PETROSINO

Lt. Giuseppe "Joseph" Petrosino

Lt. Giuseppe "Joseph" Petrosino

Introduction

Lt. Giuseppe "Joseph" Petrosino was a police officer in the New York Police who made a lot of efforts to fight the Italian Mafia. His main target was the Black Hand. The techniques used by Petrosino to fight crime were pioneered by him and are still used all over the world by agencies fighting crime.

Discussion

Ignazio "Lupo" Saietta founded the Black Hand Gang in 1898 and since its inception, it ran counterfeiting and extortion rackets in New York City. Petrosino began its efforts against the Black Hand when he received a search warrant of the Unione Siciliana because he believed that the gang had hidden the murdered victims in the building. This proved to be correct as more than 60 bodies were discovered, all cut into pieces with some parts missing. This led to the arrest of Lupo but he was eventually released there was no evidence that could prove him guilty. However, Petrosino was confident that Lupo was responsible for all the murders due to which he was determined to get him arrested (Woods, 1909, 40-47).

Lupo was eventually arrested after information provided by De Primo, who was serving time for counterfeiting. During investigations into the killing of Madonia, who was found in a barrel after being stabbed and cut into pieces, it was revealed that Vito Cascio Ferro and Paulo Marchese were also involved in the gang. These two took active part in the gang and were currently in New York in order to escape charges of murder in Italy. These two became the next target of Petrosino, who tried his best to get them deported.

Another notable case was his infiltration into an Italian organization in which he gained information that there were plans to assassinate President William McKinley. Although he warned the Secret Service, ...