New York City is a city of immigrants. According to a survey done between 2007 and 2011,
37% of the residents of New York City were born outside the United States. The city contains
more than 3 million foreign-born immigrants, more than any other city on earth. And it's
been that way almost since the start for New York City. But of course the Melting Pot has
not always melted smoothly. Around the turn of the last century there was a large influx of
Italian immigrants into New York City, they brought with them their hopes and dreams,
but also connections to criminal organizations in the old world. They called themselves the
Black Hand and they terrorized New York City and other large metropolis in the
early part of the 20th century. The story of one fellow immigrant who bucked tradition,
and fought and died, to stop that reign of terror deserves to be remembered.
Born Giueseppe Petrosino, Joe Petrosino immigrated from Padula Italy to the United States in 1873
when he was 13 years old. Petrosinos early years in America had been a subject of debate,
but what scholars do agree on is that he and his family faced prejudice from the
people and different nationalities already living in New York City, notably the Irish,
who had foot holds not only in the political structure of Tammany Hall, but also the police
department. Italian-american boys and girls were harassed by Irish children on their way to and
from school. Petrosino became known as someone who wouldn't back down from a fight. If anyone
threw a rock at him, Petrosino would run at them throwing punches. If they continued to harass him,
he'd bang their heads into the sidewalk until they relented. He dropped out of school after
sixth grade and began to work as a shoe shiner on the streets. But Petrosino was
certain that shining shoes was not going to be his future. A friend, Anthony Maurya later said,
“One afternoon Petrosino seemed to snap and he smashed his shoe shine box to pieces on
the pavement.” he said, “Tony, I won't shine shoes anymore. I'm going to be somebody!”
After that revelation Petrosino became a street cleaner carting, among other things,
the refuse of an estimated 150,000 horses used in New York City at the time off the streets. He
must have been good at his job because he was noticed by Alex “Clubber” Williams, an Irish
police inspector who was remembered mainly for his corruption. Williams ran the streets he patrolled,
giving permission to the different businesses, and criminals to operate there. Williams was heard to
brag, “I'm so well known here in New York, that car horses nod to me in the mornings.”
Williams wanted Petrosino to become a police officer but Petrosino was only 5 foot 3 inches
tall, and at the time the requirement was that a man be 5 foot 7 inches tall in order
to join the force. But Williams used his connections to get Petrosino through,
and he became one of the first italian-american officers in the
New York Police Department in 1883. He received the shield number 285.
He was an excellent policeman. Petrosino had a photographic memory and could recall thousands
of different names, faces, and crimes without having to refer to files. He spoke nearly
a half dozen different dialects, and could talk to nearly any Italian in New York City,
which grew from a population of a mere 830 Italian immigrants in the 1850s, to almost
500,000 in 1910. He wasn't afraid to dress up in costumes to confuse criminals as to his identity,
or take up jobs to earn the trust of those he was investigating. Author Stephen Talty reported that
Petrosino wouldn't just pose as a worker or miner to crack a case, he would go out and become one.
In one year Petrosino had a New York City Police Department record for the time of
17 homicide convictions. He became so well known that it was said that in order to make an arrest,
all Petrosino had to do was walk up to the criminal and say, “I am Petrosino.”,
and they would give up without a fight. But Petrosino’s position as a police officer didn't
make him popular in his own neighborhood. Shouts of “Fresh parsley for sale!” would follow him down
the street. Petrosino means parsley in Italian. Others said “Parsley will make the American police
taste better but indigestible it will always be.” The Italian immigrants of New York City behaved
that way because Petrosino had broken an unwritten code of Italian life. Honor and fidelity went to
family and community first, never the authorities or outsiders, both of which the Italian immigrants
believed the New York Police Department to be. They had their reasons for believing as they
did. Italian immigrants were not treated very well at the time. For example Italian immigrants formed
a large part of the labor force, but were not necessarily reimbursed equally to their
Irish or American counterparts. When a mine explosion killed 16 workers, all immigrants,
at the Lawson mine in Washington in 1910, families of Irish workers killed were reimbursed $1,200 for
the death of their family member. Italian-american families were given only $150. Some scholars
estimate that 25% of industrial accidents at the turn of the century in the United States involved
italian-american immigrants. And this discrepancy in treatment was partially why the Black Hand,
which has been called a precursor to the Italian mafia, was able to take advantage of the Italian
community. The Black Hand, so called because extortion letters usually included a drawing
of the black hand, was not so much an organization but a method of extortion used by various criminal
groups. They preyed upon those who wouldn't, or couldn't report the crimes against them to the
authorities. Not only did the Italian Americans believe the police wouldn't care if they reported
the crimes, they did not want to be seen as traitors to their own race like Petrosino was.
Black Hand operations were numerous, they extorted Italian own businesses and bombed those who didn't
pay. They kidnapped children for ransom, and sent threatening letters covered in cryptic crosses
and black handprints, the origin of their name. In some small cities outside of New York, Black Hand
criminals ran the entire local government, and would send a representative to collect payment
from entire labor groups on pay day. A miner would pick up his check and immediately hand
over however much was demanded to the Black Hand. Reporters from the New York Times wrote,
“The money collected was understood to be the price of life and liberty, until next payday.”
