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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42010 ***
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://archive.org/details/barrelmystery00flyniala
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BARREL MYSTERY
+
+by
+
+WILLIAM J. FLYNN
+
+Chief of the United States Secret Service
+Author of "The Eagle's Eye"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+The James A. McCann Company
+1919
+
+Copyright 1919, by
+the James A. McCann Company
+All Rights Reserved
+
+Printed in the U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                  PAGE
+
+        I. THE BARREL MURDER                                    1
+
+       II. WHAT WAS THE MOTIVE FOR THE MURDER?                 18
+
+      III. ORGANIZED TERRORISM                                 23
+
+       IV. COUNTERFEIT BILLS APPEAR                            31
+
+        V. THE GREENHORN'S STORY                               44
+
+       VI. DON PASQUALE, BLACK-HAND SKIRMISHER                 51
+
+      VII. THE PLANT OF THE COUNTERFEITERS                     65
+
+     VIII. THE COW THAT CAUSED A DOUBLE MURDER                 83
+
+       IX. THE SOCIETY                                         85
+
+        X. MEETING THE ARCH-BANDIT                             88
+
+       XI. THE BLACK-HANDER'S POLICE PROTECTION                97
+
+      XII. A KNOCK AT THE DOOR AT 2 A. M.                     110
+
+     XIII. THE BLACK-HANDERS IN SESSION                       117
+
+      XIV. PRINTING THE BAD MONEY                             130
+
+       XV. SOME "AFTER-DINNER" CONFESSIONS                    140
+
+      XVI. EVADING THE GANG IN VAIN                           148
+
+     XVII. CAUGHT AGAIN!                                      157
+
+    XVIII. PINCHING THE GREENHORN                             169
+
+      XIX. THE "BLACK-HAND" DOCTOR                            172
+
+       XX. THE "BLACK-HAND" TESTAMENT                         199
+
+      XXI. "THE VERMILION FLOWER ON THE BIG TOE"              203
+
+     XXII. THE GENTLE ART OF WRITING "BLACK-HAND" LETTERS     206
+
+    XXIII. FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A BADLY WRITTEN LETTER    215
+
+     XXIV. METHODS OF BLACKMAILING                            221
+
+      XXV. TRACING A LETTER                                   226
+
+     XXVI. "BLACK-HAND" PROPAGANDA                            239
+
+    XXVII. THE WATCHWORD OF THE "BLACK-HANDERS"               262
+
+
+
+
+THE BARREL MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BARREL MURDER
+
+
+Where the East River swims around the foot of Eleventh Street is an
+old abandoned wooden dock that looks more like the broken skeleton of
+a buried wreck than the thing it used to be. A covey of barges are
+huddled against the wharf opposite, and this wharf gradually becomes
+solid pavement where the lumber yard begins. It fronts the street with
+the most dilapidated board fence in Christendom made up of broken odds
+and ends covered with a crazy patchwork of corrugated iron scrap
+stained and rusted by the weather. If an old-time pirate--one of those
+romantic devils with scarred and battered features and a black patch
+over one eye--should suddenly peer at you through one of the many
+cracks in the splintered stockade you could not be very surprised; in
+fact, you would almost expect it to happen.
+
+Farther up is a livery stable, a mere hole in a pile of bricks, once
+red now slavered over with white-wash once white. Outside is a man
+clipping the mane of a truck horse with its harness dragging in the
+filth. On the corner is a saloon, such as you find on the East Side,
+shouldering against the dry dock storage for live poultry with chorus
+of cackling inmates. On the corner opposite is a huge, green cheese of
+a building occupied by various small manufacturers. The third corner
+bulges with the huge cisterns of the gas works soiled and smeared with
+soot and fumes. The fourth corner has become historic. Every Secret
+Service man in the city knows what is on the Northwest corner of East
+Eleventh Street and Avenue D. They know the old, battered red brick
+walls that belong to the New York Mallet Works, walls that look as if
+they have been scarred by a fusillade of machine guns, walls with
+rusted chicken-wire netting before windows that are never cleaned
+except when the rain is drumming against them, walls that are broken
+by a huge portal closed by a worm-eaten, wooden gate quite in keeping
+with the whole thing. There is a ramshackle tenement next door with
+rooms for rent and shutters all drawn--shutters that were doubtless a
+shrill green once upon a time but now camouflaged by the blasts of
+blistering sun and cutting rains into a crazy-quilt of strange hues,
+shutters maimed and broken and dangling and just hanging together. The
+only open aperture in the weird and forbidden dwelling is the
+entrance, breathing filth and the sour odor of poverty. Crowding close
+to the tenement is an almost cavernous fodder and feed store, its
+broken, soiled windows half-hidden behind shattered boards and laths
+from which remnants of bill-posters, stained and ragged, flutter now
+and then. A heap of rubbish, garlanded with a jumble of rusty wire and
+battered tin cans, adorns the broken curb. A pair of cast-off baby
+shoes with buttons dangling are sailing on a pool of dirty water.
+
+Desolate as the spot is it appeared even more so on the morning of
+April fourteenth, 1903, in the haze and the drizzling rain of an early
+hour. But Mrs. Frances Conners, an Irish woman, did not notice these
+things as she crossed the spot on her way to the bakeshop to get rolls
+for breakfast. She was used to the place. Wrapped up in the red
+sweater affected by East Side women and bending her head under her
+umbrella, she paid no attention to the very things that would have
+made a stranger pause and gaze. As she slipped across the corner,
+however, she noticed a barrel standing on the curb in front of the
+mallet works. That barrel was not there the day before. It was quite a
+big barrel, the kind they use for shipping sugar. Her feminine
+curiosity was aroused and she retraced her steps. In this instance
+curiosity revealed a deed that horrified the entire country,
+frightened the citizens of New York, and threw the Detective Bureau at
+Police Headquarters into a panic. The revelation also brought home to
+many people the disquieting realization that there were assassins in
+our midst that defied the efforts of our police to cope with them.
+
+An overcoat was thrown over the top of the barrel. It was fairly damp
+but not quite wet, indicating that it could not have been there very
+long. Mrs. Conners raised the coat. Quickly she let it drop and
+screamed. There was a man's body crushed into the barrel. The body was
+in a doubled-up position, both feet and one hand sticking over the rim
+of the barrel.
+
+Summoned by Mrs. Conners' screams the neighborhood was on its feet in
+an instant. A panicky crowd gathered on the fateful corner listening
+with gaping mouths and blanched faces to the frightened chatter of the
+Irish woman. Morbid curiosity prompted a few to raise the coat and
+take a look. Every time this was done some of the women would scream
+hysterically.
+
+A policeman came running up. The body in the barrel was still warm
+when the officer examined it after rolling the barrel over and
+dragging the victim out. About the dead man's neck was wound a strip
+of gunny-sack. When removed it revealed more than a dozen wounds any
+one of which would have resulted in death. An ambulance surgeon came
+at a gallop. He declared that the man could not have been dead more
+than two hours at the most.
+
+The corpse was taken to the Union Market Police Station. The
+examination made there led to the conclusion that the victim was a man
+about the age of forty. His complexion was swarthy and his ears were
+pierced with rings. The clothing about the dead man's body was of good
+quality, and there was nothing about the physical make-up to indicate
+that he belonged to the laboring class. The forehead was of the high,
+receding type, and it was partly covered with thin, curly hair of a
+light-brown tinge. The moustache was turning grey. On the left cheek
+were two scars an inch or more in length forming the letter "V"
+inverted. It was an old scar.
+
+A closer inspection of the body revealed that at least two weapons
+must have been used by the assassin or assassins. A narrow, two-edged
+blade had evidently been used for inflicting the wound just below the
+left ear. This stab was made by a powerful hand for it was at least
+three inches deep. A wound above the Adam's apple penetrated sheer to
+the spinal cord, and was doubtless done by the same weapon. Numerous
+other and smaller wounds were of a like character. A slash extending
+from ear to ear across the throat was probably done with a long, sharp
+blade.
+
+In searching the clothing of the dead man a little brass bound crucifix
+was found. It was of foreign make with a Latin motto on the scroll work
+above the figure of the Saviour, and a skull-and-cross-bones at the
+base of the crucifix. This was found in a waistcoat, in which we also
+located a silver watch-chain similar in make to those common to the
+peasantry of Southern Italy. The crucifix was one that is not common
+to any locality. There was an overcoat on the body, and in one of the
+pockets two handkerchiefs were found, one of which was small in size
+and faintly perfumed. The only identification mark on the clothing was
+on the shoes, which were marked "Burt & Co., opposite Produce
+Exchange." The shoes were worn, and there was a small patch on one of
+them. The gunny sack about the throat was marked by the blood stains
+only. Stencilled on the barrel were the initials "W & T" on the bottom;
+on the sides "G 233." It was a regulation sugar barrel, and the bottom
+was covered with about three inches of sawdust soaked with blood. Onion
+peels and some stubs of cigars of the stogie make were scattered in the
+sawdust, the kind of cigars that are sold in Italian stores and
+bar-rooms. A charred note in the handwriting of a woman was found in
+the barrel. Two written lines were in part legible: "Giorne che
+venite--subito l'urgenza." Translated the words might read: "Day that
+you come--suddenly the urgency."
+
+Every device of detection known to the New York Detective Bureau was
+brought into service. Inspector George W. McCloskey, head of the
+bureau in person, aided by picked men, scoured every nook and corner
+of New York in an effort to learn, first of all, the identity of the
+victim. The whole uniformed force was also instructed to follow any
+little lead of information which might indicate a connection with the
+murder. No identification, however, developed.
+
+I read of the murder in the afternoon newspapers. This was on April
+fourteenth. I recalled certain unusual activities among the band of
+"Black-Handers" on the night of April 12, which was about thirty-odd
+hours before the murder must have been committed. It came to my mind
+that I had seen a face new among the members of the gang. I went to
+the morgue and looked at the dead man. I identified him as the
+stranger who recently appeared at the haunts of the Black-Handers.
+(When I say Black-Handers, I mean also counterfeiters.) Two other
+Secret Service men also identified him. The body was taken out of the
+ice and measured according to the Bertillon method.
+
+For some time prior to the murder I had been closely in touch with
+Morello, with Lupo and others of their band. I had them under
+surveillance for the purpose of arresting them on a charge of
+counterfeiting.
+
+On the night of April 12, having accumulated considerable information
+concerning this band, I personally picked up the trail and followed
+several members of the band from their counterfeiting headquarters in
+the café at Elizabeth and Prince Streets. Just around the corner from
+this café was the saloon of Ignazio Lupo, another rendezvous of the
+gang. In the rear of Lupo's saloon Giuseppe Morello conducted an
+Italian restaurant.
+
+Trailing along, I followed several of the gang to the butcher store of
+Vito La Duca, at No. 16 Stanton Street, which is just east of the
+Bowery. Among those present in the store was Morello, whom I had
+arrested four months previously for counterfeiting. He was the only
+one of the gang which I had arrested who had escaped conviction. Two
+others of the men present were Antonio Geneva and Domenico Pecoraro,
+both of whom I knew well. And while the three whom I have already
+named were in animated conversation near the rear of the shop, a
+fourth man, a face new to me, stood apart from the others near the
+door. He was the same man found less than forty hours later in the
+barrel.
+
+While the conversation took place in the rear of the shop I saw a
+piece of bagging being hung up as a curtain over the glass in the door
+leading from the street into the store. It was but a few minutes later
+that I saw a covered wagon driving up to the door. Two men hopped down
+from the seat and entered the shop. One of them came out again after a
+couple of minutes and drove away. Shortly after eight o'clock that
+evening the visitors left La Duca's store. They split up into two
+groups, the stranger going toward the Bowery with Morello and
+Pecoraro.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I communicated with Inspector McCloskey, then in charge of the
+Detective Bureau at Police Headquarters, and told him what I have just
+related. Immediately there was a rounding up of the gang, my men
+pairing off with the headquarters detectives and locating eleven of
+the members of the Black-Hand Society. Here is the list of those
+arrested as suspects for the murder:
+
+Giuseppe Morello, of No. 178 Chrystie Street.
+
+Ignazio Lupo, of No. 433 West Fortieth Street.
+
+Messina Genova, of No. 538 East Fifteenth Street.
+
+Vito La Duca, of No. 16 Stanton Street.
+
+Pietro Inzarillo, of No. 226 Elizabeth Street.
+
+Domenico Pecoraro, of No. 198 Chrystie Street.
+
+Lorenzo Lobido, of No. 308 Mott Street.
+
+Giuseppe Fanara, of No. 25 Rivington Street.
+
+Giuseppe La Lamia, of No. 47 Delancey Street.
+
+Nicola Testa, of No. 16 Stanton Street.
+
+Luciano Perrino, of No. 47 Delancey Street.
+
+Perrino was also known as Tomasso Petto. He was known among the
+members of the Black-Hand aggregation as "Il Bove," meaning "The Ox."
+
+Here was certainly a murderous aggregation of the most pronounced
+criminal type. They were all of them from Sicily. Most of them were
+armed with a revolver, some also had knives and even stilettos. On
+Morello the police found a .45 caliber revolver. A knife was tucked
+away in the waistband of his trousers, a cork being fixed at the point
+of the blade so that it would not scratch his leg. Petto, the Ox,
+whom Inspector McCafferty of the detective bureau, and I arrested
+later, carried his pistol in a holster and a sheath for his stiletto.
+Most of the suspects had permits from the New York Police Department
+to carry revolvers. It was this incident, practically, which brought
+on the crusade against, and the passing of the law forbidding, the
+carrying of dangerous weapons.
+
+The prisoners were presently hurried to the Morgue, where each of them
+had a look at the dead man. They were asked individually whether they
+knew him. The answer was the usual one--a shrug of the shoulders and
+the words "No understand," "don't know." Morello and Pecoraro were
+both asked whether they knew the dead man, but denied that they had
+ever seen him; this in face of my seeing the two in the company of the
+man now dead less than forty hours before he was murdered. The dead
+man still remained without a name, and without a friend or relative
+coming to claim kinship.
+
+Information began to percolate into my office which induced me to take
+a trip to Sing Sing prison in an effort to bring about the
+identification of the dead man. It was plain to me already then that
+the police force was failing in its efforts. I resolved to take a
+personal interest in the murder and to clear it up if possible.
+
+At this point, let me inform the reader that an anonymous letter was
+addressed to Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino of the Italian Detective
+Squad, then a part of the New York Police Department. This letter
+proved to be of value in elucidating particulars aiding us in
+identifying the man found murdered in the barrel. The Lieutenant
+showed this letter to me. Knowing that Petrosino was the best man in
+the Police Department to handle the situation, I asked him to go to
+Sing Sing Prison to investigate.
+
+Petrosino took along a photograph of the murdered man. Several of the
+convicts failed to identify the photograph, but the third man
+questioned by Petrosino, Giuseppe DePriema, looked at the photograph
+and said: "That is Maruena Benedetto, my brother-in-law. What has
+happened?"
+
+DePriema completed the identification by corroborating the watch chain
+and the crucifix. He also described accurately the scar on Benedetto's
+face. At first, DePriema was terror-stricken. Later on, however, he
+grew angry, as only the Sicilian bent on murder can get angry. He
+gave us the Buffalo address of Benedetto, and told us all about the
+dead man's business as a stone cutter. DePriema said that his
+brother-in-law had been out of work for some months past, that he had
+left Buffalo to associate himself with a band of counterfeiters in New
+York.
+
+It is my personal opinion that if the New York police had not
+blundered after arresting the gang named the murderer would have been
+located in short order. The police made the mistake of locking up the
+gang together, so that they could speak and plan together. Each man
+should have been incarcerated separately. The detectives also failed
+to examine all the letters and all the papers taken from the prisoners
+when searched.
+
+Returning to New York from Sing Sing, Petrosino came directly to me.
+Together we went to Police Headquarters and asked to be shown the
+letters and papers taken from the suspects. Among the litter I found a
+pawn-ticket for a watch which had been pledged at a Bowery pawnshop
+for one dollar on the day of the murder. The ticket was found on
+Petto, the Ox. It was positively identified by the wife of Benedetto,
+who was brought on from Buffalo. Certain markings and engravings were
+described by Mrs. Benedetto, which could have been known only to one
+closely acquainted with the time-piece.
+
+With this evidence to proceed upon, Petto, the Ox, was indicted by the
+Grand Jury, after being held without bail on the murder charge.
+Meanwhile, the other suspects were turned out by Police Magistrate
+Barlow because there was not sufficient evidence to hold them on the
+murder charge. Murder in the first degree was the charge against
+Petto.
+
+From then on evidence began to accumulate that convinced me personally
+of the existence of an organized "Black-Hand" society in New York
+City. Eminent counsel was engaged and a large fund raised by the
+criminal associates of Petto, the Ox, to fight for his freedom. During
+the time that Petto was incarcerated, information came to me that each
+and every one of the gang was from the same town in Sicily; a place
+named Corleone, about twenty-seven miles from Palermo. It was in
+Palermo that Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino, of the New York Police
+Force, was murdered eventually while in quest of special information
+for Police Commissioner Theodore Bingham. We also ferreted out the
+significant fact that in order to gain the inner circle of the secret
+society, which was furnishing funds for the defense of Petto, the
+applicant would have to be from the town of Corleone.
+
+When Petto had been held in the Tombs Prison for more than four months
+his attorney asked that he be released on his own recognizance, the
+attorney stating that there was not sufficient evidence upon which to
+bring the accused to trial with any fair hope of convicting him. No
+sooner was Petto released than he disappeared from his accustomed
+haunts with the gang in New York.
+
+But Petto did not escape the eye of the Secret Service. He was traced
+to Pittston, Pa. Nor did Petto escape a blood relative of the murdered
+man. Probably I had better explain at this point that there is an
+unwritten law among the Italians of southern Sicily that when a member
+of a family is murdered, the crime must be avenged by a blood relative
+of the murdered person. If no blood relative is available, a kinsman
+by marriage assumes the task.
+
+Petto soon became the leader of a band of black-handers who preyed
+upon the Italian miners in Pittston. Then one night, when the streets
+were slippery with a cold, drizzling rain, there came an ominous knock
+at his door. Petto sensed that something was wrong. He made ready for
+any emergency and drew his big revolver. But the unknown visitor was
+quicker than the murderer of Benedetto, and the aim was certain. Five
+bullets stopped the Black-Hander forever. A dagger was sunk into the
+heart of Petto, the Ox, to make doubly sure that he was not playing
+'possum. Beside the warm body of Petto his revolver was found fully
+loaded. The hand holding the revolver was partly shot away. On his
+body was discovered a little brass-bound crucifix with a
+skull-and-cross-bones at the Saviour's feet, an exact duplicate of
+that taken from the body of the man found in the barrel. As far as the
+police records show, the avenger of Benedetto has never been
+apprehended. Whether the avenger has since suffered a fate similar to
+his victim I cannot at this moment say.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+COUNTERFEIT BILLS APPEAR
+
+
+In May, 1909, counterfeit two-dollar and five-dollar bills began to
+appear in many of the large cities, such as New York, Philadelphia,
+Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Chicago and Boston. Some of the bills were
+distributed as far away as New Orleans. The simultaneous appearance of
+the bills in so many different cities indicated quite plainly that a
+large band was operating in the distribution of the bad money.
+
+Ever since Lupo and Morello and his associates were arrested in 1908,
+and were turned out by the Police Magistrate because there was not
+sufficient evidence to hold them for the barrel murder, I had not lost
+sight of them. They were being trailed all the time, day and night. As
+a result of my watchfulness, I learned many things that have since
+proven to be very useful to the government in its efforts to keep the
+counterfeiting of money down to a minimum.
+
+Among other things, I learned that Morello made frequent trips to
+Chicago and other cities where the counterfeit money seemed to
+flourish. Morello made a flying trip to New Orleans on one occasion
+when my men tracked him all the way. When his train arrived in
+Philadelphia we knew he was on board; when the train reached Baltimore
+we knew he was on the train, and when he arrived at Washington we knew
+where the "Black-Hand" leader was; and so on, till he arrived in New
+Orleans. On his arrival there certain Italian confederates were
+waiting for him and escorted their chief to a little Italian café
+where a conference was held in a back room lasting a little longer
+than two hours. Immediately after the conference was over, Morello
+took the next train back to New York.
+
+Now enters into the story a man by the name of Antonio Cecala.
+Remember the name of this man, for he plays an important part in the
+game for the remainder of the story. Cecala, whom we will establish
+here as the third executive bandit in the Lupo-Morello group, made
+trips to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Cecala proved a
+valuable aid to the two "Black-Hand" captains.
+
+Lupo was tracked by Secret Service men to cities where the counterfeit
+money was circulating. Another thread of investigation disclosed the
+not unimportant fact that there were members of the Ignatz Florio
+Association scattered all over the United States, especially in the
+populous centers where the five- and two-dollar counterfeit bills were
+being circulated. Besides, I was getting information daily from banks
+and merchants that the bills were being "pushed on the market" in
+abundance. I also learned that Italians from Corleone, Sicily, were
+the only Italians who were trusted in these centers by the
+Morello-Lupo gang, pointing to the probability that the bad bills were
+being circulated and "pushed" through native Corleonians exclusively.
+
+Another clue showed that the bills were being manufactured somewhere
+in the immediate vicinity of New York City. I fine-combed the State of
+New York upon learning this. Naturally, my attention was focused on
+the Corleone Italians in New York City. In this way I gathered that
+Lupo had fled from his creditors, to whom he owed money in connection
+with his Italian grocery stores business. I finally succeeded in
+locating him living in Ardonia, New York, which is not very far from
+Highland on the Hudson River.
+
+Past experience with these Morello-Lupo counterfeiters had taught
+me not to make an arrest until I had the net completely woven
+around the men who made the money. It is futile to arrest the
+"pushers-of-the-queer"--that is, the men who distribute the bad money
+among the little Italian grocery stores and shoe shops, small
+merchants, and the like. The arrest of these men only serves to warn
+the manufacturers of the bad money that the Secret Service is on the
+trail. The factory then closes down, and it is moved away to another
+location. Even if a conviction of the distributor of the bad money is
+obtained, no definite information can be obtained from the convicted
+man. He could not tell the government anything of value even if he
+wished to "squeal." As a rule, all that a "pusher" or distributor can
+tell is where he got the bad money.
+
+Here is where Antonio Cecala looms up as a very important criminal
+factor in the counterfeiting game as plied by the Black-Handers under
+the leadership of Lupo and Morello. Remember this: _Lupo and Morello
+always remain in the background_. Cecala was the connecting link
+between the two leaders and the "pushers-of-the-queer."
+
+Cecala was the man who got in touch with those who wanted to buy the
+counterfeit money to circulate it at the rate of thirty-five cents on
+the dollar.
+
+Cecala was careful to deal only with men whom he knew--men who were
+from Corleone. He would pick six of these as his deputies. These
+deputies would choose six others, and so on. Cecala made business
+trips to other cities and took the orders for counterfeit money. He
+also had the say as to whom should be the agent in each city directly
+responsible to him. These various deputies were required to give their
+O. K. before any money would be sent to or given to any person by
+Cecala.
