ORGANIZED TERRORISM
From what has been related so far, I presume the reader may gain some
idea of the dangerous type of men whom I refer to as members of the
Black-Hand Society.
You are now familiar with the kind of punishment meted out to one whom
the gang suspects of having betrayed a member. You have also been
acquainted with the Sicilian custom of revenge by way of an actual
example showing how the slayer of the man in the barrel came to his
end in a manner that is as certain as daylight follows darkness. It is
the racial idea of the antique Hebrew law, "An eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth." The Sicilian "vendetta" demands a life for a life.
You may have noted further that the police of New York and the
machinery of the law failed to track down the slayer of the man in the
barrel. A circumstance that makes it singularly difficult for the
authorities to cope with this type of criminals is that the Sicilian
does not ask the police for help when a member of his family is
murdered. He keeps it quiet. And as quietly a blood relative of the
slain person assumes the responsibility which we Americans place on
the police and the courts. The end of Petto, the Ox, shows exactly
what happens when individual vengeance succeeds in place of justice
meted out by a court of law.
The reader will remember that when the criminal band, which the police
rounded up in connection with the barrel murder, were turned out by
the police magistrate, because there was insufficient evidence to hold
them for the murder of Benedetto, the suspects dropped out of sight as
far as the police of New York were concerned.
The Secret Service kept its eagle eye on them, however. Every suspect
was carefully "shadowed" by a special operative. We expected that they
would gravitate back to their haunts, and they did. We spotted them in
such places as the café of Pietro Inzarillo, at No. 226 Elizabeth
Street, and in the dark, little Italian grocery shop of Ignazio Lupo,
at No. 8 Prince Street, which is just around the corner from
Inzarillo's place. We also located suspects loafing around the dingy,
garlic-smelling restaurant of Giuseppe Morello, tucked away in the
rear of Lupo's grocery shop, like an evil thing afraid of the light of
day.
Criminals wanted by Uncle Sam are not suffered to drop from the sight
of the Secret Service. Members of this gang were busy in the
counterfeit money line. The government was necessarily interested in
following their movements. Consequently I stayed right on the job with
my men at trailing and spotting the suspects. After a while I had in
my possession quite a neat bundle of facts that gradually disclosed to
us the impulse and the motives behind this crime-hardened gang of men.
I say without the slightest hesitation that the basic, underlying
motive of these men is a fierce and uncompromising _passion to get
rich quick_. That is what makes them murderous criminals. It is the
same get-rich-quick impulse that we find among unscrupulous business
men and gamblers, but it is of a much more dangerous caliber and
pregnant with every sinister motive to the most horrible and debased
forms of crime. It is true that the "Black-Handers" got a pretty good
start in this country before the authorities were alive to the danger,
but it is also true that the Secret Service did finally succeed in
rounding up the leaders and their henchmen, reducing the nefarious
operations to a minimum. Had this not been done just about the time it
was actually done, the "Black-Hand" Society would have increased its
stranglehold upon the population to a point where the police might not
have been able to guarantee the personal safety of the citizens. Even
at the present time, when the authorities may be said to have the
situation well in hand, the danger of renewed "Black-Hand" activities
by other groups would not be removed if the Secret Service were to
relax its vigilance for ever so short a time. The threat of
Bolshevism, already flaring upon the horizon, as a menacing torch over
murder-maddened mobs defying law and order, would be a welcome
brother. In the chaos created, if the Red Bolsheviks should ever
succeed in demoralizing this country, the malefactors of the
"Black-Hand" Society would thrive as maggots in a cheese. A mixed
brand of terrorism would soon show its evil head, a mixed brand that
would bring every decent citizen to shudder at the mention of BLACK
BOLSHEVISM.
In looking into the motives of the men who represented the Sicilian
Mafia, or "Black-Hand" Society, in this country, I was fortunate to
elucidate not a few particulars that go to show how these criminals
actually operate.
The Black-Handers here would terrorize their less courageous
countrymen from the provinces of Southern Italy. They had been at this
form of blackmail for some years. Lupo and Morello were the leaders.
The money obtained by blackmail and threats of various kinds was
divided among a few men, but most of the funds went to Lupo and
Morello. As fast as Morello got money he would farm it out by
acquiring a barber shop or set up a man in a shoe repairing shop. He
also invested in several Italian restaurants. Lupo was in the habit of
putting his money into Italian grocery stores. He soon became one of
the greatest importers of olive oil and Italian lemons in New York
City. It is known that more than $200,000 was accumulated by the two
leaders in a few years. This estimate is based on testimony submitted
by people who have complained since of the way in which they were
terrorized.
Lupo and Morello were an ideal combination to force leadership upon
the "Black-Handers" in this country. Morello was the rough, bearish
and hairy-looking monster, cruel as a fiend, and always unshaven. Lupo
was the well-dressed, soft-spoken, slick-looking "gent" of pretended
refinement. He, too, was cruel and heartless. Lupo was the business
man of the two. Morello had in his make-up more of the cunning of the
born criminal. He was cautious like the fox and ferocious like a
maddened bull. Lupo was always suggesting new business ways for the
investing of the blackmail money. To Lupo's scheming brain can also be
traced the proposition to build a tenement house with such funds as he
and Morello could spare from the various barber shops and the
importing ventures in which they were interested.
They built one tenement house and sold it at a profit. They built
several other tenement houses and likewise sold these at a profit.
Every time they would take the money and reinvest in more buildings.
It was also at Lupo's suggestion that a scheme was concocted to form
an association for building purposes with the object of selling stock
in the association to Italians from Southern Italy only and
exclusively. The association was called the Ignatz Florio Association
of Corleone.
The main purpose of this association was to accumulate sufficient
funds to erect two rows of Italian tenements in One Hundred and
Thirty-seventh Street and One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street and
Cypress Avenue, in the Bronx. Stock in the association was placed on
sale for three dollars and five dollars per share. When the dividends
came due, payment was made or the dividend turned over to the account
of the holder of the stock. The tenements went up in quick succession.
Lupo and Morello finally succeeded in getting the control of the
association entirely in their own hands. They used the funds to
develop their business ventures, Morello specializing in barber and
shoe shops, Lupo sticking to his olive oil importing enterprise. Some
of the contractors who put up the tenements were paid, and some were
not. Those who had furnished materials for the buildings received some
manner of payment, but there were several who got nothing. Law suits
began to threaten the two leaders. The holders of the stock began to
inquire rather insistently about dividends.
At this juncture, Lupo and Morello stuck their heads together and
hatched a deep-dyed scheme for making counterfeit money. They would
establish a large counterfeiting plant. They would take the
counterfeit stuff and give it to the stockholders in the association.
For every thirty-five cents which the association owed to a holder of
stock Morello and Lupo would give one full dollar in counterfeit
money. The person receiving the counterfeit money would be obliged to
dispose of it according to the directions given by Lupo and Morello,
who held themselves competent to instruct the members of the
association so that the bad money could be disposed of without risk of
arrest. This counterfeiting scheme was hatched in the summer of 1908
in the rear of Morello's evil-smelling, dingy little spaghetti joint.