Supposedly even the United States Congress received Black Hand threats. Members were
frantic until the letters were revealed to be a publicity stunt by a company hawking its soap,
and playing on the black or dirty hand to sell their wares. Despite the real dangers posed by
the criminals perpetrating the crimes, the public couldn't get enough of the Black Hand. The sale of
merchandise like stationery that had stylish black hands printed on them to send to their friends
skyrocketed, as well as newspapers selling stories of the brutality and bombings by the Black Hand.
Some even cashed in on the notoriety of the Black Hand to try to extort money out of their relatives
or business associates. The son of John Bozzuffi, an Italian banker, was kidnapped by the Black
Hand and demanded $20,000 of they're going to kill Bozzuffi’s son. Bozzuffi refused to be blackmailed
and brought the information to Petrosino. But word spread around the Italian neighborhood
that Bozzuffi was going to drain accounts at the bank to pay the Black Hand. In response,
there was a run on the bank. Bozzuffi, who was instructed to post a sign in the window of his
bank detailing how he was going to pay the ransom to the Black Hand defiantly posted,
“The money in this Bank belongs to the depositors, and it will be paid to them, even if I never see
my son again.” He eventually got his son back but the damage had already been done,
to both his business and his reputation. Exact numbers of those targeted by the Black Hand in
New York are impossible to estimate as so many of the victims of the crimes refused to talk to
authorities. To deal with the increasing disaster, Petrosino created what was essentially a special
task force called, The Italian Squad or, The Mysterious Six. These men were hand-picked by
Petrosino for not only their ability to speak Italian, but also their investigative skills.
The squad's mission was to deal with the peculiar problems constantly arising in the
Italian districts. They didn't have many resources to do so but they were dedicated in their mission.
In just one year of operations by the Italian Squad, Black Hand crimes in New York City
dropped by an estimated 50 percent. The Washington Post called them a band of zealots and they were
certainly zealous. They, for example, figured out how to identify Black Hand cells by the
handwriting on their notes. When the Black Hand criminals found out what was going on,
they started using typewriters to try to conceal their identity. To counter the
bomb-making terrorism of the Black Hand which was rife in Italian neighborhoods, Petrosino
created the New York City Police Department Bomb Squad which was one of the first organizations of
its kind in the United States. He continued to innovate even though his superiors and
fellow lawmen didn't necessarily support him in every endeavor. In another break with tradition,
Petrosino was never accused of taking a bribe. Few on the New York City Police Department at
the time could say the same. The press loved Petrosino for his candidness and also the number
of newspapers they sold as he fought the Black Hand. One night a reporter went to Petrosino’s
home to get a quote for his story which was to be printed the next day. The reporter stood in
the shadows of the hall near the doorway to Petrosino's home, when Petrosino showed up he
saw someone standing in the hall and charged him in a manner reminiscent of his school brawling
days. He knocked the wind out of the reporter who immediately declared his identity and what
he was doing there. Later the reporter remembered Petrosino saying, “Someday, they will get me.”
Petrosino had reasons to be cautious. After a decade of careful courting, Petrosino married the
love of his life, a widow named Adelina. According to the family's oral tradition, Petrosino met
Adelina when she was a waitress at her father's restaurant. He was smitten with her and asked
her father for permission to marry her, Adelina's father Vincenzo Saulino refused to allow the match
saying that she had already lost a husband and a career in law enforcement was simply too risky.
Saulino feared Petrosino would die and leave his daughter alone again. It didn't deter the lovers
and after Saulino died the two were Wed. They had a child together, a daughter, and they named her
Adelina after her mother. Petrosino was fiercely protective of his child, going to great lengths to
not even acknowledge her on the street so that the criminals he pursued wouldn't know who she was,
or her importance to him. In 1909 Petrosino was sent to Italy to gather original criminal files
for nearly a thousand suspected criminal immigrants in New York City, as well as to
cultivate a network of informants for the New York City Police Department overseas. He was
also tasked with learning who the most dangerous criminals in Italy were, and forward their names
to the Immigration Services in New York. If those men ever attempted to cross the Atlantic they
would be turned back at the border by immigration services before entering the country. But a New
York City Police Commissioner had given the story of Petrosino's mission to a New York
newspaper while Petrosino was abroad. Sadly for Petrosino, hundreds, if not thousands of the
Black Hand suspects he evicted from New York City were waiting for him in Italy. On a rainy night
in March, in the Italian town of Piazza Marina, Petrosino was shot dead by unknown assailants
Joseph Petrosino's body was returned to the United States and the day of his funeral, April
12th 1909, was proclaimed a public holiday in New York City and an estimated 250,000 mourners lined
the streets to see the lawman laid to rest. By comparison, only a hundred thousand came for the
funeral of Rudolph Valentino, the internationally famous film star when he died in 1926. The body of
Petrosino was taken from his home to St. Patrick's Cathedral, and then to a cemetery in Queens where
he was buried. His heartbroken wife Adelina was heard sobbing at the funeral. Even after his
death, Petrosino continued to impact the New York City Police Department which cracked down on the
remaining Black Hand criminals, and finally broke their power. Crime fighting techniques that were
pioneered by Joseph Petrosino are still used by police departments today. And the man who
fought against all odds, to do what he believed was right, for the country that he had adopted
as his own, remains to this day to be the only New York City police officer to have died in the line
of duty outside the United States. But perhaps the the nature of Petrosino’s character is best seen
in what he had on his body after he was murdered. On his body they found in his pockets his original
New York City Police Department badge, number 285, and a postcard addressed to his family that said,
“A kiss for you and for my little girl, who has spent many months far away from her daddy.”
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