+
+As soon as Cecala would receive a request from a deputy for money to
+be passed to certain Italians asking for it, it was Cecala's job to go
+to Lupo and Morello and obtain their sanction before the money would
+be handed along down the line from the distributing plant to the
+person buying it at thirty-five cents on the dollar for the obvious
+purpose of "pushing" it off on some unwary store-keeper.
+
+The reader can now readily appreciate that with a crafty organization
+like this the "pusher" could not testify, even if he desired, that he
+had got the bad money from either Lupo or Morello. In fact, the
+"pusher" never even heard of either of the leaders except in some
+indirect way. Always, however, when the money was passed over to the
+pusher by one of Cecala's deputies or remote subordinates a sinister
+warning was given not to "squeal" if caught--a warning always
+portentous with the threat of murder.
+
+To "squeal" meant fatal punishment. The man in the barrel is grim
+testimony to that fact.
+
+At about this time I had pretty good evidence that the leaders of the
+counterfeiting gang were none other than Morello and Lupo, as I had
+suspected from the outset. Still, the time was not ripe to make
+arrests that would result in dead-sure convictions. It is true the two
+leaders could be arrested and charged with the making of these
+counterfeit notes, but where was the evidence connecting them with
+either the passing or the manufacture of the bills?
+
+Let me here recite the case of Giuseppe Boscarini just to help the
+reader appreciate how very difficult it would be, at that juncture, to
+get Lupo and Morello involved in a way that would satisfy a court and
+jury that they were legally guilty of making and of passing
+counterfeit money:
+
+While in Pittston, Pa., I learned that a man in that city named Sam
+Locino knew Boscarini, a New York agent of the Black-Hand Society.
+After talking with Locino for some time he told me that Boscarini had
+made several trips to Pittston lately, and that Boscarini was willing
+to sell counterfeit money to him. When Locino mentioned Boscarini's
+name I felt sure that the Pittston man was talking of one of Cecala's
+most active deputies.
+
+In order to see how far Locino could go with Boscarini, and whether
+Cecala's deputy would turn counterfeit money over to Locino, I made
+the latter write a letter in the Sicilian dialect to Boscarini asking
+the deputy of Cecala to send a sample of the counterfeit money in
+order that Locino might see what it was like and whether he thought he
+would be able to get rid of some of it in Pittston.
+
+When Locino had finished the letter I took it over to the post office,
+and with the Mayor of the city and the Chief of Police as witnesses I
+had the letter registered and addressed to Boscarini. I came back on
+the same train that brought the letter to New York, and when Boscarini
+signed for it at the registry window, this act of his was noted down
+by men of the Secret Service.
+
+The next day Boscarini went to a sub post office on the Bowery and
+bought a special delivery and a two-cent stamp. He placed the stamps
+upside down on a large white envelope. An agent of the Service saw him
+buy the stamps and place them on the envelope; also, the agent saw the
+fictitious return address which Boscarini put on the envelope: the
+agent saw this as Boscarini put the letter into the slot at the
+sub-station.
+
+I returned to Pittston on the same train with the letter and notified
+Locino that the letter was addressed to him at the General Delivery.
+He got the letter and opened it in my presence. It contained a
+counterfeit two-dollar bill and a counterfeit five-dollar bill of the
+kind made by the Morello gang.
+
+Then I sent Locino to New York and gave him thirty-five dollars with
+which to buy one hundred dollars' worth of the counterfeit money from
+Boscarini. I saw to it that the genuine money was secretly marked for
+the purpose of "getting" it on some member of the gang when the raid
+would come and in which I contemplated taking Morello and Lupo
+together with Cecala, Boscarini and others.
+
+Locino contrived to meet Boscarini at Mulberry and Prince Streets, and
+the two talked it over. An appointment was made by Boscarini to meet
+Locino again on the same day.
+
+One of the things I had ferreted out meanwhile was to locate the
+headquarters for the distribution of the bad money as being at No. 231
+East Ninety-seventh Street. Secret Service men had hired apartments
+across the street from this place, and were watching every one that
+entered and left the place. Their view was interfered with by great
+boxes of macaroni and other Italian groceries piled high in the
+windows of the store. My men also learned that it was here, behind the
+macaroni boxes, that secret conferences were being held between
+Cecala, Morello, Lupo and others. A conference would never last more
+than fifteen minutes. The store was run by Morello, Lupo and others.
+It was a wholesale store. The small Italian grocers in New York were
+compelled to make their purchases there at the peril of being wrecked
+by a bomb if they did not. To this store went Boscarini when he left
+Locino at Mulberry and Prince Streets. At the Ninety-seventh Street
+store Boscarini met Cecala and several others of the gang. Returning
+to meet Locino, Boscarini handed over a roll of bills to the Pittston
+man. Secret Service men saw the bills handed over. Locino handed the
+bills to me. When the bills were examined they were found to be
+counterfeits of the same make as those previously sent to Locino in
+the letter.
+
+Even then we made no arrest. It would have been a foolish piece of
+business at that time, for I was busy on other ends of the case
+pulling in valuable threads of evidence. After the lapse of a week
+Locino came to New York from Pittston and purchased more of the
+counterfeit money from Boscarini, giving in return genuine money,
+which was secretly marked.
+
+Finally the time arrived when the government had evidence which was
+deemed sufficient to convict most of the band. The raid was made. When
+Cecala was seized and searched there was found on him two of the
+genuine bills with the secret marks which I had placed on the bills
+given to Locino.
+
+Locino's testimony, the reader will see, was necessary in order to
+secure a conviction of Boscarini and Cecala. By Locino's telling what
+part he had played in the game the government was put in position to
+verify the following complete chain of evidence: Locino writing the
+letter to Boscarini and asking for the counterfeit samples; Boscarini
+receiving the letter, and receipting for it; Boscarini posting the
+answering letter to Locino, the letter on which the Secret Service man
+saw the stamps placed upside down on the long white envelope. Then,
+further, Locino receiving the letter at the General Delivery, and his
+opening it in my presence and finding the counterfeit two- and
+five-dollar bills. Locino could testify that he got counterfeit money
+from Boscarini and had given him the genuine money secretly marked in
+return for the spurious bills, thus directly connecting Boscarini with
+the charge of passing spurious money. Also, Locino could verify my
+testimony of secret marks being placed on the bills, so that when the
+marked bills were found on Cecala, Locino could identify them as the
+ones he had given to Boscarini in return for the counterfeit money
+passed by Boscarini to him. Locino could thus connect Boscarini and
+Cecala. Other evidence connecting Cecala with Boscarini was in my
+possession, but which I need not give here. It merely served to
+corroborate the testimony of Locino.
+
+Locino was perfectly well aware what it meant to go on the witness
+stand and "squeal." He had heard of the man in the barrel. After some
+weeks of thinking the matter over Locino loosened up and declared that
+he had an ancient wrong to right! He never explained to me further
+just what his grievance against the "Black-Handers" was. He finally
+made up his mind to take the stand and tell what he knew.
+
+Needless to say that Boscarini was sentenced to fifteen years in the
+Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia. But it is worth mentioning
+here that shortly after Boscarini received his sentence Locino was
+shot twice in the back of the head at Pittston. He survived, however,
+and is confident that he will be able to take care of himself for many
+years to come.
+
+The point I want to make clear by relating this story of facts is as
+follows:
+
+I traced the connection of Cecala with the passing of these
+counterfeit bills by finding the genuine money with the secret marks
+on him. Nevertheless, I had not reached the leaders, Lupo and Morello,
+who were still in the background serenely confident that they could
+not be legally implicated in the passing or the manufacturing of the
+counterfeit bills.
+
+True, we could prove that Cecala and Morello and Lupo had met many
+times, and that they had been to the houses of one another and eaten
+at the same table. Other evidence of a like nature could be produced;
+but such evidence was not sufficient to convict the two leaders of the
+charge of either passing, having in their possession, making or
+causing to be made, any of the counterfeit notes which were being
+poured into the great centers of population at one and the same time.
+Had I stopped with Locino's testimony, I never could have got the
+leaders. But the Secret Service never leaves the trail of the
+counterfeiter, and the way in which the long arm of the government
+reached out for the "Black-Hand" leaders, who loomed in the shadowy
+distance like the silhouettes of devils incarnate, will be told here
+for the first time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE GREENHORN'S STORY
+
+
+In the latter part of June, 1907, a young Italian landed in New York
+from the southern part of Italy. He was an ambitious sort of clever
+chap. He not only spoke his mother tongue well, but he had a good
+command of Spanish and French and was posted on several of the
+dialects current in the "boot" or southern part of Italy. He knew very
+little of the English tongue, however. Among his various
+accomplishments he was also a practical printer.
+
+The career of this young man up to the time of his landing at Ellis
+Island is significant, to say the least. He was a native of the little
+town of Cananzero in Calabria, one of the provinces of southern Italy.
+He had been a teacher there and had taught technical subjects. Later
+on he taught in private, and finally became an instructor in
+government schools. From Italy he had gone to Brazil, where he spent
+seven years of his time. He had engaged in teaching school there, and
+he had also worked at the printing trade in Rio de Janeiro, the
+capital of Brazil. At one time he had been engaged by the Italian
+Consul at Rio de Janeiro to assist that official in legal matters.
+
+The young man's name was Antonio Viola Comito.
+
+In course of time he proved to be the connecting link that joined the
+chain of evidence identifying Lupo and Morello legally and
+inseparately with the counterfeiting gang which manufactured and
+distributed the counterfeit money in the summer of 1909. His own story
+in full, which has never been made public before, is given here. This
+story of his contains many statements which ought to interest the
+public, statements that were not divulged by Comito even at the trial
+where he was the pivot upon which turned the conviction of the most
+notorious and troublesome band of counterfeiters this country ever
+knew. As a result of his damaging evidence, the gang vowed to destroy
+him. He has changed his identity completely meanwhile, however, and
+was last heard from in South America, where he is very prosperous. He
+has a good deal more courage than his own story, as told by him, would
+indicate. He will never be reached by the Black-Hand gang without
+several of them paying with their lives for his. He is confident of
+that.
+
+Comito's own story follows:
+
+"The reader will pardon me, if, in reading this story of my life in
+New York, there are errors of language and periods not well expressed.
+
+"During the latter part of 1908 and a good part of 1909, I had
+occasion to know many malefactors who horrified me from the very
+start, and whom I gradually came to fear as I studied their brutal
+character. I refrained from denouncing these men to the police because
+I was constantly in danger of losing my life had I done so.
+
+"These men were the leaders of the notorious 'Black-Hand' Society,
+which spreads terror among the Italians all over the United States.
+While among them I studied the badness, the power, the brutality and
+the arrogance of the counterfeiter and the assassin.
+
+"They were not a very civil lot. They were villains incarnate. One of
+their characteristic traits is that one alone would not commit a
+crime because of cowardice. When a 'job' was to be executed it was
+always carried out by three or four directed by a 'corporal,' who was
+put in charge by the head bandit. This 'corporal' bossed the job,
+remaining all the while in the distance so that in case the operations
+of those committing the deed were discovered by the police the
+'corporal' would be sure to escape and report the circumstances to the
+head bandit of the society. The head bandit would in turn notify all
+the other members, when a counsel would be called at which steps would
+be taken to aid those apprehended by the police.
+
+"What puzzled me not a little was the fact that when it came to going
+to trial for an offense no eye-witness would ever appear in court to
+tell of the crime with which the members under arrest might be
+charged. Those arrested usually gave fictitious names, and when placed
+on trial they were always freed. These men governed their association
+by secret orders. They operated on a vast scale and extended their
+crime even to the kidnapping of little children."
+
+At this point Comito enters a long apology to those people of Southern
+Italy who are good citizens and law-abiding. He does not refer in
+this article, he says, to the honest Sicilians, who labor and earn
+their living honestly. It is of the malefactors, he says, that he
+speaks.
+
+Comito then tells of entering New York and meeting his brother at the
+Battery. He relates his sensations at seeing the tall buildings of New
+York and the hurrying crowds in the noisy streets.
+
+After going to the home of his brother in Bleecker Street, Comito
+says:
+
+"During the dinner I was carefully advised by my uncle, an intelligent
+man and very cautious, having served the Italian government for twelve
+years as non-commissioned officer in the line infantry. He said, 'Do
+not acquire bad friendships. Be careful of traps that strangers may
+lay for you. There exists in New York a band of malefactors which bear
+the name of Black-Hand. Every day this band commits crimes,
+assassinating persons, setting fire to houses, breaking in doors,
+exploding bombs, and kidnapping children.'
+
+"He told me also never to tell any one where I worked and how much I
+earned. He advised me to think only of bettering my condition and
+that of my family, because in America, in time, the man with a good
+will can acquire a good position."
+
+Perhaps these words that follow may be of interest to the reader in
+getting an insight into the mentality of the newly arrived immigrant.
+Says Comito:
+
+"My only wish was to work and put aside something; to economize, and
+so help the condition of my family and provide some day for my
+daughter that she might have a profession. I did not think of evil,
+and hoped from day to day to find occupation. I was a printer, and,
+though I did not know English, I felt confident of finding work in
+some Italian printing-office."
+
+Comito then tells of finding employment in the Italian printing house
+of M. Dassori, at No. 178 Park Row, where he was getting along well.
+He tells of sending money to Italy to his wife and children. He tells
+of his brother here introducing him to honest Italians of the working
+class and of how he joined the order of the Sons of Italy and also the
+Foresters of America. Comito then relates his rapid rise in the
+Foresters, mentioning also how he became Supreme Deputy of the Order
+of the Sons of Italy, besides being chosen a member for the Congress
+of Italians abroad, which was held in Rome in 1908. He dwells on his
+losing employment because of lack of work in the place where he was
+employed. After getting employment again he finds himself once more
+out of a place, about the beginning of September, 1908. He tells very
+frankly of taking up with a lady named Caterina and how they shared
+the apartment which he furnished as well as his means afforded. He and
+Caterina lived together, he says, "respecting one another as husband
+and wife." Describing his affair with Caterina, who, by the way,
+enters in some measure into the counterfeiting story, Comito says:
+
+"I, together with Caterina, lived agreeably, and what was earned
+weekly was divided equally, and we did not take into account which
+earned the more or the less. We made an honest front with friends. I
+discharged my duties with the societies with zeal."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+DON PASQUALE, BLACK-HAND SKIRMISHER
+
+
+Here is where Comito gets into touch with a skirmisher, if I may use
+the word, of the Black-Handers. The skirmisher is the scout for Lupo
+and Morello who are, as usual, in the distance, their minds ablaze
+with the idea of getting rich beyond the dreams of Aladdin by a bold
+counterfeiting stroke. Comito is a printer out of work. Lupo and
+Morello have agents who tell them of such things. Comito might be the
+man to run a printing press and print the counterfeit bills. And so, I
+will turn you over to Comito. Listen to his own story once more:
+
+"On the evening of November 5, 1908, I was at a meeting of the Order
+of the Sons of Italy, being a duty I owed the society as Supreme
+Deputy to attend the meetings of the different lodges. As was the
+custom toward the end of the meeting I chatted with the various
+members of the order, some of whom I knew by name and others whom I
+knew only by sight.
+
+"That same night a member by the name of Don Pasquale, a Sicilian,
+came to me, clasped my hand, and without further ceremony said:
+'Professor, will you take a walk with me? I have something to say that
+might interest you.'
+
+"When we were outside, Don Pasquale said to me:
+
+"'I know you are seeking work and that you are a good printer. A
+friend of mine is proprietor of a printing shop in Philadelphia. If
+you wish I can recommend you; but you must go to Philadelphia to
+work.'
+
+"'It makes no difference to me where I work,'" was Comito's answer.
+
+Don Pasquale got Comito's address and said that he would arrange to
+have his Philadelphia printer friend meet Comito at the latter's home.
+Comito then explains that the title "Don" is used by Sicilians as a
+mark of respect among the working class, and that the word "Uncle" is
+employed in addressing people advanced in years in the same sense.
+
+Comito recalls the knock on his door on the morning of November 6. He
+says:
+
+"I opened and saw Don Pasquale with his friend. I motioned them to
+enter and sit down. Don Pasquale said: 'Mr. Comito, I present to you
+my friend, Don Antonio Cecala, proprietor of a printing shop in
+Philadelphia.'
+
+"'Are you a printer?' asked Cecala.
+
+"'Yes,' I answered.
+
+"'Well,' he continued, 'I am the proprietor of a shop in Philadelphia
+and in need of a trustworthy man who can take care of my affairs when
+I am absent looking out for my business as an inspector of Singer
+Sewing Machines. You can come to an agreement with me and establish
+yourself with your wife in Philadelphia. In that way I can be sure of
+your honesty,' said Cecala to me.
+
+"'But,' I replied, 'I don't think that I am going to your printing
+shop to act as boss. You have other men that work there?'
+
+"'Yes, there are other men, but they are not capable for the trade I
+have because they do not do this kind of work.'
+
+"And saying this, Cecala showed me some money order blanks, stamped
+envelopes, commercial papers and some hand bills. I replied that it
+was just such work that I could do, and that if the men employed by
+him were not able to do such work they were not printers.
+
+"'Well, as you are a practical man at such work, you may remain alone
+in the shop and will assume full responsibility. Therefore, prepare
+your things and tell your Mrs. not to continue working. However, if
+she wants to work in Philadelphia, then she may do so. Together you
+will soon be rich.'"
+
+Cecala agreed to pay the rent due for the rooms occupied by Comito and
+his mistress, besides what he owed elsewhere. The weekly salary was
+agreed upon, and in the event that Comito should not care to remain at
+the job he was to receive his return fare to New York.
+
+The reader will appreciate the humor of this arrangement as he gets
+along further in the story.
+
+"'Then you wish that the lady come with me?'
+
+"'Surely. The lady is necessary for you.'
+
+"'But don't you want me to go first and find a house to live in?'
+
+"'There is no need of that. The house is ready. It is my property.'
+
+"'When you say that you will provide for everything, I am ready to
+leave to-morrow.'
+
+"In the evening Caterina came home from work. I told her what had
+happened. She did not care to leave her work, adding that we were
+without means and could not afford to undertake the trip. I assured
+her, however, that all expenses would be paid, and she finally
+consented to come along. We prepared the household furnishings for
+shipment, Cecala insisting that we take all the stuff with us."
+
+Comito then tells of being taken to a photo-material store. Cecala
+bought a camera, some plates, bath platters, chemicals, a tripod,
+paper, and a case. Comito was induced to go to the printing house,
+where he had been formerly employed, and make a "dicker" for the
+purchase of a printing press. The press was secured and everything was
+made ready for the trip to Philadelphia. Then Cecala called and
+introduced a certain "Don Turi," otherwise Cina, as his godfather. "He
+is a rich proprietor in Philadelphia," said Cecala. "Do not mind his
+ordinary clothes; he is a man of gentle manners." Comito's own
+description of the rough looking Cina adds a streak of humor to the
+situation. As to "gentle manners" Cina almost maimed Comito when he
+shook hands with him. Comito was also introduced to a fellow by the
+name of Sylvester.
+
+It was two o'clock in the afternoon on the same day that the whole
+pack of them--Cecala, Cina, Don Pasquale and Sylvester--rushed into
+the little apartment of Comito, and, as he says, "without any talking,
+began to label the furniture." This move was made after Cecala had
+paid the rent that morning.
+
+Comito had not put any address on his stuff because Cecala had assured
+him that all the furniture would be put on a wagon, and that the wagon
+and all would go under his name to Philadelphia. Comito observed a
+bundle labeled: "A. Cina, Highland, New York."
+
+Turning to Cecala, he said: "Don't we go to Philadelphia?"
+
+"A--ha, ha, ha--a, ha, a, ha, ha, ha, ha," leered Cecala. "This is the
+place the boat stops and then we go twenty minutes by foot. Have no
+fear; we will go by carriage."
+
+"Do we not go by rail?"
+
+"No," grunted Cecala. "It costs too much, and we cannot load all your
+goods on the train."
+
+Upon inquiring what time Cecala expected to arrive at Philadelphia,
+Comito was informed about eight o'clock, and that it would be all the
+better to arrive after dark because "no one will see what we are
+doing, and we will give an accounting to no one." Cecala also assured
+Comito that there would be no delay once they got off the boat, but
+that they would hurry to Cecala's house where "we will eat and drink
+wine and warm ourselves."
+
+In this manner Comito's fears were lulled to sleep by the promises of
+future prosperity that were held out to him. There would never be any
+more worry or struggle for gain as far as Comito was concerned,
+according to the assurances of Cecala and the others. Life would flow
+along like a pleasant dream with no worries of any kind!
+
+"It was about 4:30 P. M. of that same day, November 11, 1908, when I
+and Caterina, together with Cecala, Cina, Don Pasquale and Sylvester,
+went on board the boat," continues Comito. "I was fully convinced that
+we were going to Philadelphia. I was quite happy thinking that by
+working honestly I would prosper. When we were about two hours out
+from the pier Cecala came to me and said:
+
+"'Mr. Comito, we are about to make a bad showing.'
+
+"'Why?' I asked.
+
+"'Because I have not enough money to pay the fares of all of us.'
+
+"'Why pay for all?'
+
+"'Because they are my friends, and my godfather. Then, too, you saw
+how they worked.'
+
+"'But they could have remained in New York.'
+
+"'No. They will help put up the press, etc.'
+
+"'This is just a circumstance,' explained Cecala. 'I imagined that
+Cina had money to spare, but he has forgotten his pocketbook. We are
+short five dollars.'
+
+"Not knowing what to do about it, I remained silent. After a while
+Cecala turned to Caterina and inquired: 'Mrs., have you any money with
+you?'
+
+"'I have just five dollars,' Caterina replied innocently.
+
+"'Well, give it to me because I need it. I will give it back
+to-morrow, as soon as I get to the house,' suggested the bandit.
+
+"Caterina stepped aside and produced a five-dollar bill from her
+stocking where she had hidden it for an emergency.
+
+"I took Caterina aside and asked her why she had given the money to
+Cecala. She said it would be all right, that she would get it back
+to-morrow. I did not talk any more. I took a rest on a lounge, until
+about nine o'clock, when I heard the boat's whistle. It was the signal
+of our approaching a dock. I jumped up, thinking I was at
+Philadelphia, and woke Caterina. I was surprised when Cecala informed
+me that Philadelphia was a little farther on, and that we would get
+off at the next stop. Making further inquiries as to the location of
+Philadelphia, I was informed in a very brutal manner by Cina that he
+did not know when the boat would arrive, but he guessed about one
+o'clock. Right then and there it dawned on me that I was not dealing
+with honest people, but with a dangerous pack who were probably trying
+to get me into a trap.
+
+"When Caterina heard that we would not arrive until one A. M., she
+spoke cross to me and said that if any harm came to her I was
+responsible. I consoled her as well as I could and resumed my rest on
+the lounge.
+
+"It was about half-past twelve that night when a long, resounding toot
+that echoed in the mountains announced our arrival at a stopping
+place. When the deck hand announced the name of the place, which did
+not sound very much like Philadelphia, I asked Cecala whether we
+should go ashore here.
+
+"He said yes.
+
+"It was a freezing cold night. There was snow on the ground. Caterina
+and I were chilled to the bone and very nervous.
