdered Benedetto? you would ask.
And what could be the motive for his crime?
Follow me a little further.
In January, 1903, several months before Benedetto's body was found in
the barrel, three Italians were arrested in the City of Yonkers. They
were Isadoro Crocervera, Salvatore Romano and Giuseppe DePriema. The
latter is the brother-in-law of the barrel-murder victim. The three
men were apprehended by the local police in Yonkers on the charge of
passing counterfeit five-dollar notes of the National Iron Bank of
Morristown, New Jersey. The Secret Service men were well aware that
these notes were being imported from Italy by the Morello gang.
When I was called into the case, the Yonkers police, who made the
arrest, told me that the three men were accompanied by another
Italian, a short fellow, who got away. Knowing the ways of the gang,
it was plain to me that the escaped Italian was the treasurer of the
crew passing the counterfeit money. Such a treasurer is always hiding
in the distance with the greater bulk of the counterfeit bills for the
purpose of making a get-away if the passers get into trouble and are
arrested. The treasurer is supposed to rush away to the secret meeting
place of the Black-Hand Society, where a counsel is held to decide
just what plan to follow in the effort to get the members who have
been arrested out of their peril.
From the description given me of the Italian who made his get-away I
recognized him as a counterfeiter already registered in the files of
the Secret Service as Number Six. I was also able to identify
Crocervera and DePriema as members of the Corleone gang.
My next move was to bring the Yonkers officers to New York and place
them where they could have a good look at Number Six. The officers
identified the man without hesitation. Number Six was arrested,
therefore, on February 19, and gave the name of Giuseppe Giallambardo.
He got six years.
The Black-Handers were puzzled. They could not understand how it
happened that Giallambardo had come into the toils unless one of the
three men arrested had "squealed." And perhaps I should say right here
that the gang never realized they were ever under surveillance, and
that every move made by them individually was noted in the daily
reports of Secret Service sent to Washington.
When Crocervera and DePriema were brought to my office I knew
in advance that neither of them would talk, having had the
characteristics of the men recorded long before they were arrested.
However, in order to give Crocervera the impression that DePriema had
told me a lot of the workings of the gang, I hit upon the idea of
keeping DePriema in my inner office for several hours while Crocervera
remained in an outer office. I was timing my effort for a purpose. As
DePriema was leaving, I stepped to the door with him and shook his
hand warmly and patted him on the back in order that Crocervera,
seeing the performance, might gain the impression that DePriema had
confessed all he knew about the gang. Naturally, the object of this
move was to tempt Crocervera to talk and give information important
to the government. But Crocervera did not talk. The subsequent arrest
of Giallambardo served to strengthen the impression already planted in
the mind of Crocervera that DePriema had betrayed him, and we
overheard Crocervera telling this to the members of the gang while
they were in our office.
The gang was not in position to take revenge on DePriema, as he was in
Sing Sing prison, where the three men had been sent upon conviction on
the charge of passing counterfeit money. Following the hereditary
Sicilian custom, the gang then proceeded to select a blood relative of
DePriema and mark him for murder. There being no male blood relative
of DePriema on this side of the Atlantic, the Black-Hand Society
decided that the nearest male relative must pay the penalty for
DePriema's treason. Benedetto, the brother-in-law, was chosen as the
sacrifice.
These details of the motive of the murder, and the society's choosing
Petto, the Ox, to do the killing were confessed to me several years
later by members of the gang after I succeeded in convicting them for
counterfeiting and had them sentenced to long terms in the Federal
Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia.
As to the identity of Benedetto's kinsman, who made certain of his aim
at Petto, the Ox, near the Italian rendezvous where "Il Bove" held
sway in the little Pennsylvania city, I can only answer at the present
writing that the kinsman was not DePriema, because the latter was
still in Sing Sing Prison when the murder of the man in the barrel was
avenged.