+
+"'We will all stop at my godfather's for the night, and, if necessary,
+for a day or so until we are rested,' announced Cecala. 'From there we
+will continue our trip to Philadelphia, which is one station beyond
+this place. We will do the rest of the journey by wagon.
+
+"'This is Highland,[1] New York,' said Cecala, when I inquired the
+name of the place.
+
+"After a short wait in the dark near the dock we heard a wagon rushing
+up at top speed. It was driven by a man whom Cecala introduced me to
+as another godfather of his who was named Vincenzio Giglio. Cina and
+Giglio are brothers-in-law and own the place where I was to stop that
+night, Cecala told me.
+
+"We arrived at Cina's house and found a table prepared for dinner.
+While Cina invited Caterina and me to sit down, the wives of Cina and
+Giglio brought on stuffed chickens, young goats meat, baked potatoes,
+wine. The dessert was of cheese, apples and pears, raised, Cina said,
+on the premises.
+
+"My furniture was placed in a house near that of Cina and I was left
+there to live with Caterina on scanty fare and without money until, as
+Cecala told me, the printing shop would be in readiness. I was told to
+have my mail directed at the box in Highland, New York, where Cina had
+his mail sent. There were five little children playing about in the
+Cina house. I heard Cecala tell Cina to make out a list of food-stuffs
+needed saying that he would see Ignazio (Lupo) and have him ship it up
+to the farm.
+
+"Cecala then took his departure to look after his business as a
+'Singer Sewing Machine Inspector.'"
+
+For three days after arriving at Cina's, Comito says, he and Caterina
+ate at Cina's table. They were waiting for the supplies to arrive
+from Lupo, and which Comito and Caterina were to eat at their own
+table. Concerning this time Comito says:
+
+"In the three following days, Caterina and I ate at Cina's table while
+we were waiting for supplies. The conversation was about nothing but
+homicides, assassinations, and robberies. At times I thought my hair
+would stand on end, but I tried my best to appear unconcerned even
+when Caterina glanced at me in dismay.
+
+"On a certain cold and rainy day, I shall never forget, while we were
+all huddled around the stove, Cina began to spin his yarns and
+boasted, among other exploits, that he had been a trusted man of the
+notorious bandit Varsalona. In this way Cina had became implicated in
+the murder of a school teacher in his native town, Bevona, in the
+province of Girgenta, Sicily, and had been obliged to flee the country
+and make his way to America. Cina also remarked that he was married in
+Tampa, Florida, where he had worked for seven years as a cigar maker.
+He married the sister of his intimate friend Giglio.
+
+"As we were about to go to bed that night I told Caterina that we had
+better plan to get back to New York somehow. There was no longer any
+doubt in my mind but that we were in the hands of confirmed criminals.
+
+"'How about the fare?' answered Caterina. 'I have no money at present.
+If you want money ask godfather Cina.'
+
+"I did not sleep a wink that night. I was blaming myself for having
+induced Caterina to come along. In the morning I hurried over to talk
+to Cecala to make arrangements for our return to New York, but to my
+surprise Giglio informed me that Cecala and Don Pasquale had gone the
+night before to New York.
+
+"I complained to Giglio of the manner in which Cecala had left me
+behind with Caterina without money or return fare to New York.
+
+"With apparent good grace Giglio replied that I should have a little
+patience and wait until Cecala returned.
+
+"'Think of eating and drinking. Don't worry. Enjoy yourself,' he said
+with a grin.
+
+"The manner of Giglio's talk quieted me a little and calmed my nerves;
+he also said that when it was not raining I could go about the farm to
+see what was cultivated and could roam around and forget about
+returning to New York.
+
+"Caterina and I had to worry along in that godforsaken place until
+December 7, 1908, when I was informed that we would be moved to the
+printing shop. A wagon was coming for our furniture at three o'clock
+in the morning."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] Highland is about seven miles from Ardonia, New York, where the
+reader will remember I had discovered Lupo was in hiding after he ran
+away from his creditors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE PLANT OF THE COUNTERFEITERS
+
+
+"And a truck did come about three A. M., December 8, 1908. Along with
+us came Giglio and another man named Bernardo, a man with a ruddy
+complexion and a large mouth. We crossed through the village and after
+about two and a half hours' ride arrived in front of an old, deserted
+stone house situated in the woods, off the road about twenty paces.
+Bernardo said laughingly:
+
+"'Here is the printing shop. Don't you like it?'
+
+"'No,' I replied.
+
+"'Tell that to Cecala when he comes,' said Cina.
+
+"'But this is no place for a printing shop,' I continued, Caterina
+watching me with glaring eyes.
+
+"'Come, don't lose time,' roared Cina. 'Unload the stuff before some
+one comes along and we are seen.'
+
+"'I will go back with Caterina.'
+
+"'Where to?' inquired Cina.
+
+"'To the house where I was; then to New York.'
+
+"'The house where you were is rented to a party coming from New York.
+You cannot stay in my house because there are too many children there.
+When Cecala comes you can speak to him.'
+
+"'But I don't want to stay alone here in the woods.'
+
+"'Have no fear. My brother-in-law and Bernardo will stay with you. And
+then, of whom are you afraid? No one passes on this road except at 10
+A. M., when the letter carrier goes by.'
+
+"By the time this conversation ended my furniture was all inside the
+door. Cina told Giglio to get the stove ready for it was very cold.
+Cina hinted that he was going away soon. Hearing Cina say this, I told
+him I wanted to return to the village.
+
+"'You are crazy,' he said. 'Have you money to pay me for returning
+your goods? Besides, I am not going to the village. I am going six
+miles in the other direction to buy hay for the horses. Cecala may be
+back to-morrow. Talk to him. My brother will bring you stuff to eat.
+So, why worry?'
+
+"Later, I overheard Cina whisper to Giglio:
+
+"'I got close to Caterina, who was in the door-step almost crying, and
+tried to comfort her, saying that when we were left alone we would get
+away.
+
+"'Where is the fare?' Caterina is supposed to have asked him.
+
+"Finally Cina departed. Giglio and Bernardo remained and began to
+arrange the furniture as best they could.
+
+"Calmed of my anger, I went into the house and looked around. I found
+a large room that served as a kitchen and a back room for a store-room
+on the ground floor. Up the stairway and on the second floor I found
+three small rooms and a large room. Another flight of steps led to a
+garret. In the large room on the second floor I saw the press. It had
+been brought there while I was remaining at the farmhouse near Cina's.
+It was the same press I had dickered for. There was a dilapidated bed
+in one of the three small rooms on this floor, which Giglio had fixed
+up the best he could under the circumstances. As I was looking around
+the place I was convinced that I had been led into a trap of some
+kind, but it never entered my head that I had been brought up there
+for the purpose of printing counterfeit money! I thought that perhaps
+they wanted me for printing obscene literature, such as is prohibited
+by law, but on looking closer I did not discover any type, and my mind
+began to get busy trying to figure out what a press without type and
+accessories could be intended for placed in a desolate house in the
+backwoods.
+
+"It must have been about eleven o'clock that morning when I saw a
+short-set man, possibly twenty-five or thirty years old, driving up.
+He was a man of dark complexion with a large moustache, dressed like a
+farmer with big shoes and red handkerchief around his neck, wearing a
+cap 'A la Sicilian.' He proved to be Cina's brother Peppino. He
+entered the house and said that he was bringing the supplies. He set
+down a bag of 100 pounds of potatoes, about forty pounds of flour to
+make bread, a bottle of olive oil, a case of macaroni, olives, smoked
+fish, salt, kerosene, onions and a small form of cheese, as well as
+twenty small cans containing tomato sauce. Unloading this stuff
+without ever uttering a word, the short-set fellow waved his hand at
+Giglio and Bernardo as he started on his way. Before leaving the
+house, though, he uttered the words 'Be careful.'
+
+"Giglio now ordered Caterina to cook, saying that he was hungry.
+Caterina, realizing that she had to deal with bad people, prepared a
+meal. Four days went by and on the fifth Giglio and Bernardo left,
+saying that they were going to get something to eat as the provisions
+brought by Peppino could not last much longer. We were then living on
+baked potatoes and plain bread.
+
+"I remained alone with Caterina in that isolated house for two days
+without seeing any one. It was snowing. I could not go out. Those days
+passed like so many years. Caterina was taken ill with a fever. I
+almost despaired. Where could I go for help? I knew no one and there
+was no house nearby. During those awful days suicide was continually
+in my mind. Then again the thought would come to me--why should you?
+What for? Why abandon my wife, my parents, my relatives? No, I
+reflected, better fight it out to the end and see what those bandits
+have up their sleeve.
+
+"On the morning of December 15, 1908, it was snowing large flakes and
+it was bitter cold. There came a knock on the door. Cecala and Cina
+entered. Both of them laughed boisterously when they saw me.
+
+"This angered me, and I declared that I was not to be treated any
+longer as if I were a child.
+
+"'Very well,' said Cecala. 'If you were a child you would never do for
+us. We are dealing with you because we know that you are a serious and
+intelligent fellow, otherwise ... well, don't shout when you talk to
+us. You must calm yourself because you are dealing with gentlemen and
+not with villains.'
+
+"'I know that; but your actions are not those of gentlemen.'
+
+"'When you know more then you will not talk so much,' said Cecala in a
+low tone.
+
+"Caterina had heard voices and was coming downstairs:
+
+"'Mr. Cecala,' she said, 'it is necessary that I go to New York
+because I am ill and feverish. Give me the fare and I will go.'
+
+"'In this weather?' asked Cecala.
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'When?'
+
+"'To-day.'
+
+"'Go away; I have no money.'
+
+"'You have no money? Give me back the five dollars that I gave you on
+the boat.'
+
+"'I have only two dollars, which I need very much.'
+
+"'You do not consider me sick?'
+
+"'Surely I do. So much that we have brought a chicken to cook.'
+
+"'I don't cook because I am not well, and I am cold,' promptly assured
+Caterina.
+
+"'Madame,' continued Cecala with mock courtesy, 'be happy in the
+thought that in a month from now we will all be rich. All these queer
+ideas will pass from your mind then. Go ahead and cook. Here is the
+stuff. From to-morrow on you will not be alone. You will have company,
+and you will be happy.'
+
+"Cecala now turned abruptly to me saying in a sinister tone of voice:
+'Don Antonio, come upstairs. I have news for you.'
+
+"We entered the large room where the press was standing. Cecala took a
+package from his coat pocket. 'Here is the work that we must execute.
+We must print counterfeit money!' His rat-like eyes froze me to the
+spot. 'Here are the plates. Compare them with the original. Without
+any one knowing it we will soon be rich. The money that is to be
+counterfeited is the Canadian five-dollar note. Already I have several
+requests, and if we can do perfect work we will print a million. I
+have brought with me one hundred thousand sheets of paper of four
+qualities and different sizes so that we could choose the best grade
+from the lot. The Canadian is not hard to counterfeit because there is
+no silk in it like in the American money. I am sure that we will
+succeed. As to buying the inks, have no fear. In fact, I have already
+bought the inks, and will consult with you in choosing the right kind
+for this work. No one will come here except our own people. It is just
+as well that Caterina remain here. If a stranger should pass and see
+the lady he would imagine that there is a family living in the house
+and that would not rouse suspicion. So the lady had better stay.'
+
+"I drew a deep breath. I saw the trap closing around me. As calmly as
+I could I replied:
+
+"'This is not my work. I do not even know how to prepare the press.'
+
+"'Do not begin to find excuses,' barked Cecala. 'This work must be
+done. You will leave here when I tell you that there is no more need
+of you. Not before.'
+
+"'But this is very difficult work. It is out of my line,' I ventured.
+
+"'No matter. If you are a printer you know how to do it. I will assist
+you. Look at these plates. See whether they are all well made.'
+
+"I looked at the plates and said I could not distinguish which was
+which. I saw five pieces of zinc engraved on either side of which was
+the 'Bank of Montreal--Canada. Five-dollar note.' The pieces were
+separate, according to the colors; that is, two large plates for the
+green side, and one black; on the face was a large 'V' printed in the
+center, and on the light green the seal in a violet color. The serial
+numbers were in red.
+
+"I explained that there were several things required before any
+printing could be done.
+
+"Cecala now grabbed me by the shoulders and fairly hissed these words
+at me:
+
+"'Don Antonio, you are the person who must execute this work under my
+direction and the guidance of some one else that you will know in the
+future. _Your life would be lost if you should reveal our secret to
+any one._ We are twenty men banded together in this affair, and we
+will respect you as one of us. Caterina will be respected as well, and
+when we are done we will give her a sum of money to go to Italy; but
+you must remain with our society for life. We will provide for you and
+better your condition, and that of your family, without ever revealing
+to your parents the secret. If you want to write to your brother in
+New York and your aunt be careful to say that you are working for a
+priest in Philadelphia telling them that the address is a village near
+Philadelphia. When you wish to come to New York I must know about it.
+I will send your fare and tell you where to find me so that I can give
+you the return fare. Courageous persons will help you and guard you in
+case there should be some spy on the trail. No one will come to this
+place, because the land about the house is our property, and it would
+be hard for detectives to discover us without some one taking them
+here. This place is not suspected. The money printed here is to be
+changed in Canada. No one can suppose that it is printed in this
+little village. Without offering any excuses you must do this work.
+Knowing that you are a serious man I talk to you with frankness.
+During the time that you remain here you will lack nothing to eat, but
+you must bear in mind that we are not big capitalists yet, and until
+we make some money you must suffer a little.'
+
+"The voice of the 'Black-Hand' Society had spoken. I was the unwilling
+tool. To refuse meant death. So I resolved to play my part as well as
+I could and merely answered that I would do what they asked but not to
+expect perfect work as I was not a practical plate printer, and had
+never seen counterfeit money before nor printed it.
+
+"Caterina now called us downstairs to eat. At table Cina told Caterina
+to abandon the idea of returning to New York. He told her that she was
+to remain and cook for the people that would come, that she would be
+paid for her work. Caterina made no answer to this.
+
+"Afterwards I went upstairs with Cina and Cecala and began to set up
+the press in the large room near a window that faced the road, Cecala
+remarking that there was need of light.
+
+"Then, after a sinister pause, Cecala began to tackle me again with a
+speech:
+
+"'Don Antonio, I also have American two-dollar plates, but they need
+retouching. Some of the lines of the black are not precise. We will
+print twenty thousand dollars of the Canadian money in five-dollar
+notes, and then fifty thousand of these two-dollar United States
+notes.' Saying this Cecala showed me the plates, which he took from
+his coat pocket. He made me examine them and I observed that they were
+of check letter A, plate number 1111. He wrapped them up in a cloth
+and put them in his coat pocket, saying that he would return them when
+he brought the inks. The plates for the two-dollar bills were in three
+pieces; that is, the green side, the face or black side, and the seal
+and counter of dark blue.
+
+"That night Cina and Cecala slept in the house. In the morning they
+went off at a very early hour leaving me alone and promising to return
+in a few days. On the morning of December 20th, 1908, Cecala and
+Giglio returned in company with another man, a Sicilian, and dressed
+like one. The stranger took from a bag the wood blocks that were
+needed for the plates which Cecala had had retouched. The stranger was
+presented to me as Uncle Vincent. Cecala then told Caterina to prepare
+a meal as Uncle had traveled all night and was cold and hungry.
+
+"We went upstairs to mount the plates on the blocks. Cecala put them
+in the chase, and, like an experienced man, made the press ready for
+the green side of the counterfeit money. Cecala also prepared the
+green ink and then made me print a proof to see whether the work was
+correct. We worked that day in making proofs because we could not get
+the right shade of green. Finally, we mixed in a little yellow and hit
+the right shade of green for the Canadian note. It was necessary,
+however, to let the ink dry in order to see whether the shade was
+exactly right. That day the whole conversation was of getting rich.
+Millions were to come to each of us. They went so far as to figure out
+just what would be the share of each at the end of the month, selling
+the stuff at 35 cents on the dollar. All were as happy as lords. All
+except Caterina and I.
+
+"At about 4 P. M. Cecala took four of the five-dollar note proofs,
+those which were most like the genuine, and left for New York together
+with Cina saying that he had to show them to persons more competent.
+This left Giglio and Uncle Vincent with me.
+
+"On December 23, Cina came to the house bringing a wagon load of coal
+and after unloading it told me that he received a letter from New York
+calling for other proofs but darker in shade. I mixed up some more
+ink, and after running off the proofs I handed them to Cina, who took
+them away with him. After about eight days I had received no notice of
+printing or of the proofs when on January 2, 1909, Cecala and Cina
+suddenly returned and ordered that the work proceed. The notes were to
+be printed in the last shade of ink that Cecala had prepared. No more
+proofs were to be sent to New York, Cecala said, because it was very
+dangerous. One of the gang might be picked up and the notes found on
+him. They told me to go by the genuine note for shade and that when I
+struck off a proof to show it to Uncle Vincent, who was very
+proficient.
+
+"They told me to hurry and to work fast. They needed the two-dollar
+notes badly because Cecala had received an order from a Brooklyn
+banker for $50,000 counterfeit money. After they were through talking
+and gossiping I turned to Cecala and said:
+
+"'Mr. Cecala, on the fifth instant I must go to New York to attend a
+meeting of the Grand Court of the Foresters of America, for the annual
+installation of officers takes place on that night. I must necessarily
+attend because I am an officer and you will, of course, provide my
+fare.'
+
+"'What do you care for the society?' sneered Cecala. 'We are in so
+much need of you, and you are finding new excuses. Leave these things
+go and work.'
+
+"'I must attend.'
+
+"'Well, I will send your fare from New York. In case I do not come
+back, see me at 92 East Fourth Street, fourth floor.'
+
+"While this conversation was taking place Giglio and Uncle Vincent had
+picked out the paper stock of which four thousand sheets were counted
+out. Cecala, assisted by me, made the press ready. Experiments were
+made to see if the impression was right. After Cecala had got
+everything in readiness he told Uncle Vincent to ink the press from
+time to time as there was no fountain on it. I fed the press by
+putting the sheets in and taking them out as they were printed. Giglio
+would take the printed sheets and spread them out in the garret to
+dry.
+
+"At 2 P. M., on January 4th, 1909, the green impressions were
+completed on the Canadian notes. Not seeing any one appear with the
+fare to New York I gave my watch to Giglio and begged him to go to his
+brother-in-law and sell it. Returning the next morning Giglio handed
+me one dollar and a half, and said that I was to go on the 2 P. M.
+train. His brother-in-law, Cina, would come with the horse and
+carriage and accompany me to the station.
+
+"About noon Cina came. Caterina said she did not want to be left alone
+with two strange men, and asked to be taken to Cina's family until I
+returned. This was agreed to and Cina left her at his house and took
+me to the Poughkeepsie station. I arrived in New York at 5 P. M. and
+met Cecala at the station; he feigned surprise at seeing me. He
+excused himself for not sending me the fare and explained that he had
+no money.
+
+"Cecala conducted me to Thirty-ninth Street and First Avenue where he
+introduced me to a certain Giovanni Pecoraro, a wine merchant. He
+invited me to eat some salame cheese and fruit. We drank some wine,
+and then Pecoraro told me to return to this store and get two bottles
+of liquor, which I was to take to Highland on my way back to the
+plant.
+
+"Coming out of the store, Cecala led me to a house in the same street
+near Avenue A where there were six men in a room playing cards. Cecala
+called one of them aside--a young man about thirty, and requested him
+to give five dollars to me. This young man, whom Cecala called
+Salvatore, responded readily and gave me the money as I was leaving.
+Cecala now accompanied me to the meeting room of the Foresters of
+America. He told me that at 11 P. M. he would call for me and
+accompany me to the station, and that I was not to stop over night nor
+see any of my relatives.
+
+"After the meeting I found Cecala and Pecoraro waiting outside for me.
+They made me get on a car and go to Pecoraro's store, where I was
+given three bottles of liquor and some salame wrapped in one package.
+They accompanied me to Hoboken where, at 3 A. M. on January 6, 1909,
+I boarded the train for Highland. Arriving there, I found Cina's
+brother, Peppino, waiting with a carriage. I got into the vehicle and
+he brought me to the stone house, that is, the counterfeiting plant.
+The reader will observe that I was shadowed by the 'Black-Handers'
+every step of the way. It would have been impossible for me to make a
+break-away without courting death. During the month of January, 1909,
+the work of counterfeiting at the farmhouse proceeded without
+interruption. From time to time Cina would show up with potatoes and
+flour. He would examine the work, help for an hour or so spreading the
+money on the floor to dry, and then return to his farm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE COW THAT CAUSED A DOUBLE MURDER
+
+
+"One day while we were at work on the counterfeit money, Uncle Vincent
+told me that he had been a cattle raiser in his home town. He was out
+on a farm where he saw a yoke of oxen, which he wanted to purchase.
+One of the men who owned the oxen, while arguing about the price, said
+something offensive to Uncle. Without saying a word Uncle aimed his
+rifle and shot the man in the chest, killing him instantly. The other
+man ran away. He was overtaken by a rifle shot and knocked dead about
+fifty paces away from the first man.
+
+"With a double murder on his conscience Uncle Vincent cast about for a
+get-away. As he was short of money he searched the first man that he
+had murdered and took from him two hundred and fifty lire. Returning
+to town Uncle wrote a long letter to his family notifying them of
+what happened and took a train for Palermo. There he contracted with a
+sail-boat man who landed him at Tunis in Africa. There he found means
+to get his fare and went to Tokio, Japan. In Tokio he could not find
+work, was forced to steal in order to live, and when he had
+accumulated some money he went to Liverpool. He lived in Liverpool
+about a year where he existed by theft the same as in Japan. In March,
+1902, he left Liverpool for New Orleans. When in America, he said, he
+did not lose heart because he knew many friends, _and they had to help
+him_, he said. And he uttered these words with the saturnine
+confidence of the established 'Black-Hander.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SOCIETY
+
+
+"'How could you manage in so many different places without knowing the
+language?' I inquired, not quite knowing the ramifications of the
+Mafia.
+
+"'I found Italians everywhere, and would get directions from them
+until I found some _friends_.' He spoke the last word significantly.
+
+"'Did you understand English then?'
+
+"'Did not even dream of it.'
+
+"'Have you worked while you have been in America?'
+
+"'Never,' grinned Uncle Vincent. 'Neither do I expect to work. If I
+knew the man who invented work, and met him, I would kill him.'
+
+"'What do you do to live?'
+
+"'You are too young to know certain things,' he explained with a
+veiled glance. 'When you have become well interested in the affairs of
+our society you will know _how to live without work_.'
+
+"'Then you belong to some society which gives you money?' I inquired,
+feigning stupidity.
+
+"'Yes, but not like _your_ societies. When you leave your societies
+and join ours you will feel better.'
+
+"'And what is the price of initiation?'
+
+"'Nothing.'
+
+"'How will I be admitted then?'
+
+"'We must try you with a courageous deed requiring secrecy.'
+
+"'And what is this society of yours called?' I asked.
+
+"'It has no name.'
+
+"'Is it a mutual aid society?'
+
+"'No.'
+
+"'Where are its headquarters?'
+
+"'In all parts of the world.'
+
+"'In Italy?'
+
+"'Yes, in Italy.'
+
+"'Then it must be the Masons?'
+
+"'What, the Masons? Pooh-pooh! my friend. _Ours_ is a society that
+_never ends_ and is bigger than the Masons.'
+
+"'And when will you allow me to enter?'
+
+"'I must school you first,' he grumbled, eyeing me suspiciously. 'And
+when you become known to the heads, and are respected, then we will
+christen you.'
+
+"'You will christen me?' I exclaimed.
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'How is that? I have already been baptized in the Roman Catholic
+religion, and now you would baptize me again?'
+
+"'Certainly!' he grinned. 'But it is not a matter of religion. You are
+christened into the society. We give you a title that you will bear in
+secret, a title that will make you obeyed and respected in all parts
+of the world.'
+
+"'I am curious to attend a meeting of your society.'
+
+"'In time you will attend; but first, I would have to ask the
+superiors.'
+
+"At this moment I was called by Caterina and the discussion ended. I
+had absorbed enough to surmise about the vast, hidden power of the
+'Black-Hand' menace reaching as it does with arms steeped in gore all
+around the globe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MEETING THE ARCH-BANDIT
+
+
+"At the end of January the Canadian five-dollar notes were completed
+and cut the size of the genuine. After being counted they amounted to
+seventeen thousand five hundred and forty dollars. They were put in an
+empty macaroni box and was nailed up and put away for Cecala, who was
+to have them exchanged for good money to various people whom he knew.
+
+"On February 1st, 1909, not having received any word from New York,
+Giglio left and went to Cina's house to inquire the cause of the long
+silence. Next day Giglio returned, accompanied by Cecala and Cina, and
+fixed the press to print the two-dollar notes, check letter A, and
+plate number 1111. Having prepared the press Cecala and I fixed some
+green ink, but after several attempts to imitate the genuine Cecala
+decided we could not do it. That night Cecala gave me five dollars
+and told me that on February 4 I was to go to New York. I was to go to
+his house and there talk with a party who was capable of preparing the
+ink. Then admonishing me not to leave until Cina called for me with a
+carriage, Cecala left with Cina and Giglio.
+
+"On February 4, about eight in the morning, Cina came to the stone
+house with Bernardo, the former to accompany me to the station and the
+latter to remain with Uncle Vincent and Caterina. I arrived in New
+York at noontime and went directly to Cecala's home at No. 92 East
+Fourth Street, where I found his wife who gave me a piece of paper
+after making sure of my identity.
+
+"'My husband is waiting at the address written on the piece of paper,'
+she said. 'Ask for him in the bank on the ground floor.'
+
+"The piece of paper contained this address: '630 East One Hundred and
+Thirty-Eighth Street.'
+
+"Arriving at One Hundred and Thirty-Eighth Street I found the house I
+was seeking and asked for Cecala. A well-dressed man told me that
+Cecala would not return until two o'clock. It was then half after one
+and the man told me to return in a half hour. In the meantime I walked
+over toward the L station thinking I might meet Cecala. I returned to
+the address written on the paper after walking around for about forty
+minutes without seeing Cecala. I was told to take a seat and the
+well-dressed man telephoned to Cecala, who arrived in a few minutes
+and invited me upstairs with him. I went up to a room on the second
+floor and there met two men.
+
+"Cecala introduced me to one of the men who was tall, wrapped up in a
+shawl of brown color, of oval face and high forehead. He had dark
+eyes, an aquiline nose, dark hair, and dark mustache. He appeared to
+be about forty years old. As he was walking about the room I noticed
+particularly that this man had one arm outside the shawl and the other
+hidden beneath the wrap. Could he be hiding a weapon? The other man
+remained seated in a chair. He was about thirty or thirty-five years
+old, of medium build with dark curly hair, sallow complexion. His nose
+was a little flattened, he had a brown mustache, brown eyes, and wore
+a cap 'A la Sicilian.' Cecala introduced the first man as Mr. Morello
+and the second as 'Michele, the Calabrian.'
+
+"Morello bade me make myself comfortable. Then he gave me a piercing
+glance and said slowly:
+
+"'How is it, professor, that you cannot succeed in reaching a color
+like the green on the two-dollar notes?'
+
+"'I told Mr. Cecala from the beginning that this was not in my line of
+work,' I replied.
+
+"'How is it that a printer like you don't know how to mix inks?'
+
+"'I am experienced in composing and printing books, not in printing
+money.'
+
+"'Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!' ejaculated the bandit comprehendingly. 'So, if you
+do not know how to mix the ink the bills cannot be printed?'
+
+"'Certainly not.'
+
+"'Well, we will find a man who knows how to prepare the inks, and I
+advise you to do the printing carefully so that the money can be
+easily exchanged. Save the Canadian notes because they are expensive
+to exchange. And just now we are without money and cannot incur extra
+expenses.'
+
+"'I would rather leave this work and return to New York,' I ventured.
+
+"'You are crazy,' yelled Cecala, who was still present. 'Now that we
+are at it we must complete it. If things go right, we will all be
+rich; but don't think of betraying us because _your life would be
+lost_ if you did. You must never tell any one what you are doing at
+the peril of losing your life. If you get into danger because of the
+secret we will save you.'
+
+"Morello eyed me sarcastically. He shot a menacing side-glance at me
+and uttered this warning in a low voice: 'Suppose you are arrested.
+Well, you must never tell that you know us, because we, remaining on
+the outside, can help you at the cost of losing our property. I advise
+you to be faithful to us. Remember, you are dealing with gentlemen.'
+
+"'I understand that,' I said, feigning respect, 'but I am in great
+danger alone in the woods with the woman, and if I am taken by
+surprise I am ruined.'
+
+"'How? Are you alone? Where is Uncle Vincent? Is he not there?'
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'He alone is enough to keep any one away from the house. Soon there
+will be other people to help you, and keep you company, and bring arms
+and ammunition. The first stranger that is suspected will be killed
+and buried in the woods.'
+
+"Morello spoke this with a saturnine air of unconcern as if he had
+been discussing a smoke or a glass of wine. To this man murder was
+merely an incident to his trade.
+
+"The arch-bandit now turned to Cecala, saying:
+
+"'It would be well to ask Milone (Antonio B.), and see if he is able
+to make the green tint.' Milone is the man who made the plates.
+
+"'Who cares to go to Two Hundred and Thirty-Ninth Street, in the
+Bronx, at this hour?' replied Cecala in disgusted protest. 'It can be
+done to-morrow.'
+
+"'No. It is better that we send Nick (Sylvester) to-night,' said
+Morello with an air of finality that booked no dispute.
+
+"'Do what you think, Piddu.[2] Suppose we arrange to send Don
+Antonio?'
+
+"'Do not let him leave us, though.'
+
+"'I know, and if he has to leave, I will accompany him,' concluded
+Cecala almost in a whisper.
+
+"Cecala now invited me out with him, asked me where did I want to
+sleep, and when I told him at my aunt's, he offered to accompany me
+there.
+
+"As we were about to leave the place Morello turned to Cecala and I
+overheard him say:
+
+"'Nino, I wish you would not have the professor come here any more.
+You know there are detectives following me and as soon as they see a
+suspicious face they arrest him. The other night, as you know, they
+arrested father and son while they were going down the stairs.'
+
+"'I know it,' replied Cecala, 'but what are your suspicions about Don
+Antonio?'
+
+"'Well--er--sometimes you can't tell.'
+
+"The 'Black-Hand' chief dropped into a brief reverie. Maybe he had a
+vague vision of the fate that was to befall him. The other man
+present, Michele, the Calabrian, had not uttered a single word during
+the entire conversation.
+
+"After we had left the house Cecala turned to me and said with bated
+breath:
+
+"'The man you saw with one hand is Giuseppe Morello, the same who was
+implicated in the barrel murder.'
+
+"I did not reply because I did not know of Morello; neither did I know
+of the barrel murder. I only thought that he really had one arm
+because I did not see the other. From time to time Morello had been
+snuffing tobacco.
+
+"'I want you to know all my friends so that you can have an idea with
+whom you are dealing, and don't think they are poor, but all
+landlords,' now confided Cecala. 'Morello is President of the Corleone
+Society (Ignatz Florio) and has in his power four buildings amounting
+to one hundred thousand dollars. The other man you met the last time,
+Pecoraro, is the proprietor of a large wine deposit, and he has more
+property. Giglio and Cina are owners of the estates that you saw. I am
+poor because I did not know how to profit. My profession is that of
+barber. I had a splendid shop, but the business was poor and I sold
+it. Two weeks after I sold the barber shop I got in with Morello and
+opened a grocery store in Mott Street. But after two years I was
+forced into bankruptcy because all the goods were sold on credit and I
+was not paid. Then I opened up two gambling houses, one in Mott
+Street and the other in Elizabeth Street. I was getting along well
+while I fed the police. When I did not want to give them any more they
+began to go against me and forced me to close up.'
+
+"At the moment I could not understand why it should have been
+necessary to 'feed' the police, as he said, not being acquainted with
+the methods here."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] Piddu is the Sicilian diminutive for Giuseppe, the Christian name
+of Morello.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE BLACK-HANDER'S POLICE PROTECTION
+
+
+"'Certainly,' Cecala said. 'In America _everything is prohibited; but
+if you pay the police or detectives they will leave you in peace_. In
+this land money counts, so that if _you kill any one and have money
+you will get out of it_. Morello knows how much money he has given to
+detectives to get out free out of three or four cases in which he was
+implicated. Even now he is supposed to be watched by the police who do
+not care to watch him because they know that they will receive their
+bit. The government always holds him under suspicion as the head of
+the Black-Handers. When anything happens Morello is always in danger
+of arrest, but the same policeman he feeds tips him off and so Morello
+goes into hiding. The police then feign to raid his place, but, of
+course, the man wanted is never there. Now then, my dear Don Antonio,
+that's the way things are done in this country. During the last three
+years I am getting along well in my line: that is, I am the head of a
+band of incendiaries and earn a little money now and then.'
+
+"Cecala was disclosing to me a phase of the under-world life of crime
+and horror of which I knew nothing at the time.
+
+"'And what do you do to earn this money? Do you take the objects that
+you find in the burned houses?' I inquired.
+
+"'No,' sneered Cecala with contempt. 'I set fire to the houses to
+defraud the insurance companies!'
+
+"He said this with the pride of a professional expert.
+
+"'And how do you do it?' I inquired, curious to learn his ways.
+
+"'Well, you own a store and have insured it against fire. You have
+paid up the insurance and do not wish to pay any more, but you want to
+realize on the money already paid in. You will send for me to set a
+fire. In my manner I will develop a fire in an instant. When the
+insurance company pays you the money you pay me a percentage.'
+
+"'Then perhaps you were the one who set the big fire in Mulberry
+Street where so many poor people were burned?'
+
+"'No!' came the quick response. 'I do not set fire to make accidents
+happen. That fire was engineered by a Neapolitan band that were in
+accord with the proprietor of the dry goods store underneath. They did
+not work it right because they started the fire from the side of the
+store and afterwards put explosives on the stairs so that no trace
+would be left. If I had had that job there would have been no trace to
+tell the story, and the damage would have been done from the store
+door. There would not have been so many accidents and the families
+would have had time to run into the yard.'
+
+"'How can you guarantee all this? And what explosive matter do you use
+to start a fire?' I inquired.
+
+"'Glycerine,' mumbled the bandit. 'I mix it with other matters. It
+does not smell and leaves no trace of the fire.'
+
+"'And do you go alone on these jobs?'
+
+"'No. You always need three or four men. I direct them and they bring
+the material. I pay each man five dollars a night.'
+
+"'And these helpers, do they make much money?'
+
+"'Quite some--now and then. They risk their hides. But it is not
+steady work, you know; only on occasions.'
+
+"The train arrived at the station and Cecala indicated a seat separate
+from him so as not to invite suspicion. At Houston Street he signalled
+for me to get off, and when in the street he asked me where my aunt
+lived. When I told him in Bleecker Street he said: 'I will accompany
+you. Let us go to a drug store near by first. I must ask something.'
+
+"We went to Spring Street and entered a drug store with a sign over
+the door spelling the name of 'Antonio Mocito.' Cecala asked a boy in
+the store where the druggist might be and the boy replied that he was
+out. Cecala told the boy to inform the druggist that he, Cecala, had
+been there and to prepare 'that matter.'
+
+"'I put this druggist right!' boasted Cecala in a low voice. 'He had a
+drug store and did a little business. I suggested to him that he
+insure the store against fire. After he had paid up for a little
+while, I put fire to it and the company paid him three thousand
+dollars with which he put up this new store. So you see, he was
+saved!'
+
+"On the way to my aunt's house Cecala made many suggestions to me
+warning me that I was to tell my aunt nothing. He told me to meet him
+at his home at six o'clock the next morning. This was at 6 P. M.
+
+"I leave it to the reader's imagination to picture the condition of
+mind I was in after learning of the kind of 'gentlemen' I was obliged
+to deal with. I had been caught in a trap set by a band of
+incendiaries and Black-Handers enjoying police protection. What good
+would it have done me to go to the police about it? What could anybody
+in my position do under the circumstances? I thought it would be
+better to keep silent and save my life until I had occasion to
+denounce the gang. I was secretly awaiting this opportunity without
+their knowledge. Then, again, how could I proceed against them without
+witnesses?
+
+"The thought that afflicted me with most concern was the fate of the
+lady. I realized that her consent to my desire had caused her to be
+mixed up with bad people. I also realized that if we were discovered
+by the police, Caterina and I would be the only ones to suffer
+because we were alone and without any help from any one and penniless.
+
+"I summoned all the courage I could muster. I always appeared to be
+contented with the orders that were given me, and I executed them
+without finding the least objection.
+
+"I was daily afflicted by the life I was leading, and was continually
+disturbed in my mind because I saw that I had not one penny, and when
+I asked for money I was bluntly refused. It also worried me to think
+that my family believed I was working and making money without sending
+any home. Time and again I planned to run away, but how? Where would I
+go? I would have to abandon all my things and be left out in the
+street. And who would help me? A penniless stranger.
+
+"On the morning of February 5, 1909, it was snowing and very cold when
+I went to the home of Cecala at the appointed hour. He invited me to
+sit down and his wife served me with coffee. I saw his five children,
+quite sympathetic children, three girls and two boys. In looking at
+them I was seized by remorse to think that these innocent children as
+the offspring of a criminal would probably be converted into criminals
+also in time. Cecala told me brusquely that we would have to leave on
+the ten o'clock train in spite of the snow.
+
+"'When we arrive at Highland there will be no one about the station,
+and we will arouse no suspicion,' explained Cecala.
+
+"'Have you found the man to prepare the ink?' I asked.
+
+"'Yes. He is coming with us. Here is a dollar. Go to your aunt and
+meet us at the Grand Central Station. I am going to Don Piddu's
+(Morello's) to get other inks that were bought last night. But now
+that I think about it, meet me at the Brooklyn Bridge and you will buy
+some green ink, because they would not sell it to me. Say you are a
+printer and refer them to the shop where you were working.'
+
+"'And if they object, what shall I reply?'
+
+"'I will understand.'
+
+"'And what kind of ink is it necessary to buy?'
+
+"'The kind we need are marked in the catalogue.'
+
+"'And who has marked them?'
+
+"'A professor who has done other work for me and is very practical at
+his work. If necessary, he will come and work together with you.'
+
+"Cecala took me to a store on Rose Street where he employed sign
+language to explain the kind of ink he wanted. A young lady asked
+questions in English which I could not answer. Cecala then interrupted
+and tried to act as interpreter. I was confused for a moment. Then I
+took out a bill head with my name on it which I had used while I acted
+as solicitor for work in an Italian printing shop in Mott Street. The
+young lady read it, and after about twenty minutes she returned,
+giving me three cans of ink and the bill, which Cecala paid.
+
+"Cecala now directed me to go to my aunt's place before meeting him at
+the Grand Central Station in time for the ten o'clock train. There I
+met the man who was to assist me in printing the counterfeit bills.
+The reader may now appreciate the sagacity of Cecala in leaving me
+after coming out of the ink store. It gave him the advantage to meet
+the mysterious man who was to help in the mixing of the inks, and it
+also gave him a chance to throw anybody off the trail if there were
+detectives following.
+
+"At the Grand Central Station we met the man with the camera. Cecala
+bought three tickets for Poughkeepsie. Arriving there we found Cina
+waiting for us with a closed carriage. He drove to another station and
+then to a ferry where we went across the river to Highland and from
+there to the clandestine factory. Supper was waiting for us there, and
+we rested till the next morning to start work. During the evening,
+Cecala, Cina, Uncle Vincent and the other man played cards while
+Bernardo and I chopped wood for the stove.
+
+"On the morning of February 6, 1909, we got the press ready. The man
+whose name I had not yet been given mixed the ink. After taking some
+proofs the right shade of green was developed. The unnamed man then
+explained to me that by mixing black and yellow I would obtain an
+olive green, and by mixing this color with the clear green in the cans
+which were brought up from New York, the right shade of green, just
+like the genuine money color, would be obtained. He explained this so
+that I could mix up more in case the ink he had mixed would not be
+sufficient to print the ten thousand sheets of the two-dollar bills,
+which would make twenty thousand dollars in counterfeit money. Then
+he measured the genuine note and marked where the seal was to be
+printed. He also prepared the blue shade of ink for this impression.
+He advised me to pay close attention to the black.
+
+"We were alone in the room while he was instructing me, and I told him
+that I had little faith in Cecala and his companions because they did
+not give me any money, and made me remain without a penny after having
+worked a long time. He told me that I ought to be contented, for I was
+dealing with gentlemen. In olden times, he said, men in that line of
+work, when the work had been done, would _assassinate_ the one doing
+the very work I was doing. _The man was murdered_, he explained to me,
+_so that the counterfeiters would not be discovered_ and the secret
+revealed to the police.
+
+"'Is there any danger of my being assassinated after completing this
+work?' I asked.
+
+"'No,' he said, 'there is no danger. You are dealing with good
+people.'
+
+"After he was through with his work he wanted to see how the printing
+progressed and how many an hour were struck off. He was trying to
+figure whether the work could be completed in fifteen days.
+
+"We worked at the press until about 4 P. M., when there were over
+three thousand sheets printed on one side. This progress seemed to
+satisfy the photographer and ink mixer. At about 4:30 P. M., Cina,
+Cecala and Bernardo went away with the stranger, leaving Uncle Vincent
+behind with me. Before leaving, Cecala said that Giglio would come
+next morning to help and, if necessary, Bernardo would return also.
+Cecala said that when the green side of the printing was completed,
+and I saw that a change in the ink was necessary, I was to leave the
+plant and meet him in New York. Hereupon Uncle Vincent declared that
+it was necessary to have Bernardo present in order that some one could
+be watching outside the stone house and keep an eye out for strangers.
+Cecala consented, and Bernardo remained with us to do sentinel duty.
+Next morning Giglio came, and he and Uncle Vincent and myself worked
+on without interruption. Bernardo, armed with a revolver and a rifle,
+remained on the outside, having received orders from Uncle Vincent to
+fire a shot into the air in the event of strangers appearing. This
+was to be the signal for us.
+
+"On February 9, 1909, the press was ready for the seal. In the morning
+Cina handed me a note from Cecala and a letter from my aunt. Cecala's
+note requested me to remain in the house and not come to New York if
+there was no urgent need of it. My aunt's note informed me that my
+brother was about to be operated upon. I lost no time getting into my
+street clothes. I prevailed on Cina to show me the way to the station,
+where I boarded a train for New York.
+
+"My first move was to see Cecala and get some money from him, but I
+did not find him at his home. Then I went to Morello's home in One
+Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street. Mrs. Morello told me that her
+husband was not at home, nor did she seem to know where Cecala could
+be found. I hurried to my brother's house, got there just as he was
+being removed in an ambulance to the Italian Hospital in Houston
+Street. I was without a penny and felt very miserable to think that I
+could not help at this moment.
+
+"After going with my brother to the hospital I went to Cecala's house.
+He seemed much surprised that I should have come to New York without
+first consulting him. However, when I explained the circumstances,
+Cecala approved of my action, but said that he had no money, only two
+dollars for the return fare. He assured me, though, that he would see
+to it that my brother was put in a private ward. This would be an easy
+matter, Cecala said, because he was well acquainted with several of
+the doctors at the Italian Hospital. He advised me to leave for the
+plant as soon as possible, saying that he had many requests for the
+counterfeit money and the customers were waiting for him to fill the
+orders.
+
+"I was always obedient to the orders of the gang, and so after going
+to my brother's house and trying to console his wife by assuring her
+that I had arranged to have a private room for him at the hospital, I
+left for Highland on the 11:40 P. M. train. It was very cold when I
+arrived at the little station on the Hudson, and I was almost frozen
+stiff trying to find Cina's house in the darkness. I stopped at Cina's
+house until the next morning when I was taken in his wagon to the
+stone house."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A KNOCK AT THE DOOR AT 2 A. M.
+
+
+"About two o'clock on the night of February 12, 1909, there was a
+knock at the door of the stone house. Uncle Vincent jumped out of bed
+and grabbed his rifle. Uncle was quite pale. Bernardo and Giglio armed
+themselves with revolvers. I noticed they were trembling. I went down
+to the door without a light and asked:
+
+"'Who is it?'
+
+"'We,' replied a feminine voice.
+
+"'Who are you?'
+
+"'Open the door, professor.'
+
+"Hereupon Uncle Vincent hurried downstairs and said:
+
+"'Ignazio has come.'
+
+"Bernardo and Giglio lighted a lamp and opened the door. A well
+dressed man wearing a fur overcoat and a fur cap, a man about thirty
+years old, ran toward Uncle Vincent and embraced him, kissing him on
+the cheeks.
+
+"Following Ignazio (Lupo), came Cecala, Sylvester, Cina and an elderly
+man who had gray hair and moustache, a man of more than fifty years
+old, elegantly dressed, and wearing a gold watch and chain and a large
+diamond ring. After Cecala had introduced me to Ignazio Lupo and the
+elderly man, named Uncle Salvatore, they requested Caterina to get up
+and prepare a meal, as the early morning visitors were hungry and had
+brought meat and wine. The new arrivals were very courteous to
+Caterina, especially Lupo, who appeared to be a man of great
+politeness.
+
+"Lupo talked some with Caterina and asked her if she liked the place,
+to which Caterina answered that it was cold in the house and that she
+suffered from hunger. Lupo assured her that he would see that we were
+provided for amply hereafter, and wrote down on a piece of paper what
+Caterina suggested in the way of food-stuffs. Lupo then instructed
+Sylvester to take the note down to New York to Mrs. Lupo, who would
+have the goods shipped up to Highland. We never saw the goods, though!
+
+"While Caterina was frying about six pounds of meat, Cecala and Cina
+unloaded two large grips and several bundles. Lupo opened the valise
+and removed two repeating rifles, two revolvers and four boxes of
+cartridges. There were about one thousand rounds of ammunition. Lupo
+then instructed all the gang in the use of the rifles and the
+revolvers, which, he said, would shoot about fifteen shots a minute.
+All present complimented Lupo on his foresight, declaring that the
+weapons were just the thing. After a little more talk about the arms
+every one sat down to eat, except I and Caterina. There were no chairs
+left for us. We acted as waiters, serving the 'lords' of the gang!
+
+"They were eating and drinking joyfully when Uncle Vincent turned to
+Lupo and said:
+
+"'What news are you bringing, Ignazio?'
+
+"'You all know the news. Besides, Petrosino[3] has gone to Italy.'
+
+"'If he went to Italy, he is as good as dead,' said Uncle Vincent.
+
+"'I hope they get him,' was the pious wish of Cina.
+
+"'He has ruined many of us,' went on Lupo. 'It is enough to say that
+he had himself locked up in the Tombs Prison to interrogate the
+suspects and uncover crimes.'
+
+"'Many a mother's child he has ruined,' said Uncle Salvatore
+(Palermo), 'and how many are still crying!'
+
+"'What is more,' continued Lupo, 'I have given Michele, the Calabrian,
+his fare to ---- to go and see his family, which was stricken by the
+earthquake.'
+
+"'You have done well,' broke in Cecala, winking an evil eye and making
+a peculiar motion. Doubtless this was a secret sign. He lifted his
+glass and shouted: 'Let's drink our own health and to hell with that
+Carogna!'[4]
+
+"The 'table talk' now turned on other things, such as the exploding of
+bombs by Sylvester, aided by his son and the step-brother of Morello.
+It appeared that they had run away after the bomb had been hurled when
+they were caught and brought before the judge, where they pleaded
+innocence and so escaped the clutches of the law. There was some talk
+of Lupo's business failure for a matter of about $100,000; and mention
+was also made of the failure of a bank in Elizabeth Street, which was
+controlled by Uncle Vincent.
+
+"In spite of his business reverses Lupo was in good humor and sang
+several songs for the company with the bravado of the born bandit. By
+and by the lusty gang went to bed, occupying every bed in the house.
+Caterina and I remained awake. At daylight, Cina, Sylvester and Giglio
+left. The others remained to direct and help in the work.
+
+"After three days of directing the work at the stone house, and trying
+out the guns in the woods together with Uncle Salvatore, Lupo and the
+latter departed. Salvatore remarking that he was going to make his
+home at Cina's house. Their departure left Uncle Vincent, Giglio,
+Bernardo and myself to do the work.
+
+"About the twenty-third or the twenty-fourth of February, I am not
+certain which, I gave to Cina and Cecala the completed work on the
+two-dollar notes, that is: twenty thousand and four hundred dollars in
+counterfeit money. The bills were put up in packages of one hundred
+and bundled into a dress suit case. Then they started to plan the
+route for distributing the bad money. Cecala said that he preferred to
+go to Philadelphia first; then Baltimore, where he had many friends;
+from Baltimore they would cover Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Chicago. The
+counterfeit money, after being placed at each of the centers, was to
+be placed in circulation on a given day, so that the notes would
+appear simultaneously in all the cities.
+
+"They made me take the plates off the press and hide them under a
+plank in the floor together with some ink. Every piece of paper with
+any printing on was burned. Before departing they assured Caterina and
+I that they would return in a week and give us some good money; also,
+they would then tell me whether to continue or suspend the work.
+
+"A very lonesome week in the dreary old stone house followed. On the
+first Sunday in March, 1909, Cina's brother, Peppino, bobbed up. He
+had come to take me to Cina's house where certain people from New York
+wanted to talk with me. He took a boxful of the Canadian five-dollar
+counterfeit bills. The visitors were to determine whether the Canadian
+money was good enough to sell or whether it was to be burned up, so
+he explained.
+
+"Upon hearing this I had a presentiment that the day of my being
+murdered had arrived. Without saying a word to Peppino and Cina, I
+called Caterina aside and told her my fears. I showed her how to use
+the rifle.
+
+"'Caterina,' I said, 'in case I do not return and people come to you
+with any excuse, no matter what, to get you, it is a sure sign that
+they have assassinated me. Then shoot whoever comes after you, or they
+will murder you!'
+
+"The poor woman began to cry, and I had difficulty in composing her.
+Unnoticed by Peppino I managed to steal Uncle Vincent's revolver, and
+put it into my pocket."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino of the Italian Detective Bureau,
+attached to the New York Police Department, was murdered in Palermo,
+Sicily, while on a mission for the Police Department then under the
+guidance of Commissioner Theodore Bingham. Petrosino had been an
+implacable foe of the Lupo-Morello gang. His murder has never been
+explained to the public.
+
+[4] Carogna in the Sicilian dialect means a putrid, dead animal. Among
+the Sicilian criminals the word is used to designate anybody that
+brings harm to any gang of criminals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE BLACK-HANDERS IN SESSION
+
+
+"Upon entering the house, which was close by Cina's farmhouse, I saw a
+table in a room on the ground floor and around this table were seated
+the following bandits: Ignazio Lupo, Giuseppe Morello, Antonio Cecala,
+Uncle Salvatore (Giuseppe Palermo), Uncle Vincent, Vincenzio Giglio,
+Bernardo Perrone, Nicola Sylvester, besides a man from Brooklyn whom
+the gang called Domenico and who was a baker, and five other men whose
+names I did not know. Cina was not there, being occupied with his
+family, where a birth was expected momentarily.
+
+"As I stepped in no one motioned to recognize me nor was my greeting
+returned. Mechanically I took a seat. After about ten minutes of
+sinister silence and ill-boding glances, Cina broke the strain as he
+came rushing in with Peppino, his brother, both of them laughing and
+shouting like madmen.
+
+"'A boy! A boy!' they yelled.
+
+"Cina received the congratulations of the gang. Silence once more
+haunted the room. Then Lupo turned to me abruptly and said:
+
+"'Don Antonio, your work is worthless. It is a rotten job; so much so
+that none of it could be sold. Cina and Cecala have risked their lives
+in trying to sell it. However, they have sold some four thousand
+dollars of the counterfeit money, taking in, all in all, about one
+thousand dollars in genuine money. They have expended about two
+hundred dollars on their trip to different cities distributing our
+product. Therefore, there remains about eight hundred dollars, which
+will be divided among the ones that have advanced the first money. If
+you had turned out a good job we could have taken in more by selling
+it all. As it is about seven or eight thousand dollars have been made
+for the stove.
+
+"'The Canadian money is worthless and must be burned. It cannot be put
+on the market. But this is no fault of yours, in this instance. It is
+the fault of the one who made the plates.
+
+"'Now you watch how the money is divided. _If there is any left_, you
+get it. These men present will not accept a penny of the remainder
+until those who advanced the money have been settled with.'
+
+"'As my work did not turn out well,' I replied to Lupo, 'give me only
+enough to return to New York.'
+
+"'No,' broke in Morello, decisively. 'We don't know yet whether you
+may return to New York or whether you are to continue the work in
+company with another man.'
+
+"'You want money?' asked Lupo. 'Who will give it to you? I have spent
+two hundred dollars and now will take that amount. There will then be
+but six hundred dollars to be divided.'
+
+"'Don't do things all your own way, Ignazio,' Morello warned in his
+husky voice. 'Let us deliberate and argue this thing out. There are
+eight hundred dollars. You have spent two hundred dollars. You get
+seventy-five dollars now. I have spent fifty dollars and will take it
+now, as I need it very much, as you know. Fifty dollars we will give
+to Cina, twenty dollars to Don Antonio, ten to Uncle Salvatore and ten
+more to Uncle Vincent, five to Giglio and five to Bernardo; what is
+left is needed for the continuation of the work with the other
+plates.'
+
+"'And the man who made the plates, don't you want to give him
+anything?' inquired Cecala.
+
+"'Yes,' was the reply in chorus.
+
+"'Well,' turning to me, 'take these twenty dollars,' said Morello,
+'and return to the house. Await there the decision whether you are to
+return to New York or not.'
+
+"I accepted the money and tucked it into my pocket. Then I was driven
+to the stone house in a carriage accompanied by Cina's brother
+Peppino.
+
+"During this session with the gang some of them got busy and started
+to burn up the Canadian five-dollar notes, and a portion of the
+two-dollar American notes. These were the notes returned as worthless
+by the gang. While throwing the notes into the stove Uncle Salvatore
+and Peppino exclaimed from time to time:
+
+"'What a shame. They might all have been sold.'
+
+"Once more at the stone house I explained to Caterina what had
+happened. I told her that they had given me the twenty dollars and
+that I was going to go to New York and not return; of course she was
+to come along with me. But after thinking it over we resolved that our
+appearance was so miserable that we had better remain a while longer.
+There was also the ever-present danger that if we ran away from this
+gang we would be murdered. We abandoned the idea, therefore, and
+stayed at the stone house awaiting the orders of the gang.
+
+"We were not kept waiting long. Next morning, Salvatore Cina came to
+the house in a very happy mood. He told me that I could not return to
+New York because the work was to be continued with other and better
+plates for the two-dollar notes. The five-dollar notes were to be
+continued, and we were to print until five million dollars had been
+struck off the press. This amount, he said, would make us all rich.
+Then the work was to cease. He told me that it had been decided to buy
+a horse and carriage for the exclusive use of the stone house. I was
+to go to New York and meet Cecala who would introduce me to the man
+who was to direct the work from now on. I was to tell Cina the day I
+intended going to New York.
+
+"After arranging that Giglio and Bernardo were to remain with
+Caterina, while I was in New York and Uncle Vincent went to Newburgh
+on business, I said that I would be ready for my trip in two days.
+Then Cina left me after he had warned me not to tell any of the
+secrets of the place, explaining how hard it was for the police to
+discover the plant. He declared I must be happy in the thought of
+future wealth.
+
+"On March 7, 1909, Cina returned to the stone house with a carriage,
+bringing Giglio and Bernardo to keep Caterina company. He drove me to
+the Highland station, and I got aboard the 11 A. M. train for New
+York. Arriving at the Grand Central station I was met by Cecala, who
+took me to a house at No. 5 Jones Street. Not finding the party he was
+seeking there, he told me to go to my aunt's house and return to the
+Jones Street address at eight o'clock that evening and ask for Don
+Peppe.
+
+"That same evening at the appointed hour I went to the Jones Street
+house and inquired in a grocery store on the street floor for Don
+Peppe. A woman indicated to me the door where I knocked. A bald-headed
+man, about forty-five years old, with a nice light brown moustache
+opened the door.
+
+"Cecala was there seated in a chair. He introduced me to the man who
+opened the door saying that he was Giuseppe Calichio, a lithograph
+engraver, alias Don Peppe. Cecala turned to Calichio and said:
+
+"'Don Peppe, we are in need of your work. This man (indicating me) is
+a printer, but he is not capable of doing the work that we require.
+You must go with him and continue this work. It is already started and
+everything will go well. When we have printed two or three million
+dollars' worth we will stop. We are in luck.'
+
+"'Unless we are discovered by the police,' replied Calichio.
+
+"'Have no such fear,' said Cecala. 'The place where the work is done
+is very secure. No one would ever suspect that such a thing is going
+there.'
+
+"'Listen, Cecala,' said Calichio. 'If things happen as they did when I
+did work for you before, then I refuse to go. I do not care to work
+and risk my life and then get nothing for it.'
+
+"'No, no,' said Cecala. 'You know that that work did not turn out at
+all well.'
+
+"'I know nothing other than that you caused me to sell my little
+printing shop, and I am in terrible condition financially even now as
+a result of it. If you want me to do the work you speak about in
+company with brother Comito here, you must give me twenty dollars a
+week and board. I have a family in Italy to look after, don't forget.
+As long as you pay me what I want I am ready to work for you; but I
+must be paid in advance. The first week that you fail to pay me in
+advance I will cease to work and come home. And what is more, my dear
+Cecala, I want good eating and must have wine every day; as you know
+there is not a day that goes by without my drinking wine that I do not
+get a headache. The wine gives me strength and health.'
+
+"Cecala's answer to this was characteristic:
+
+"'Don Peppe, I will do all that is possible to get you twenty dollars
+a week, but I must first talk with the others, my friends, as you know
+that I am not alone in this undertaking. As to the eating, you will
+have all that you want and there will be wine. I will have a barrel of
+it shipped to Highland, direct to Cina, who will see that you get some
+when you want it.'
+
+"'Who is this Cina?' asked Calichio, suspiciously.
+
+"'He is my godfather, whom you will know when you are in Highland,'
+said Cecala.
+
+"'Perhaps he is that farmer whom I saw in Don Piddu's (Morello's)
+house last year?'
+
+"'Precisely,' said Cecala.
+
+"He continued: 'I will bring the first twenty dollars to-morrow.
+To-morrow night you will leave with Comito?'
+
+"'All right. But first, I must see the plates and examine them to see
+whether they are good. If I am to do this work, it must be done
+perfectly. You know that I do not do things by halves. I must see
+whether the plates need retouching. I will bring my tools. If I am
+unable to use them for this work then we will buy some before leaving
+the city.'
+
+"'Have no doubt,' continued Cecala. 'I will come to-morrow morning and
+show the plates to you, and you can take them with you.'
+
+"'Come to-morrow about 10 A. M. with Comito, and not before ten,
+because I expect a person on some _personal_ business and do not want
+him to see you,' counselled Calichio.
+
+"During all this talk I did not say a word. On my way with Cecala to
+my aunt's house in Bleecker Street Cecala remarked:
+
+"'Don Antonio, that man Calichio is the professor for the job. In
+Italy he has printed for aristocratic families, who were in hard
+luck. He printed for these aristocrats about three million dollars in
+fifty, one-hundred, five-hundred and one-thousand lire notes. _This
+money was worked off in this country on people who were going to Italy
+on trips._ Don Peppe is capable of transferring to lithographic stones
+the engraving on bank notes and then transfer the engraving from the
+lithographic stones on to zinc plates, and in this way perfect the
+plates that are necessary for our business.'
+
+"'Is that how our plates were made?' I inquired.
+
+"'No. Ours were made by photography and a lot of preparations are
+necessary by that method. It is enough to say that I have spent over a
+hundred dollars up-to-date for chemicals.'
+
+"Suddenly Cecala turned on me a whispered: 'Don Antonio, what have you
+told your aunt?'
+
+"'Nothing--why?'
+
+"'Did she ask where you are working?'
+
+"'No. She knows that I am working in Philadelphia.'
+
+"'Good! If she asks with whom you are working in Philadelphia say that
+your employer is a priest, and his name is Bonaventure (----).'
+
+"'Very well,' I replied. 'My aunt is not interested whether I am
+working with a priest or with a monk. I have told her that I was
+employed in a printing shop, nothing else.'
+
+"'Good! You are an intelligent man, and that is why I and all my
+friends like you Calabrians, because you are secretive and are never
+corrupted. I knew a Calabrian who was arrested with counterfeit notes
+on him, once, and the policemen made him all kinds of promises and
+even punched him, in their effort to learn from him who had given him
+the counterfeit money to exchange; but he never told a word. He never
+squealed.'
+
+"I made no reply; only shook Cecala's hand and went to my aunt's.
+
+"The next morning, I forget whether it was the 9th or the 10th of
+March, I went at the given hour to Calichio's house, where I found
+Cecala examining the zinc plates for the two-dollar American notes, of
+the check letter C, plate number 1110.
+
+"Calichio carefully examined the plates with a magnifying glass. He
+explained to us that the acids that were used for washing the plates
+were too strong and had destroyed some fine lines and that it would be
+necessary to retouch the plates and so raise the missing lines. He
+would do it himself, Calichio said, if the proper tools were brought
+to him. Cecala quickly answered that the tools would be bought
+immediately and that we were to prepare to leave for Highland that
+night. We then went to a hardware store on the Bowery, and Calichio
+selected some chisels and other tools, for which Cecala paid. As soon
+as we were out of the store Cecala gave Calichio his first twenty
+dollars in advance. Turning to me, Cecala said:
+
+"'Don Antonio, Don Peppe and I are going to buy some chemicals. You
+can go away and be at Jones Street to-night at 10 P. M. ready to
+leave. Buy what you need, because you will not return to New York
+until the work is completed.'
+
+"I went to a store and bought a pair of shoes for myself and a pair
+for Caterina. I also bought some little delicacies of food for her.
+
+"That night the three of us left on the 11 P. M. train for Highland.
+Arriving there at 2 in the morning, we were met at the station by
+Peppino Cina with a carriage. He told us that we must go directly to
+the stone house and not stop at Cina's farm because a strange face
+might arouse suspicion among the neighbors. We did not work that day.
+We took a much-needed rest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PRINTING THE BAD MONEY
+
+
+"Calichio was up at an early hour and set to work retouching the
+two-dollar American note plates. He fixed the plates on wood blocks,
+made the press ready and got the right impression, prepared the ink
+and struck off proofs on several kinds of paper to see the effect of
+the ink and get the correct shade. He also prepared some chemicals
+with which to dampen the paper and give a darker shade. Having
+succeeded in getting the right shade of green Calichio explained that
+the color was the same as on the genuine notes and that all they
+needed now was the paper.
+
+"Cecala then said he would leave immediately and have the paper
+shipped forthwith. Turning to me Cecala gave instructions for me to be
+busy only at feeding the press. Don Peppe was to direct the job. I to
+obey the latter in every detail. Cecala then took the proofs and put
+them in his pocket, saying that he would show them to Ignazio and Don
+Piddu (Lupo and Morello) and mark the difference between this and the
+first job, which was mine.
+
+"Two days later Nick Sylvester came and brought with him a suit-case
+full of paper which he gave to Calichio saying:
+
+"'To-morrow Ignazio will come to see how the work is going along. In
+the meantime you can proceed with the work and print. I will remain to
+help you.'
+
+"When Lupo arrived the next morning in company with Cecala and Cina
+they all came up to the work room. After examining the work they
+praised Calichio, telling him that they ought to give him a gold
+medal. As for me, I was deserved of a dirty, leather medal, the
+bandits hinted.
+
+"Turning to me Lupo said, 'This homely Calabrian doesn't even deserve
+to be looked at. The work he did should have been _burned on his
+head_.'
+
+"I did not reply, but played the simpleton.
+
+"After examining the work Lupo turned to Uncle Vincent and said:
+
+"'Uncle Vic--guess what's happened?'
+
+"'What?'
+
+"'Petrosino was killed in Italy.'
+
+"'Honestly?'
+
+"'Honestly. The papers are talking about it.'
+
+"'I said it,' continued Uncle Vincent, 'that if Petrosino went to
+Italy they would kill him.'
+
+"'Who was the hero? He deserves a medal,' said Cecala.
+
+"'And where have they killed him?' continued Uncle Vincent.
+
+"'In Palermo.'
+
+"'Then it means that it was _well done_,' said Uncle Vincent,
+significantly.
+
+"'Certainly. The way it was done it could never fail,' said Lupo.
+
+"'And----,' Cecala said. 'This was death becoming him. How many sons
+of mothers he has condemned for nothing.'
+
+"Hearing all this I asked:
+
+"'Who is this Petrosino?'
+
+"'He was the head of the secret police in New York,' replied Cecala.
+'A homely man! Worse than the Bubonic Plague.'
+
+"'I never heard of him.'
+
+"'You will never meet him,' said Cecala dryly, the others grinning.
+
+"'Then it was successful?' continued Uncle Vincent.
+
+"'Certainly,' replied Lupo. 'It could not be successful in New York
+because he guarded his hide. Here he toted a revolver in his coat
+pocket and was guarded by two policemen a short distance behind him.'
+
+"'It is a good example for the policemen,' continued Uncle Vincent.
+'No one will now dare to go to Palermo. There they will find only sure
+death.'
+
+"Cina did not talk any because he was intent on spreading the
+counterfeit notes out on the garret floor. When he came downstairs to
+the workroom, however, he said:
+
+"'As soon as we can we must celebrate for joy; just now we will be
+content with a glass of wine.'
+
+"They all went downstairs and sat at a table conversing in low voices
+and I could not understand what they said because the press made a
+noise and interfered with my hearing.
+
+"I and Uncle Vincent continued to work at the press under Calichio's
+directions. Sylvester would take the notes as they were printed and
+spread them out on the floor in the garret to dry. Bernardo was
+stationed outside armed with rifle and revolver to guard the house and
+to 'spot' any person who might pass or prowl about the premises.
+
+"In the afternoon of that day Lupo, Cecala, and Cina went outside and
+had some sport trying out their revolvers against the trees. When they
+returned Lupo asked Calichio how long it would take to print the ten
+thousand two-dollar bills. About twenty days was Calichio's estimate.
+
+"Lupo then told Calichio that he would leave the plant, but would
+return at the end of the month and bring plates for five-dollar
+American notes. He addressed Calichio as 'dear Don Peppe' and told him
+to be prepared for the work and to take particular pains with the
+five-dollar notes, because he intended sending some of them to Italy.
+
+"'Have no doubts,' replied Calichio. 'I have never done any work that
+was useless, and you know it. My work has always been perfect.'
+
+"'Bravo, Don Peppe, we know that you are a professor at it,' said
+Cecala.
+
+"That same night about six P. M. Cecala, Lupo, and Cina went away,
+leaving me with Calichio, Uncle Vincent, Sylvester, and Bernardo.
+
+"During that month (March, 1909) we worked without interruption
+printing the two-dollar notes. About the 27th, the first twenty
+thousand dollars of the counterfeit two-dollar notes were ready and
+were turned over to Cina and Sylvester, who were to bring them to New
+York.
+
+"After this first job of Calichio's workmanship had been turned over,
+on the last Sunday in March Lupo returned in company with Cina,
+Sylvester and Giglio, who brought the plates for the five-dollar notes
+and about twenty thousand sheets of paper upon which to print the
+additional money.
+
+"Upon receiving the plates Calichio looked them over attentively and
+said that they were copper plates and not zinc, and that there was
+need of slight retouching. He detected several lines that were not
+shown in the photograph on the face of the note. These lines needed to
+be etched into the plates in the picture, which represented a farmer
+and an old man with a woman and a dog.
+
+"Lupo explained to Calichio that Cecala was on the road about New
+York, Brooklyn and Hoboken, selling the two-dollar notes, but that as
+soon as he finished up this work he would return to the stone house
+and oversee the work there.
+
+"Calichio prepared the press, fixed the inks, and printed the first
+proofs for the green side of the five-dollar notes. These were
+pronounced very good by Lupo and Uncle Vincent and they ordered that
+fifteen or twenty thousand of them be printed. Whatever paper was left
+was to be used for the two-dollar notes, which were very good and
+easily disposed of.
+
+"On the night of the 29th, or 30th of March, 1909, Lupo left in
+company with Uncle Vincent and Cina. Before leaving, however,
+instructions were given to Bernardo, Giglio and Sylvester to count the
+notes printed daily so that none could be unaccounted for and sold
+into circulation. The fear that cheating might be practiced was
+evidently in Lupo's mind.
+
+"We had been working about a week on the green side of the five-dollar
+notes when on April 5th, or 6th, Cina came to the stone house and told
+us to suspend the work and start in on the two-dollar notes, because
+there was a large demand for them from Boston, Buffalo and Chicago,
+where customers were anxiously awaiting a new supply. Calichio
+immediately got the press ready to print another ten thousand of the
+two-dollar notes.
+
+"It was at this time that I decided not to continue the work and left
+the press because I was not spoken to but ignored entirely. Even
+Sylvester and Giglio called me by an obscene name and referred to me
+in the most distasteful language, horrible to hear because of the
+profanity. I told Cina I wanted him to write to Cecala and tell him to
+send me sufficient money for my fare to New York. At this Cina
+answered in the Sicilian dialect:
+
+"'You are waiting for me to blow your brains out. Now that we are at
+the point where we can earn some money, you get sassy. Here you are
+dealing with gentlemen; otherwise, by this time you would be dead. Go
+ahead and work. No more of this fussing.'
+
+"Then turning to Sylvester and Giglio, Cina continued: '(Piciotti)
+Boys, watch this Calabrian, and if he don't want to work, shoot him
+and make a hole for him in the farm.'
+
+"After hearing this I felt like a whipped dog and kept my mouth
+closed. I went over to the press and started in to work. Calichio came
+over to me and said:
+
+"'Don Antonio, look out. Don't act this way with these people, because
+they are all of the (Mala-vita) Mafia and will do you harm in an
+instant. As long as you are among them you must obey orders, as I do,
+using prudence.'
+
+"Now it happened that for two weeks Calichio had not received his
+weekly salary and he became nervous for this reason. One day, when I
+did not want to print on wet paper, he dressed and went away. I,
+thinking that he had just gone out, stopped working and waited for him
+to return. But at night, when Sylvester, Giglio and Bernardo saw that
+Calichio did not return, _they threatened me with death_. Sylvester
+pointed a loaded revolver at me saying that he would dig my eyes out;
+Giglio, taking an axe in his hand, said he wanted to cut my head off,
+but Caterina intervened and the threatening stopped. Sylvester left
+the stone house to carry the news to New York.
+
+"Three days went by without any work being done, then Calichio
+returned in company with Sylvester and Cina. Cina handed me a note
+from Cecala which informed me that I must obey Calichio's order or
+suffer terrible consequences. I worked on against my will under
+Calichio's orders."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+SOME "AFTER-DINNER" CONFESSIONS
+
+
+"One night in the month of April (1909) I was sitting with the bandits
+in the stone house and listening to their stories. Calichio,
+Sylvester, Giglio and Bernardo were there. Among other exploits
+Calichio remarked that he had once printed one million lire for a
+baronial family residing at Naples in Italy. This was about fifteen
+years back, he said, when his father was alive.
+
+"Sylvester boasted that his first sentence was for five years in the
+reformatory as a minor. He ran away from the reformatory in company
+with several other boys and got into the horse-stealing business. He
+was sentenced several times for small offenses and he once was
+arrested for carrying concealed weapons.
+
+"During his imprisonment he came to know a certain Terranova, who was
+a half-brother of Morello, and they became fast friends. They stole
+horses in New York and sold them in other cities at reduced prices; or
+they would bring the horses to friends in the country (Highland) and
+receive payment. He told of being arrested once when with Morello's
+son and brother; they had thrown a bomb into a store in Mott Street.
+They were let go because there were no witnesses to the crime. In
+concluding his recitation Sylvester said:
+
+"'One night I went with the Morello brothers and other friends into a
+hall where a Jewish wedding was being celebrated. As we entered the
+hall we recognized two policemen who had helped us before in our jobs.
+Our idea was to steal watches. We succeeded in stealing about fifteen
+watches when a Jew I was robbing got onto me. He grabbed me by the
+coat and called the police. The policeman knew me and took my part. He
+pushed the Jew aside and told him to go away. The policeman said he
+knew me to be a fine young man for more than ten years. The policeman
+told the Jew he was lying and that if he said any more about the
+matter he would be put under arrest. The Jew was crest-fallen, but
+went on dancing all the same. As we came outside, I gave three watches
+to the policeman, two of silver and one of gold. I disposed of the
+others in New Jersey. We divided the proceeds equally among us.'
+
+"Then Giglio made the boast that the police had never been able to
+arrest him. He had been in great danger, though, he said. One night in
+the winter of 1906 he went to Newburgh to steal a horse and carriage.
+While running away with the stolen property he was shot at twice.
+Neither bullet hit him, though, he said. Two months later the same
+horse and carriage were sold in Poughkeepsie for one hundred dollars.
+
+"Bernardo had nothing to relate except the innocent amusement of
+having stolen fruit in his native town. The others grinned.
+
+"On April 26th or 27th the second lot of Calichio's two-dollar notes
+were ready. They totalled fifteen thousand dollars and were wrapped up
+in rags. Giglio and Sylvester took them to New York.
+
+"Calichio and I then renewed work on the five-dollar notes, which we
+figured on finishing about the middle of May, when a communication
+from New York made us stop again on the five-dollar notes, and we
+started on the third lot of Calichio's two-dollar notes. During the
+month of May, I, Calichio, Sylvester, Giglio and Bernardo all had a
+hand in the completion of this third lot of two-dollar notes, which
+amounted to $10,000; then, too, we finished up by the end of May
+$14,700 of the five-dollar notes. During this period Calichio received
+his wages punctually, but he did not let on to me.
+
+"When the work had been completed I called Caterina aside and told her
+that I was going to New York and would not return to the stone house,
+as I did not intend to continue at that sort of work. In fact, I
+dismantled the press, piece by piece, took the genuine five-dollar
+note that was used for comparison, it being the original from which
+the plates were made, and said to Giglio:
+
+"'Don Vincenzio, I am going to New York to seek rooms and will see
+Cecala there; I am going because, counting this last batch, I have
+printed about $60,000 and have received nothing for my labor.'
+
+"'You deserve to have your head smashed on a rock,' was the cheerful
+reply. 'If the money is not yet sold, who will you see to get paid?'
+
+"'Cecala.'
+
+"'Cecala is not in New York. If he were, I certainly would bring him
+this last batch of money. We must wait until my brother-in-law comes.'
+
+"'I don't care whether it is sold or not. I am in a miserable
+condition and will not remain here.'
+
+"'Do as you like, but look out, though, if you do any harm there will
+not be a hair left of you.'
+
+"'I want to go about my own business and do not care about others.'
+Thereupon, I took a suit-case with a few rags that I had left and went
+on foot to the Highland Railroad station where I changed the
+five-dollar bill and bought a ticket to New York. Arriving in the city
+I went directly to my aunt's, who was surprised to see me so poorly
+clad and in such a miserable condition. I told her that I had had a
+quarrel with my employer because he had not paid me.
+
+"On June 2nd, while walking about my business, I met Cecala at
+Bleecker and Carmine Streets. He laughed at me, shook my hand, and
+inquired why I had not remained at the stone house in Highland and
+continued the work.
+
+"'I could not continue,' I replied, 'because I was treated too
+shabbily there by the others. And why should I continue to work when
+no word had come to us from New York for more than two weeks?'
+
+"'Well, Don Antonio,' said Cecala, 'I will fix all your affairs so
+that Caterina will remain in New York, for you and Don Peppe _must
+continue the work_. The man who made the plates has been working on
+another set of Canadian notes, not like the first that we printed, but
+of the same denomination, five dollars.'
+
+"'Write and let Caterina come now,' I said. 'As to my doing more work
+for you, let's talk about that later.'
+
+"'It is not necessary to write; I will telephone. Come with me.' From
+a drug store at Carmine and Bleecker Streets Cecala telephoned to
+Highland, or rather to Cina's house.
+
+"Cina's wife said that her husband had gone with Ignazio (Lupo) to
+Newburgh and that she would tell him when he returned. Coming out of
+the drug store Cecala handed me ten dollars, saying:
+
+"'Take this ten dollars and find rooms for yourself. I will provide
+for the rest later when Caterina comes to-morrow or the next day.
+Your things will arrive in a few days.' He told me to keep him
+advised. I could meet him at a barber shop in Carmine Street, he said.
+
+"Not seeing anything of Caterina, on June 4th I wrote a letter to Cina
+at Highland, and requested him to send my things immediately and to
+give Caterina the money for her fare to New York.
+
+"Cina received my letter and got the impression from it that I was
+going to tell the police, and he went right over to the stone house to
+ship my furniture.
+
+"On the fifth of June, in the evening, Don Peppe (Calichio) came to my
+aunt's house and there told me that he had run away from the stone
+house with Caterina because they had threatened to kill him. He said
+that the threats were made by Sylvester, Giglio and Bernardo. Hearing
+this I hastened out on the stoop and saw Caterina all trembling. She
+said: 'I don't know how we escaped--Don Peppe and me.'
+
+"'Why?'
+
+"'Bernardo, Sylvester and Giglio wanted to kill us; and Bernardo had
+already got hold of a shovel to dig a hole.'
+
+"'And who gave you the money for the fare?'
+
+"'Lupo.'
+
+"'How much did he give you?'
+
+"'He gave ten dollars to Don Peppe in the presence of Cina, Uncle
+Vincent, and the other men, whom I do not know, and he gave me five
+dollars.'
+
+"'Well,' I said, 'to-night you will sleep at my brother's home, and do
+not tell him any stories nor let him understand the circumstances of
+our trouble. To-morrow I will find a house. Cecala gave me ten dollars
+the other day.'
+
+"I thanked Calichio for getting Caterina out of the stone house to New
+York, and then went away leaving Caterina at the home of my brother."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+EVADING THE GANG IN VAIN
+
+
+"On June 6th I rented some rooms at No. 171 Thompson Street and paid
+for a month in advance. I then went to the barber shop to find Cecala.
+I told him of hiring the rooms and that I needed a deposit to have the
+gas turned on. He told me that he would look out for everything in a
+day or so when he had the time. He showed a receipt for my goods,
+which had been shipped from Highland the day before and which would
+soon arrive, he said. He gave me five dollars with which to pay the
+charges on my furniture when it would arrive. When I asked him how I
+was to get food, he handed me a card and said that I was to go to the
+address and say that he sent me and that provisions would be furnished
+me. On the card was D. Milone, No. 235 East Ninety-seventh Street.
+
+"'Will I get what I want there?'
+
+"'Certainly,' Cecala said. 'Just mention my name and all will be well
+with you there.'
+
+"After arranging with an express company to have my goods taken from
+the dock to the Thompson Street rooms, I went to the Milone address
+and asked for Cecala.
+
+"'Who is this Cecala?' inquired a short man of ruddy complexion and
+stout face.
+
+"'Why, don't you know him?' I asked. 'He gave me this address where I
+was to come and buy groceries.'
+
+"'Have you inquired in the bank downstairs?'
+
+"'No.'
+
+"'Go and see.'
+
+"I went down to the bank of one De Luca and found a barrel containing
+groceries addressed to Luigi Cosentino. This I had brought to my rooms
+in Thompson Street.
+
+"'You must pay sixty cents,' said the banker, 'right away.' And Cecala
+paid the money for me.
+
+"Going upstairs again Cecala said in the presence of Giglio and
+Sylvester:
+
+"'Don Antonio, we must continue the work. Not in that place (the stone
+house), but in another farm that has been rented by Giglio and that
+is very far from Highland. We will not work any more with the same
+press because it is not very good as to impression. We must buy a new
+press, which Calichio is negotiating for now, a new model.'
+
+"'I will not come again,' I replied, 'because I have found work as a
+compositor and I am to go to work to-morrow.'
+
+"'Don't begin to make trouble. You know all our secrets now and we
+can't let you go.'
+
+"'But why don't you let Calichio continue the work?'
+
+"'Calichio is no good at the press. You know of what he is capable.'
+
+"'I cannot go,' I repeated.
+
+"'Listen, Don Antonio, I promise you that you will not work much.
+Print at least the other ten-thousand sheets of paper for two-dollar
+notes and the work will be completed. Then we will suspend operations
+for the summer, and will begin again in the Fall.'
+
+"'Mr. Cecala, I will return to print the paper that is left, but you
+must give me, at the beginning of August, $400 because I want to
+return to Italy; then I will come back to New York in November. Are
+you satisfied?'
+
+"'Have no doubts as to that. By the first two weeks of August I will
+give you $500 and not $400, because by that time I will have sold all
+the money. But will you return to America?'
+
+"'Yes, because I am going to Italy only to arrange family affairs.'
+
+"Calichio now arrived and said that he had found the party who wanted
+to sell the press, and he suggested that I go and see the man. At this
+juncture Giglio interrupted to say that the press, which we had been
+using, had been broken up and thrown into the woods on the farm that
+had just been rented in his name for the new location of the plant.
+
+"'But,' put in Calichio, 'is that farm a place that is at all likely
+to be suspected?'
+
+"'Certainly not,' said Giglio, 'it is far from Highland, about three
+hours over the road, and is situated on the Hudson River. It is a
+frame house standing by itself so that in working there will be no
+noise heard by neighbors. And there is no road where people pass by
+the house.'
+
+"'You mean,' Cecala interrupted, 'that you can work without fear of
+being disturbed?'
+
+"'Not even the flies will disturb us.'
+
+"'Good,' said Cecala, turning to me. 'Go and see this Riso (the
+pressman) and see if he really wants to sell the press.'
+
+"'Why should I go and not some one else?'
+
+"'You are of the trade and know whether there are any defects.'
+
+"'And if he asks me who I am, what shall I answer?'
+
+"'Tell him you are Cosentino and have a shop on One Hundred and
+Fortieth Street.'
+
+"'Why don't you come with me?'
+
+"'No,' said Cecala, 'I will wait here.'
+
+"'It would be better that you come along. Two heads are better than
+one.'
+
+"Cecala was persuaded and together we went to the printing shop to
+look over the presses. Riso, the pressman, said that he wanted to sell
+the press because he had not enough work to keep it occupied and was
+short fifty dollars to pay off the mortgage. He explained that in
+order to sell it he must first get permission from the factory people,
+who held the mortgage. He bought it about eight months previously.
+
+"A price of $85 was agreed to.
+
+"'But,' queried Riso, 'what do you need the press for?'
+
+"'For a printing shop,' I replied.
+
+"'And have you a shop now?'
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'Where?'
+
+"I gave him the One Hundred and Fortieth Street address suggested by
+Cecala before we entered the printing shop.
+
+"Riso assured me that the press was first class and would turn out
+fine work.
+
+"On June 10th, the next day, the press was paid for and carted off in
+a covered wagon. I had taken the press apart without arousing
+suspicion that it was to be taken on a long journey. The parts were
+taken off because of the danger of leaving them on the press body
+while in shipment. On the sides of the closed wagon was the name of
+Antonio Armato, Bakery. The man who drove it was introduced to me by
+Giglio as his godfather. Giglio explained that the press was to be
+carted on godfather's wagon because he had been unable to get an
+express wagon at the moment.
+
+"In order to keep up the bluff before Riso I said to Giglio:
+
+"'Well, it is just as well. You know where my shop is and can have
+this man take the press there. I will remain downtown and attend to
+other matters while you take the press uptown.' Cecala squinted at me
+admiringly.
+
+"On the 13th of June Cecala informed me that I was to be ready to go
+to Highland at six o'clock the next morning. I was to go to Cina's
+house and remain there a day, he said, and then I would be taken to
+the new farm. He told me that the press had been shipped and taken to
+the house by Sylvester, who had returned to New York. Cecala also said
+that he had given Calichio ten dollars with which to pay the fares and
+that I was to meet Don Peppe (Calichio) at his Jones Street house
+early the next morning and then board the train in company with him.
+Money would be forwarded to me as soon as I reached Highland; Cecala
+had none with him at the present.
+
+"'I hope you will not treat me as you did before,' I said. 'Promise to
+pay and not pay.'
+
+"'Have no doubt. I will take in $200 to-night from a man in Brooklyn,
+and will send you ten dollars by Giglio.'
+
+"Cecala said Giglio was in New York then at the house of his
+(Giglio's) brother-in-law in Jackson Street. This brother-in-law had
+married one of Cina's sisters, but he knew nothing about the
+counterfeiting scheme.
+
+"At five o'clock in the morning of June 14th I went to Calichio's
+house and found him packing a suit-case with inks and plates. One of
+the sets I remember was the Bank of Montreal design with a baby on the
+green side, marvelously clear zinc plates. Calichio told me they were
+to be used for making the new Canadian five-dollar notes.
+
+"'When are they to be printed?' I asked.
+
+"'When we get to the new farm.'
+
+"I told Calichio that I certainly would not print any of them at this
+season and he suggested that they probably were to be printed in
+November. He said:
+
+"'They will probably be printed in November, at the beginning of the
+winter season, for now the waters are troubled. The police is making
+arrests daily.'
+
+"He placed the plates in the suit-case and together we went to
+Weehawken Ferry and arrived in Highland at 11 A. M. There found
+Peppino waiting for us at the station with a carriage. He drove to his
+brother's house (Cina's). There we found Uncle Vincent and Bernardo,
+the others having gone to Poughkeepsie on business and left word that
+they would return by evening. After lunch I played with Cina's
+children while Calichio, Uncle Vincent, Bernardo and Peppino locked
+themselves into a room for a conference. About 8 P. M. Salvatore Cina
+returned from Poughkeepsie with Sylvester and immediately ordered his
+brother to prepare the horse and carriage and take us to the 'Third'
+farm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CAUGHT AGAIN!
+
+
+"About two o'clock in the morning we arrived, Calichio, Bernardo,
+Sylvester, Peppino and Cina, at the 'Third' farm. Peppino returned
+immediately from the 'Third' farm to Cina's house. The four of us who
+remained slept on straw, there being no mattresses. About three
+o'clock the next afternoon Cina brought us some mattresses, pillows
+and covers; some food-stuffs and ten quarts of wine. Cina remarked
+that this was a splendid place, and that no one could disturb us
+there. He gave the following orders:
+
+"Calichio and I were to remain in the house and work. Uncle Vincent
+would watch along the railroad track to see if any strangers came
+near. About noontime, Uncle Vincent would come in and do the cooking;
+then Bernardo, armed with revolver and rifle, was to do his turn and
+guard the farm. He was to be helped in this by Giglio and Sylvester
+whenever they were about. Cina said that if Calichio or I wanted to
+have our mail addressed to us we must tell our folks and friends to
+send it to 20 Duane Street, Poughkeepsie, where Uncle Turi (the
+well-dressed man referred to before in this story) had opened a
+grocery store. Cina assured me that news would be brought to us daily
+from the outside and that a horse and carriage had been brought for
+the express purpose of going to and from Poughkeepsie and bringing
+groceries.
+
+"Calichio made the press ready and we began work on the fourth batch
+of the two-dollar notes. There was no interruption all that day but,
+on the next morning, June 17th (1909), Calichio declared he wanted to
+leave for New York because he had had a bad dream during the night and
+there was news from his family.
+
+"Bernardo accompanied Calichio to the station and I and Uncle Vincent
+remained alone, walking about the grounds in front of the house.
+
+"About 11 A. M. Uncle Vincent was preparing macaroni for the noonday
+lunch when two well-dressed men and prosperous appearing, driving a
+horse and carriage, stopped in front of the house. One man was about
+fifty, the other about thirty. They tied the horse to a tree and came
+over to me, addressing me in English.
+
+"'Are you Italian?'
+
+"'Yes,' I replied.
+
+"'Have you rented this farm?'
+
+"'No.'
+
+"'Who is the owner?'
+
+"'A man named Giglio.'
+
+"'Where can I see this Giglio?'
+
+"'In New York. His wife is sick,' replied Uncle Vincent.
+
+"'When does he return?'
+
+"'We don't know.'
+
+"'We had come to buy this farm and would like to look inside. Will you
+permit us to enter and see?'
+
+"'No,' was Uncle Vincent's instant answer. 'We are not the proprietors
+and are here to guard the fruit. Return some other day when Giglio is
+here and he will give you permission.'
+
+"The men assured us that they would get the permission to enter the
+house and drove away. When they were gone Uncle Vincent with a pale
+face said to me:
+
+"'Don Antonio, I feel sure these men are detectives. Should they
+return there will be others with them and they will arrest us. In case
+we fall like mice in a trap don't say who you know. Otherwise we are
+all ruined. If they find the press we must insist that we found it in
+the house, and don't know to whom it belongs. Let us go and burn what
+was printed yesterday in order to avoid suspicion.'
+
+"'I am not going back,' I answered. 'I am going through the woods to
+the railroad tracks to the station and then back to New York.'
+
+"'If you go away I will not let any one come near the house. And if
+those two men return I will kill them.'
+
+"'Do as you like,' I replied. So saying I took my hat and jumper and
+walked along the railroad tracks for about an hour until I came to the
+Highland station.
+
+"I was peacefully at home in Thompson Street on June 20th when Cecala,
+Cina and Sylvester arrived. As soon as Cecala saw me he said:
+
+"'You were very much afraid. You must not be so frightened. The people
+who came to the farm were men of a good sort and not detectives. But
+you did well in not letting them enter the house.'
+
+"'Since I am away,' I replied to Cecala, 'do not talk of continuing
+the work. I will not return. I don't care to fall into a trap alone,
+and you all out of it.'
+
+"'Better if we remain out. We can help you.'
+
+"'Bother the help. Leave me in peace. I want to attend to my own
+affairs and be at rest.'
+
+"'No. Now that we have started to print we must finish the paper that
+is left unprinted.'
+
+"'I will not return to the farm. Make Calichio continue the work.'
+
+"'_You must return and complete the work_,' said Cina with arrogance.
+
+"After about five minutes of silence Cina again did the talking. He
+said:
+
+"'Very well, we will not return to that farm but in order to have you
+content we will draw up a contract and you will appear as Luigi
+Cosentino, the proprietor of the second farm. Then you may return and
+continue the work without danger. I will telephone to-night and have
+the press brought to the stone house. The people nearby the stone
+house have seen you before, and when I tell them that the place is
+now yours they will not have any suspicion.'
+
+"'I want to find work here in the city. I have worked for you for
+seven months and have received only forty dollars in all for it.'
+
+"'Well,' said Cecala, 'but I will give you five hundred dollars as
+soon as you have finished this last job. Is that satisfactory?'
+
+"'Surely.'
+
+"I figured that if I got the five hundred dollars I could return to
+Italy and not have any more bother, and so I consented to go back and
+complete the work. Cecala and Cina went with me to a notary public in
+Elizabeth Street and a contract or lease of the second farm was drawn
+up. I appeared and signed as Luigi Cosentino. The person from whom I
+rented the farm was one whom I had never seen before. He was called
+Salvatore Galasso. The notary gave a copy of the paper to me and
+another to Galasso, and Cecala paid the charges.
+
+"On June 24th (1909) I and Calichio began work anew on the second
+farm, at the stone house, and continued until we had finished $13,500
+more of the two-dollar notes. When this amount was printed, Calichio
+went to New York and left me with Uncle Vincent, Bernardo and Giglio
+to cut to regular size the two-dollar notes and count them and pack
+them in bundles of 100 each. This work was done during the month of
+July.
+
+"On the 28th or the 29th of July Cina arrived and stopped all the
+work, saying that operations were suspended for the summer. The last
+lot printed, he said, was to be divided among fifteen of us. Cecala
+had left about twenty days before, and as no word had been received
+from him it was supposed that he had been arrested. Turning to me Cina
+said:
+
+"'You, Don Antonio, divide up the money for fifteen persons, and see
+what will come to each. Each can sell for himself or exchange them.'
+
+"'I will not take any of them, that is certain,' I replied, 'because I
+have no friends to whom I can sell them. And what is more, I will risk
+imprisonment.'
+
+"'That means that you will leave your portion to me, and in time I
+will sell it for you,' said Cina.
+
+"'I don't want to know whether it is left to you or somebody else.
+Only, you will bear in mind that together with Cecala you have
+promised $500 with which I was to go to Italy when this work was
+completed.'
+
+"'Well, if Cecala returns and brings good money, you will be given
+what was promised you. In the meantime, dismantle the press and give
+me the plates, for I must save them. Put them in a box together with
+the ink that was not used.'
+
+"Without losing any time I took some boards and made a box and put
+into it the plates for the two-dollar notes, check letter 'C,' plate
+number 1110; also the five-dollar copper plates, and the second
+Canadian note plates, which had not been used, and some cans of ink. I
+nailed a cover over the box, and in the presence of Uncle Vincent,
+Bernardo, Giglio and Cina, I gave the box to Cina and he said:
+
+"'We hope to open this box in November if things go well.'
+
+"The first Canadian plates--those that had been used together with the
+first two-dollar note plates, Check letter 'A,' plate number
+1111--were wrapped in some rags and buried in a hole on the farm by
+Bernardo. The hole was about two hundred feet from the house in the
+woods back of the house. Then all the ink that remained outside was
+buried in the woods back of the house; so were all the hundred
+thousand pieces of paper of bad prints and proofs, etc., buried there.
+The inks, though, were put in a macaroni box before being put into the
+ground.
+
+"I dismantled the press, taking it into four parts, and packed it up
+in boards. At six o'clock that evening Peppino Cina came with a truck,
+pulled by a team of horses, and the press was loaded onto the truck;
+also the box with the plates put on, and the whole business was
+covered with hay. Then Uncle Vincent, Bernardo and Giglio were driven
+off toward Cina's farm by Peppino Cina. Cina and I took another road
+in a carriage and went to his farm.
+
+"Arriving at Cina's farm at about 11:30 that night we sat down and ate
+heartily and drank wine. Towards the end of the meal Cina gave Peppino
+(his brother), Giglio and Bernardo each $800 of the counterfeit money,
+saying to them:
+
+"'Boys, the work is done. From to-morrow on each can attend to his own
+business. You can take this money and exchange it yourselves.
+
+"'If we are going to continue, and if we need you, I will advise you,
+paying you double what you can earn anywhere else.'
+
+"Hearing this I said to Cina:
+
+"'See if you can't give me some money with which I may get to New York
+to-morrow, without my looking around for Cecala or anybody else; and
+also keep it in mind that by August 15th I get the $500 so that I can
+go to Italy. If the money is not given me I will endeavor to get my
+passage to Italy and return in November.'
+
+"'Have no doubts about the money,' said Cina. 'To-morrow I will give
+you five dollars. The money that has been promised you will be yours.
+In fact, I will bring it to your house as soon as we have it ready, as
+we know your address in New York.'
+
+"Next morning Cina gave me five dollars, and drove me to the Highland
+station, where I boarded the eight o'clock train for New York.
+
+"After being in the city three days I found employment in a printing
+shop in Brooklyn and worked there as an honest man, putting away all
+thoughts of evil and tried to forget what I had been through in
+Highland for the past nine months.
+
+"On August 12, 1909, I read in an Italian newspaper about the arrest
+of some persons who passed some of the notes printed by me. Thinking
+that some one might mention my name, I wrote a letter to Cina,
+addressed to No. 20 Duane Street, Poughkeepsie, informing him that as
+I had not seen any one up to the present, and had not got what was
+promised me, I had decided to leave for Italy on August 15th.
+
+"Then I remained in Brooklyn working, without the gang knowing my
+whereabouts. My employment for this period was in the printing shop of
+Matteo Vestuto.
+
+"One Sunday in September I met Calichio on the street. He told me that
+he was going to my house to get a suit of clothes that had been sent
+down from the stone house with my furniture.
+
+"'Don Peppe,' said I, 'Caterina is at home and she will give you the
+suit which was put away. If you see any of the _Gentlemen_ don't say
+that you saw me, because I have written them that I am in Italy.'
+
+"'I have not seen them any more,' replied Calichio. 'Neither do I want
+to see them, after what I have been through. Bear in mind, Don
+Antonio, that I have not yet received all the money that is coming to
+me, but ----, if they come again to me, I know what to tell them
+----.' He went off in a very angry mood.
+
+"On the 16th of November, 1909, I read in an Italian newspaper of the
+arrest of Giuseppe Morello, Antonio Cecala, Domenico Milone, Luciana
+Maddi, Giuseppe Boscarini and Leolina Vasi. They were all put under
+bail of from seven to fifteen thousand dollars. Three days later I
+read in the newspapers that all these 'gentlemen,' whom I knew, were
+released on bail, and were at liberty awaiting trial.
+
+"I became frightened, thinking that these fellows might think that I
+had said something to the police as they knew I was dissatisfied with
+the treatment they had given me. Losing no time I packed my things and
+went to live with an American family in Dominick Street."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+PINCHING THE GREENHORN
+
+
+"I had been at this place about a month and a half when, on the night
+of January 4th, 1910, about eight o'clock, six men came into the house
+and, motioning me not to move, declared that I and Caterina were under
+arrest.
+
+"'But who are you?' I asked in Italian.
+
+"'We are government officers,' one of them replied in Italian, and he
+showed me his shield.
+
+"'Well, the place is at your disposal,' I said, sitting down on a
+chair and smoking my pipe, feeling quite sure of myself.
+
+"When they had finished searching the rooms and us personally they
+brought Caterina and I to the office of the Federal Secret Service
+(United States Secret Service) and we were taken to the head of the
+service, a Mr. William J. Flynn. To him I had no courage to deny what
+I had done and confessed all. I assumed all the responsibility for
+Caterina, and told everything without any thought of getting off
+without punishment. Following my arrest the Secret Service men
+arrested Cina, Giglio, Uncle Salvatore, Sylvester and Lupo. On January
+26th, 1910, Ignazio Lupo, Giuseppe Morello, Antonio Cecala, Salvatore
+Palermo, Giuseppe Calichio and Nick Sylvester appeared before the
+Judge of the United States Court to answer the indictment of making
+and passing counterfeit money.
+
+"I appeared before the jury in the Federal Court as a witness,
+repeating what I had confessed to the Secret Service men. I did not
+contradict myself on cross-examination when the defense tried to show
+that I was a Calabrian bandit and had come to America for the purpose
+of joking with the law and justice, and that I was telling these
+'stories' and thus having eight innocent and perfect gentlemen
+condemned.
+
+"I was not disturbed at the assault made upon my character by the
+ignorant Italian press, who through libels and threats of many kinds
+tried to shake my determination. I only laughed when I read and heard
+of those things.
+
+"The Black-Hand crowd should be destroyed. The one great blow that
+started the downfall of this murderous band of outlaws has been dealt
+by William J. Flynn, when he sent to prison the arch-bandits Lupo and
+Morello, and the lesser evils, Cecala, Cina, Giglio, etc.
+
+"My final word here is that my purpose in giving testimony before the
+Secret Service was not done to have eight fathers of families
+condemned, but for the purpose of removing from among us eight
+Sicilian criminals who horrified and preyed upon honest men under the
+leadership of murderers of the worst type that are a menace to
+civilization.
+
+            "(Signed) Antonio Viola Comito."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE "BLACK-HAND" DOCTOR
+
+
+There are characters in this story of Comito's of whom he never got a
+glimpse until the case came to trial. There are still others involved
+of whom he never even heard; in fact, not a few big fish are in the
+net of the Secret Service whose names will probably never be revealed
+to the public. This circumstance does not prevent me, however, from
+surrounding Comito's statement with certain additional facts that may
+serve to illuminate the plan followed by Lupo and Morello in building
+up their sinister organization.
+
+It often happens that disputes occur among the different elements of
+the Italian criminals in New York City and in other parts of this
+country. For instance, the Neapolitan element deals almost exclusively
+in the traffic of women. Sometimes this business is invaded by a
+hostile group from among the Sicilian element. Invariably quarrels
+result and the disputes nearly always end in a shooting or a stabbing
+affair.
+
+It is well known to the Service that the quarrels of the Italian
+criminals among themselves are settled without the help of the police
+whenever this is at all possible. When a gang member is wounded,
+secrecy requires that no ambulance be called or a doctor summoned who
+is not a friend of the gang. This precaution is easily appreciated
+when one comes to think that a call for an ambulance would require the
+presence of a policeman and a public report being made of the affair.
+Again, should a doctor, who is not known to the gang, be called in, he
+is required to make a record of the occurrence and report any
+suspicious injury to the police. If there is a death the coroner must
+needs be notified. To avoid entanglement and trouble with the
+authorities the various gangs have impressed in their service a
+physician or two who may be relied upon to bind up the wounds and keep
+the affair a secret. Many murders are in this way covered up and
+escape the attention of the police and the public.
+
+There was a man at the trial of the counterfeiters who was unknown to
+Comito. Upon this man's testimony Morello expected to prove that he
+was ill in the house during the period that he was actually out and
+around and very active in the counterfeiting scheme.
+
+Dr. Salvatore Romano is the man. The doctor perjured himself and
+testified to please Morello, whose vengeance he feared.
+
+After being indicted by the Federal Grand Jury, we were able to get a
+statement from Dr. Romano. Incidentally this statement disclosed the
+method whereby Morello and Lupo gathered their first money by sending
+"Black-Hand" letters to countrymen who were suspected of having money,
+or who could in any way be coerced into being useful to the gang.
+
+Dr. Romano's cross-examination follows:
+
+Q. Tell us, doctor, from the beginning, how you happened to get mixed
+up; start from the time you knew Mr. Morello.
+
+A. I met him in this country. He was living in East One Hundred and
+Seventh Street; we were living at East One Hundred and Sixth Street.
+He comes from the same town that my grandmother and mother hail from
+in Sicily--Corleone--and while I was studying in my third year at the
+College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia, my folks received a
+letter from a "Black-Hand" Society.
+
+Q. Who received it?
+
+A. My mother.
+
+Q. She knew Morello how long previous to this?
+
+A. She had known him on the other side; never had anything to do with
+him here.
+
+Q. About when was it she got this "Black-Hand" letter?
+
+A. Seven years ago; I was a third-year student in the College of
+Physicians and Surgeons.
+
+Q. What was the substance of the letter?
+
+A. The substance of the letter was that unless a certain amount of
+money was paid they would kill me. Naturally, my folks did not tell me
+anything at all about it for fear that I would get excited, neglect my
+studies, and so fail in my examinations. The folks kept the thing
+quiet for a few days. The "Black-Handers" also said that if anything
+were told to the police authorities, _the murder would take place
+anyway_--money or no money. You see, my father was not here. I was a
+young man, my brother was a small boy, and my family did not know what
+to do at the time. My grandmother, though, knew this man Morello to
+be mixed up with people of questionable character, and so she went to
+him or he happened to meet her (I don't know which); anyway, she
+confided the thing to Morello. He said, "All right, don't get excited;
+they don't kill people off all at once. Wait until you get another
+letter. Then we will see if we can find out the party who writes those
+letters."
+
+Finally, another letter was written. Then a third, and a fourth letter
+came. _Morello always took the letters under the pretext of studying
+the handwriting and to find out the origin of the letter._ Eventually,
+he found out the origin of the letter, he said and--
+
+Q. What was the origin?
+
+A. Never found out. He just said that he had found out that they were
+willing to settle for $1,000, but that he would pay $100 and that he
+would make sure they returned the money to him after they found out
+who he was; he said that we need not worry any more.
+
+Q. Did you pay the $100?
+
+A. No. Morello offered to pay the $100 himself and expected to get it
+back. He said: "I will pay and see that they return it to me."
+
+Q. Who would return it?
+
+A. Those people would return the money again to him.
+
+Q. He said that he would pay the money and that he would get it back
+from the Black-Handers?
+
+A. Yes. Then the whole thing quieted down and naturally my people
+thought they were under obligations to this man Morello. And then when
+the danger was over my folks told me about it and remarked about what
+a terrible thing we had escaped.
+
+About three or four months later, Morello came around and said to my
+mother:
+
+Q. Did you hear him?
+
+A. No. She told me.
+
+(Continuing) "I have a notion to get married. I'm in with a woman who
+has a baby as the result of our relations. Now that I want to get
+married, I want to break off this relation, and if it is not
+inconvenient to you I would like to bring this baby, this little girl,
+to your house until everything is arranged."
+
+Q. That is the illegitimate child?
+
+A. She could walk; was over one year old.
+
+Q. Who was the woman?
+
+A. I do not know.
+
+Q. At that time he lived on Chrystie Street?
+
+A. No. I understand he had a restaurant. Of course, my folks said that
+it was no trouble for them. There were three or four women in the
+household, and it would be no trouble for them to take care of the
+little child.
+
+Q. All the time you thought that you were under obligations to him?
+
+A. Yes; just for that thing.
+
+Q. Don't you know who the woman was?
+
+A. No; never saw her.
+
+Q. Sure you didn't?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. Do you know her?
+
+A. No, she was a Sicilian. I don't know her personally.
+
+Q. Is she living?
+
+A. I imagine she is.
+
+Q. What was her name? What was she called?
+
+A. Didn't know at all. Probably my grandmother would know.
+
+Q. Was this after or before the barrel murder?
+
+A. I think the barrel murder was after that.
+
+Q. He lived on Chrystie Street at that time?
+
+A. Yes. And so the baby was brought to our house and we took care of
+it, a nice little baby. Nothing happened at all--no disturbance. They
+came around to our house about once a week to see the baby. I kept on
+studying; never bothered my head about anything at all. I went out
+early in the morning and came back late; never bothered much with the
+affairs of the family. That baby died. First it got the measles, then
+bronchial pneumonia. It was a little over two years old when it died.
+
+Q. Did Morello marry this woman?
+
+A. The woman he married is his present wife. He had got her from the
+other side. The sister (Morello's) had gone to the other side and
+arranged for this marriage. So nothing happened until after I was
+graduated. Then these people began to call on me as a doctor.
+
+Q. He then lived in East One Hundred and Seventh Street?
+
+A. I think in East One Hundred and Seventh Street, and he began to
+call on me; and then the brother-in-law and then cousin, etc., called.
+
+Q. Who is his brother-in-law?
+
+A. He has three brothers-in-law, Lupo, Lima and Salima.
+
+Q. Which one of his brothers-in-law did you treat?
+
+A. I treated all three of them.
+
+Q. Are Lima and Salima in this country now?
+
+A. Yes, in New York City.
+
+Q. And did you treat other relatives?
+
+A. I treated all their relatives, and all free of charge. They would
+call me; I would examine them, prescribe, etc., but I got no pay.
+
+Q. Did you ever ask them for any?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. Why not?
+
+A. On account of the obligations; also the familiarity. Right from the
+start I thought that I was doing a wise thing not to ask for money for
+my services.
+
+Q. What did you know about Morello about that time?
+
+A. My folks had told him all about those letters and he had fixed it
+all up; we had no disturbance because we were under his protection.
+
+Q. Did you know that you were under his protection?
+
+A. I knew as well as the family did.
+
+Q. What protection did you think that he could give you?
+
+A. Receiving no disturbance from the "Black-Handers."
+
+Q. Did you know that he was connected with the "Black-Handers" then?
+
+A. I did not know that he was a "Black-Hander," but I knew from the
+fact that he had arranged everything that he must have known something
+about these people.
+
+Thus I became the regular physician for these people and never got any
+pay. In the meantime I tried to get as much hospital experience as I
+could and get out of New York, because, if a man goes out of New York
+to a strange place without any experience--
+
+Q. Why did you want to leave New York?
+
+A. Not because I was afraid, not because they were doing anything to
+me, but because I was tired of doing work for nothing; I never could
+put any money in the bank.
+
+The whole number of relatives, babies and patients, amounted to about
+sixty. It would not be one day, but the next day, and all the time
+they were on my hands. And I got no pay.
+
+My mother was in the same position. My mother is a midwife. I tried to
+get hospital experience, and as soon as I was in the position to leave
+New York I departed, and I have never heard from him at all except
+when I received letters from my mother who told me that they kept on
+frequenting the house.
+
+Q. What was the interview you had with Commissioner Wood?[5] And when
+did you have that interview?
+
+A. That was four or five years before I left New York. The main thing
+he wanted to know was whether I knew these people well enough to tell
+stories. Whether I could tell him that these people were
+"Black-Handers"?
+
+I had read in the newspapers that they had been in trouble with the
+law; but they had treated me fairly well and I said nothing against
+these people. Commissioner Wood wanted to know about these letters,
+and naturally I did not tell.
+
+Q. Did you treat Cecala?
+
+A. No, I never treated him.
+
+Q. Did you ever treat any of the defendants besides Morello?
+
+A. No. Lupo, Morello and Palermo. Palermo was operated on for
+something. At the time I was called in to give the ether.
+
+Q. What was Morello's business after he gave up the grocery?
+
+A. Real estate; then they started the real estate deal, the Ignatz
+Florio Association. The way they worked that was--I don't know how
+many got together, about nine or ten, and they started in by building
+a house and selling it--they said, "We will build a house and sell it
+and in that way there will be a big profit and from that profit we get
+dividends." They got people to buy shares; the shares were payable, I
+think, $5 down and $2 per month. So they came to my mother and she
+bought one share for herself, one in the name of my brother, and one
+in my name. When they got enough money they bought a lot, built a
+house and sold it, and got a dividend of 40 per cent. You could then
+either take the dividend, and put the money in your pocket, or leave
+it and it would go on the share. So most of the people left their
+money to go to their credit.
+
+Q. Who got the money?
+
+A. They claimed there was a big boom in real estate and they made
+another deal; they got 35 or 30 per cent. dividend. Then they started
+to build eight tenement houses, four on One Hundred and Thirty-seventh
+Street and four on One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street, near Cyprus
+Avenue.
+
+At the time they were building, the crash came.
+
+They took advantage of the prices and said, "We have not enough money
+to keep on; the shareholders will have to come together and pay more
+money on each share."
+
+I paid $10 extra on each share. At that time my mother had acquired
+eight shares. She had bought another for herself. Then my cousin had
+bought two for herself, which she did not want to keep, so my mother
+told her she would buy them from her.
+
+Q. Did Morello know anything about your going to see Commissioner
+Wood; did you tell him?
+
+A. Yes. I--
+
+Q. What did you tell him?
+
+A. I said that Commissioner Wood, when he found out that I would not
+give the information he wanted, said that I was just like the rest of
+them and then told me that I might go.
+
+Q. Did you tell Morello before you went down?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. What did Morello say when you told him that you had been down
+there?
+
+A. He said that is the way you have to do everything.
+
+Q. What do you know about the barrel murder?
+
+A. Absolutely nothing at all.
+
+Q. What do you know about Inzarillo?
+
+A. He is considered of questionable character.
+
+Q. Do you know the Terranova Brothers?
+
+A. They are the stepbrothers of Morello.
+
+Q. Do you know anything about them? Did you treat them?
+
+A. Yes, quite a long while; they had a disease which required that
+they come to my house every day, both Morello and the Terranovas.
+
+Q. When was that?
+
+A. That went on for about two years.
+
+Q. What two years?
+
+A. The two years just preceding 1907 and 1908.
+
+Q. Was Morello born with that deformed hand?
+
+A. Yes. He was so much crippled that they called him "Little Finger."
+
+Q. Then you did not treat Morello in 1909?
+
+A. At the time that I stated I did see him at No. 107 East One Hundred
+and Thirty-eighth Street; also, I saw him in Rizzo's house, and he
+would complain of pains; he was always complaining.
+
+Q. He was not sick in bed?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. You did not have any consultation with Dr. Brancato?
+
+A. No. I think that I may have had one consultation with him when he
+was at One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street.
+
+Q. When?
+
+A. I think it was before the time I covered. I think it was in
+December, 1908, also.
+
+Q. That means January and February?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. He was not treating Morello?
+
+A. He was the family physician in a way.
+
+Q. What do you think of him?
+
+A. Dr. Brancato? I want to state the fact as honestly as if he were my
+brother. I think he was a figurehead, too.
+
+Q. Did he ever say about what he was going to testify?
+
+A. He said we were up against a bad proposition. "Let us make our
+testimony as light as possible," he said. I asked him how we could
+avoid a thing of that kind. They would get us into trouble and we
+would have to stand for it.
+
+Q. Who came to you and told you that you would have to testify?
+
+A. Nobody; but this is the way it was done: They went to my mother and
+began to talk to her.
+
+Q. Who?
+
+A. Mrs. Morello and the mother of Morello and the brothers of Morello.
+So they went there and began to explain that they had got into very
+serious trouble. They also said that the only way--
+
+Q. Who?
+
+A. That he could be possibly saved would be to produce an alibi. I was
+to say that he was not out at any time he was accused of being out. I
+was to understand that he was the wrong man mentioned in court. They
+explained to my mother that the police knew that Dr. Romano had been
+their physician. It would be only natural that they call me; I could
+then testify that I was treating Morello at the time and he was unable
+to get out when, the charges alleged, Morello was around and doing
+things in the counterfeiting plant.
+
+They explained to my mother that there was no other man that could be
+called, because no other man would be trusted. The police knew I was
+Morello's physician, they said.
+
+And then my mother asked them not to call me, that it would be putting
+me into trouble, and that I would have to abandon the business I had
+started.
+
+They told her that it was an absolute necessity that I come down from
+Rochester and testify. If I did not come, they said, Morello would be
+sentenced surely. "Naturally," they said, "we think if the doctor
+would come down, Morello will be free."
+
+So my mother wrote to me. "This is the last proposition they are going
+to give you," she said. "I think you cannot avoid coming down."
+
+Q. She wrote and told you about it? Have you got that letter?
+
+A. No. Naturally I would not keep a letter of that kind. I thought the
+matter over. I knew the character of the men I had to deal with. I
+knew that if I refused and Morello got a big sentence they would put
+the whole thing up to me. I thought of my mother down here going out
+and in at night, and I had something to fear. Probably if it had been
+for myself only I would not have considered it; I would have looked at
+it differently. It seemed that I had no alternative in a case of this
+kind. They telegraphed me.
+
+Q. Who?
+
+A. The brothers Terranova.
+
+Q. What did they say?
+
+A. Be in New York to-morrow to appear in Court for the testimony of my
+brother.
+
+Q. When was that sent to you? When did you get the telegram? Was it a
+day or two before you came down?
+
+A. Yes, but I came down at once. The first time I came I remained here
+two days. Not being called, and not being able to leave my business
+for such a long period, I rushed back to Rochester.
+
+Q. When did you come down again?
+
+A. One week later at the time the detectives were testifying.
+
+Q. And you came down later? Did you go to your mother's house?
+
+A. Yes.
+
+Q. Whom did you see there?
+
+A. Terranova, Nick Terranova.
+
+Q. What did he say to you?
+
+A. "I am very sorry to trouble you. I know what you are losing. I know
+that you are doing this for us, but it is absolutely necessary. You
+are in no danger at all"--he was all the time in the house--"there
+will be no danger for you; you will be all right."
+
+Q. Did he tell you what you had to say?
+
+A. He said, "How many times a week do you want to say that you saw
+him?" I answered once a week. "I want to make my testimony as light
+as possible," I told him, "so as not to get into trouble with the
+Court." He said that once a week was probably too little; "make it
+twice a week," he said. And I said, if I remember rightly, I saw him
+twice a week.
+
+Q. Did he tell you the time and the period?
+
+A. He told me the period from the latter part of December to the early
+part of March. Of course I could not testify further than that.
+
+Q. Was Dr. Brancato there?
+
+A. I was all alone.
+
+Terranova said to me that when his brother (Morello) comes out of the
+Tombs I was to tell him just what I was going to testify to in Court.
+This in order to keep Morello from getting mixed up in his testimony,
+and also for the additional purpose of keeping Morello's mind at ease
+in the courtroom. Terranova told me to come along with him, and he
+made me stand in the corner there until he (Morello) came out, and I
+was to say he had rheumatism.
+
+Q. He said that; did Terranova tell Morello you were going to testify?
+
+A. We had arranged that.
+
+Q. When did you first see him?
+
+A. When they were bringing him down from the Tombs to the courtroom.
+
+Q. Did Terranova speak to Morello?
+
+A. Yes. He first spoke to Morello.
+
+Q. And he told him that you were willing to testify for that period?
+
+A. Yes.
+
+Q. Then what did you say to Morello?
+
+A. "I am going to testify for you, that you had rheumatism for that
+period, from the latter part of December to the first part of March."
+
+Q. Up to the time you left for Rochester?
+
+A. Yes. He said, "Don't fear; we are out; there is no danger at all;
+you need not fear, and I tell you that I was not out of the house at
+all; nobody saw me and nobody will know the difference, because I was
+as pale as a ghost at the time."
+
+Q. They did not know we had eight men watching them at the time--
+
+A. I came the first time, was here two days and was not called; I hung
+around the Court and finally had to go back to Rochester and look
+after my business.
+
+Q. When did you first see Dr. Brancato?
+
+A. The second time I came down to New York.
+
+Q. Did you know that he was going to testify too?
+
+A. Terranova told me--
+
+Q. What did he say?
+
+A. "He is going to testify that you were in consultation." Terranova
+took me from the courthouse here to Dr. Brancato.
+
+Q. That is Nick Terranova?
+
+A. Yes.
+
+Q. What did you do down in Brancato's office?
+
+A. We simply agreed as to what we were going to say; that is the time
+Dr. Brancato told me "we are up against it."
+
+Q. On the quiet?
+
+A. On the quiet.
+
+Q. Was Terranova there?
+
+A. He was in the outside room.
+
+Q. Did he tell you how you would fix it up--he did not treat Morello?
+
+A. No. Morello was not sick; he had no rheumatism, but complained all
+the time of pains.
+
+Q. Did Dr. Brancato tell you he had not treated him?
+
+A. We did not argue about that. It was understood.
+
+Q. It was understood that you had to swear falsely?
+
+A. _Because we could not do otherwise!_ So they came to me principally
+because I was his regular physician and they got Dr. Brancato--
+
+Q. To come in after you went to Rochester?
+
+A. I do not know what Dr. Brancato said.
+
+Q. Do you know Maria Capellano; she is no relation to you?
+
+A. Who?
+
+Q. The trained nurse who said she treated him?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. Do you know Gasparo Candido, the druggist on One Hundred and
+Forty-ninth Street, now at No. 23 New Bowery?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. Did you ever have any conversation with Mrs. Morello?
+
+A. No--the only conversation I had with her was--"Please do that for
+the love of the children; try and help my husband."
+
+Q. Where did you have that conversation?
+
+A. She came to my house.
+
+Q. You fixed the whole thing up with the Terranova boys?
+
+A. With Nick.
+
+Q. What happened after you got through testifying?
+
+A. I rushed back to Rochester.
+
+Q. Have you heard from them since you have been indicted?
+
+A. My mother told the whole crowd that she would have nothing to do
+with them; didn't care what the consequences would be. She said: "You
+have ruined my son; the last good thing you have done for us." They
+said to her, "Don't worry, everything will be all right."
+
+She said: "I don't care how it goes; I don't want to see you any
+more."
+
+Q. Did you hear anything about the alibi that you were going to
+establish for Cecala?
+
+A. I heard something when I was in the lawyer's office.
+
+Q. Were you down in the lawyer's office at all?
+
+A. Twice. He said: "What is your testimony to be?" I told him, and he
+said all right.
+
+Q. The only lawyer you ever saw?
+
+A. Yes.
+
+Q. Terranova was the one who had all the conversation?
+
+A. Nick, yes. He did the telegraphing.
+
+Q. How did he sign the telegram?
+
+A. Terranova.
+
+Q. Did not sign Nicholas?
+
+A. No, I don't think he did.
+
+Q. He was down in Towns'[6] office?
+
+A. He was; he never left me a minute.
+
+Q. What conversation did you have with Ponticelli?
+
+A. Only that I got there before he did. I was introduced to him here.
+
+Q. By whom?
+
+A. I do not recall.
+
+Q. He is a friend of Morello's?
+
+A. I think he was; lived downtown; they were neighbors.
+
+Q. Did you not have a store up there? [Rochester.]
+
+A. No. I went away from New York with a druggist.
+
+Q. His name?
+
+A. Bisconti. He went out there [Rochester] for the purpose of setting
+up a drug store, and I to set up an office. Naturally, I would be
+doing business with him. If I had any patients he would fill out the
+prescriptions. We proposed to help one another. We could not set up
+the drug store right away, so I rented my office to him and kept some
+medicines there; and I wrote my prescriptions and told the patients
+that if they wanted they could have the prescriptions filled out right
+in the house. That thing did not work because people would pay one
+dollar for the visit to me and sixty or seventy cents for the
+medicine, and they thought it was a scheme. I told Bisconti that as we
+had come to Rochester together I would help him all I could to set up
+a drug store there. This was when we parted.
+
+Q. How long have you known Bisconti?
+
+A. About three months.
+
+Q. Did any of the crowd ever give you checks to present at the bank?
+
+A. No. Ponticelli has a store with three or four men working. He came
+to me and asked if I could do him a favor. I had been there only two
+or three months. He said that he was doing much business and that as I
+was not doing very much he requested me to go and cash a check for
+him. It was for $300 made out by Ponticelli himself.
+
+Q. Did they ever discuss the counterfeit operations with you in any
+way?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. The only thing you know about them is that they made you come down
+here and testify?
+
+A. Yes.
+
+Q. Did they threaten your mother?
+
+A. No.
+
+For making this statement, which shows up the methods whereby the
+"Black-Handers" operated and tried to escape the punishment of the
+court for the offenses with which they were charged, Dr. Romano was
+allowed to go free after sentence was suspended.
+
+Dr. Brancato, the other physician, was tried twice, once the jury
+disagreeing and the second time he was found not guilty.
+
+I have no criticism of the action of the jury in Dr. Brancato's case.
+It is simply in line with the "fortunes of war" that the government
+was unable to land Dr. Brancato.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] Commissioner Wood was at the time referred to here the Deputy
+Commissioner of Police in charge of the Detective Bureau of New York
+under Theodore Bingham. It was Wood who sent Lieutenant Joseph
+Petrosino to Italy on the mission, in the carrying out of which the
+Lieutenant was assassinated. In reference to this murdering of
+Petrosino, who was the man who went to Sing Sing and got information
+from DePriema, which led to the identifying of the man murdered and
+found in the barrel, I wish to refer the reader back to that part of
+Comito's statement where Comito tells of his visit to Morello's house
+in East One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street, and especially to take
+note of the reference there made by Comito to "Michele, the
+Calabrian," and the conversation that took place between Morello and
+Cecala concerning the Calabrian. Then couple this with the reference
+made again to the Calabrian by Lupo (Page 113) in paying Michele's
+fare to Italy.
+
+[6] Mirabeau L. Towns, attorney for the gang.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE "BLACK-HAND" TESTAMENT
+
+
+On the person of one Rudolpho Palermo--one of the henchmen of the
+Morello-Lupo band--we discovered a small black book closely written in
+the nebulous dialect of Sicily. This man was under arrest on the
+charge of dealing in spurious money of the United States and Canada.
+We felt sure we had in our grasp an important document. After some
+little coaxing Palermo finally confessed that the ominous looking
+little book contained the rules governing the actions of the
+"Black-Hand" Society.
+
+Palermo is now serving a second sentence of six years in the Federal
+Penitentiary of Atlanta, Georgia.
+
+The following is a translation from the Sicilian patois of the rules
+and articles found in the little black book--the bible of the
+"Black-Handers":
+
+_First Article_--Whoever confides to other companions, not belonging
+to the same society, the operations and movements of his associates,
+or offends a companion by word or deed, seriously or in fooling, or
+does not respect the recruits (who cannot be commanded for other than
+affairs of the society), or refuses to mount guard at his turn, or
+gets drunk or has a quarrel among companions, or when being called by
+a companion for business of the society refuses his service without
+justified motive, or leaves town for more than one day and does not
+let it be known to the society, is punishable by a fine of $20 and
+cannot come back to his place. But his associates must be all of one
+accord, pro and con, in judging him guilty. In case one of the
+companions in the society departs, he must surrender to those
+remaining the power of his vote, or he must leave his address so that
+the society may notify him of a meeting in the case of new practice,
+when he will go to the place at the expense of the interested party.
+But if the punished party does not give proof of amending, he will be
+unfrocked--in all points remaining honored, however--unless he commits
+some infamy. Whenever the society is re-formed there must be an
+opinion of the judges as to who merits his place, and who cannot come
+to his place, until a meeting of the same society of its own will
+takes place, without any one appealing to another body of the society.
+
+_Second Article_--He who swears falsely on his submission, who draws a
+weapon against a companion without a weapon and one of the same
+dimensions (always an uncovered point) or pulls a revolver, or has a
+duel with any man of the same society without the permission of his
+superior, is unfrocked, roundly deprived of his rights, and he who
+protects him falls in disgrace without right of appealing to another
+body of the society.
+
+_Third Article_--The companion who knows of an offense committed by an
+associate against the society, and does not report it to the society,
+falls under the same charge.
+
+_Fourth Article_--He that does not come at the precise hour of meeting
+the blackmailers on the day set for duty will be punished without
+warning. If he gives an explanation acceptable to the society, he will
+be reinstated; otherwise, he will not participate at the next division
+of funds.
+
+_Fifth Article_--A recruit is entitled to one-fifth of the spoils
+procured by or through him for the society.
+
+_Sixth Article_--The society cannot proceed in any matter without the
+consent of all the companions; the opposition of a single vote is
+enough to dead-lock the proceedings, provided the reasons given by the
+dissenter are satisfactory and convincing to the society.
+
+_Seventh Article_--If a companion arrives once the council is in
+session, his presence cannot alter the agreements entered into.
+
+_Eighth Article_--Every meeting called is to be known to those on duty
+that day, at least twenty-four hours beforehand, except in unusual
+cases.
+
+_Ninth Article_--It is to the disposition exclusively of the head of
+the society to establish the place and day of meeting without
+objection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+"THE VERMILION FLOWER ON THE BIG TOE"
+
+
+Q. Where have you acquired the S? [The by-laws.]
+
+A. Under the Cedar Plains, and passing from the hole of the Beanstalk,
+I saw three lamps lighted and one in the center that could hardly
+stand.
+
+Q. Who has formed the plan of S?
+
+A. Fernando Misprizzi.
+
+Q. Is he dead or alive?
+
+A. He lives always, even after the end of the world.
+
+Q. Since when have you acquired the Sgarro?
+
+A. Since the scientific tree was planted in the hole.
+
+Q. With what is the hole covered?
+
+A. With a very fine carpet where the (Camorrists) blackmailers play.
+
+Q. What is enclosed in this hole?
+
+A. The Penny of Crime denied, fought for, and regained.
+
+Q. How do you demonstrate crime?
+
+A. Give me a sheet of paper and you will see.
+
+Q. What does the head of crime wear?
+
+A. A silk handkerchief with five knots and the Penny denied, fought
+for, and regained.
+
+Q. How many weapons are there?
+
+A. Thirteen. Five knives--four pairs and one separate, five packs of
+cards, three of which are for the ordinary blackmailing and two for
+the blackmailing of the experienced; stiletto, small tapper, and
+razor.
+
+Q. Where have you drawn? (blood).
+
+A. From the right thumb of the right hand.
+
+Q. What does an experienced blackmailer bear?
+
+A. A star in front of him (on his forehead) and a vermilion flower on
+the big toe of the left foot.
+
+Q. How many kinds of blackmail are there?
+
+A. Three--ordinary blackmail that becomes all blackmailers by turn,
+bold blackmail which is "that denied, fought for, and regained," and
+high blackmail that belongs to the supreme initiated blackmailers.
+
+Q. What does a highly initiated blackmailer especially bear?
+
+A. A pair of small scissors, a silver needle, pins, cotton and
+taffeta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE GENTLE ART OF WRITING "BLACK-HAND" LETTERS
+
+
+The reader, being now on the "inside" with us, I hope the extracts of
+the "black-hand" letters given here will convey some meaning.
+
+When we had our net closely drawn about the band of counterfeiters led
+by Lupo and Morello, we raided the homes of the various members of the
+gang. It fell to the lot of operative T. G. Gallagher to be among
+those of our men who entered Morello's home and placed the leader
+under arrest.
+
+In this case, the diaper wrapped about the body of Morello's baby
+attracted the experienced eye of operative Gallagher. The moment
+Gallagher broke into the room where Mrs. Morello was nursing her baby
+he noticed that Mrs. Morello tucked something away in the diaper of
+the infant. The mother fingered the cloth rather nervously.
+
+Gallagher suggested to Mrs. Morello that there might be something of
+interest to the government wrapped in the cloth that protected the
+little Morello, and instantly the mother became very emphatic in her
+native manner of making us understand that she "no understand."
+
+Gallagher is a man of Irish extraction from the environs of Boston. In
+other words, he has the humorous instinct. So he suggested that maybe
+the poor baby needed a fresh diaper! There was a flash of volcanic
+fire in the mother's eye as two strong arms held her secure while
+Gallagher removed the cloth from the infant's limbs and exposed the
+letters, copies of which are here given.
+
+The letters concern the admittance into the society of a man who is
+questioned by the leaders in New York, and who in turn puts the
+responsibility for his admittance up to the Chicago gang. Black
+borders adorn both the envelopes and the paper upon which the writer
+had scribbled his tale. The first of these letters is addressed to Mr.
+Rosario Dispenza, No. 147 Milton Avenue, Chicago, Ill., and is from G.
+La Bella Morello, No. 2069 Second Avenue, New York.
+
+     "DEAR FRIEND:
+
+     "In answer to your letter that bears date of the 10th, I hear
+     what you say in it. Regarding the Council, you have no right
+     to be present in the meetings. The Council is divided and
+     separated from the Assembly. But in case that some Councilman
+     wishes to be present in some meeting of the Assembly, he can
+     come but only to hear and then has no right to the floor,
+     neither right to an opinion or right to vote.
+
+     "Have I explained myself?
+
+     "This is for your guidance. Now regarding Calogero
+     Constantino. To tell you the truth, I have as yet been unable
+     to persuade myself as to what it is about, the letters to me
+     have not been satisfying or convincing. There should have
+     been better explanations. In this manner I cannot answer with
+     exact judgment and clear conscience. I cannot understand how
+     it is that Calogero Constantino remains arrested at Bacaluse,
+     Louisiana, while under the protection of so many good friends
+     engaged incessantly to make him obtain his liberty, and you
+     others of Chicago have all this contract on your side.
+
+     "I have said it more than once that I and my townsmen have
+     always known the Constantino family as a good family, and
+     none other but very good, and the boss of my town, I am sure,
+     cannot give you better details, though I doubt if they knew
+     this family just because they were not to our bearing, but
+     nevertheless leaning towards good people; have you seen 'the
+     ox, neither white nor black,' this is their bearing. But not
+     for this I repeat, always of good people; there have been
+     born at times people that had given a good account of their
+     being, honored and respected as always.
+
+     "We of Corleone have never had any dealings with them,
+     therefore could not try them and appreciate their merits.
+     Others that have had dealings, that is to say have known
+     their good merits, and have brought them to make part of our
+     family. Nothing extraordinary, because certainly would not
+     have brought them in this land if they had not known their
+     good merits. They have done well. We, of Corleone, will
+     appreciate said doings.
+
+     "In your letter you tell me that regarding Calogero
+     Constantino there is nothing to say, but there should be
+     exact information, because there are eight good workers sick
+     to put the work on him and of the eight persons there are
+     those in danger of their lives. But you must excuse me if I
+     and others have not understood such language.
+
+     "If you know that Constantino is of good health, also he is
+     severely of good health, you will take with other townsmen of
+     yours the responsibility here and also of the town, and we
+     will do everything. Neither I nor others here can understand
+     how you ever in your wise thinking write us in this manner.
+     If I have written to you more than once that this Constantino
+     family have never been to our hearing. Known to us only by
+     sight in America as in the town, and then this is not enough.
+     You surely should not ignore the fact Calogero Constantino
+     has been missing from New York at least six years.
+
+     "Now, then, I ask you why you write me and others to assume
+     the responsibility of said individual; if this party could be
+     admitted, then we assume the responsibility of an individual
+     that had been seen 'neither born nor raised' and who has
+     never been known by name or sight. This responsibility you
+     should ask of others, not us. You see in this that I was
+     right in resenting De Vito Casiaferro and Enea, and saying
+     that it is not done that way, in making a person, by not
+     asking information of the townsmen before making it, that all
+     these discussions now would not have been.
+
+     "Now you must ask them to assume the responsibility, those
+     that have made him, not us. Of us you must ask only if we
+     have anything to say. This, yes, is very correct. But to
+     assume responsibility is one thing, and asking if we have
+     anything to say is another thing. There is a great
+     difference. Therefore, we go in Court, we have undersigned,
+     upon our conscience and on our honor declare of having
+     nothing to say upon the conduct and honor of Calogero
+     Constantino, not regarding him only but also of his family.
+     All of Corleone. Giuseppe La Bella and brother, Vincenzo,
+     brother Ciro and brother Coco.
+
+            "PAOLO FRISELLA,
+            "GAETANO LOMONTE,
+            "STEFANO LASALA,
+            "FORTUNATO LO MONTE,
+            "ANTONIO RIZZO,
+            "MICHALE CONIGLIO,
+            "ANGELO VALENTI,
+            "FRANCESCO MOSCATO."
+
+This letter was, of course, written in the Sicilian dialect, and was
+translated into the foregoing "English," which, the reader will
+notice, is not quite the "Queen's own." But the translation was made
+close to the Sicilian, and we must take it as we get it.
+
+The reader will, of course, see that Constantino's admittance to the
+brotherhood is in doubt. That is, he is not being accepted into the
+society except upon the responsibility of the Chicago crowd. Whatever
+help is to be given him in his trouble in Louisiana, where he is under
+arrest, must come from the Chicago brethren. Help will come from New
+York, perhaps, in the last extreme. This seems to be the burden of the
+letter.
+
+Another letter follows which may also help the reader to a conclusion
+as to whether such a thing exists as a "Black-Hand" Society. The
+letter is addressed to Mr. Vincenzo Moreci, No. 535 S. Franklin
+Street, New Orleans, La. It is dated New York, November 15th, 1909,
+and reads as follows:
+
+     "DEAR FRIEND:
+
+     "Am in possession of your two letters, one that bears date
+     of the 5th, the other on the 10th of November. I understand
+     the contents.
+
+     "In regard to being able to reorganize the family, for me I
+     advise you all to do it because it seems it is not just to
+     stay without a king nor country, but I authorize you to
+     convey to all my humble prayer and my weak opinion, but well
+     understood, that those that are worthy and those that wish to
+     belong, those that do not wish to belong let them go.
+
+     "You tell me that from Palermo arrived good news. I nor the
+     others of New York have not been formally advised, therefore
+     I beg of you tell me something about the news from Palermo.
+     Who has written and whether any commission has decided to
+     come? I have advised my godfather La Gatutte to have in sight
+     the one from Morriale. I advise you further that in your last
+     letter I understood minutely and by wire, and sign the affair
+     of the friend Vincenzo Antinoro. It is well now we are well
+     understood. Now for the present the most interesting thing
+     that I desire and expect is the declaration (statement) of
+     Giovanni Gulotta regarding the affair Constantino and
+     Trombone declaration made and signed by his own hands of
+     Giovanni Gulotta, and then if we are there it's a wonder.
+
+     "I hear in your letter that Sunday three friends left to go
+     and see him. I will await patiently the answer and hope for
+     favorable results. Am in doubt that one of my letters may be
+     lost, because, as I had to say in a previous one to the last,
+     I had spoken also of the agreement I had made with Calogero
+     Gulotta. In fact, he told me in this his last that in no
+     other letter of mine had he understood what I said.
+
+     "I end this moment by sending you the most cordial greetings
+     of mine and my family to you with all your family and pray
+     you make it known also to the friend Zito, Piro, Sunsseri,
+     Benanti and their families as also Vito Di Giorgi.
+
+     "They will also receive many greetings of my brothers and
+     brothers-in-law and my son Calidu, my godfather Angelo La
+     Gatutte and all the friends of merit. Many greetings yet from
+     all the friends of New Orleans that you think. To you a warm
+     kiss. Your affectionate friend,
+
+            "(Signed) G. LA BELLA. (Morello.)"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A BADLY WRITTEN LETTER
+
+
+The value of these letters to the gang, and the peculiar information
+revealed in them to the Secret Service, prompted the "Black-Hand"
+crowd to get together a fund of $500, which was offered by one of the
+crowd to a man now attached to the New York Police Department. With
+this money the gang intended to bribe this man to get the letters and
+return them to Mrs. Morello. Until this man, who was then a member of
+the police department and a detective, reads this, he will not suspect
+that I even knew of the offer.
+
+There were other letters containing information of very valuable
+character to the Secret Service.
+
+Now, when the arrest was made, the news spread through East One
+Hundred and Sixth Street, where Morello was living, and some of the
+scouts brought the information to Nick Terranova, a half-brother of
+Morello. Terranova thereupon rushed down to Milone's grocery store at
+No. 235 East Ninety-seventh Street to notify the members of the gang
+who might be there that Giuseppe had been placed under arrest.
+
+There was a surprise coming to Nick when he discovered a number of
+Secret Service men in charge of the store, and the members of the gang
+taken away by the government's officers. He tried to act an imbecile,
+and pretended not to understand English when asked for a reason for
+his coming into the store. He was as communicative as the proverbial
+oyster.
+
+At the time when Morello was arrested he was in bed with his son.
+Under the pillow of each was found a large revolver. Neither father
+nor son, it is needless to say, were given the opportunity to reach
+the weapons. The son has since been murdered.
+
+And now that we are on the subject of letters I might relate that when
+the members of the gang discovered Comito had confessed what he knew
+of the counterfeiting scheme, they tried to locate Comito, who had
+been hidden by me. They tried a number of ruses in their efforts to
+locate him for the purpose, presumably, of murdering him.
+
+One of their efforts was characteristic: Secret Service operative
+Rubano was thought by the gang to be the man who was communicating
+with Comito by mail. This was presumed by the gang without foundation.
+However, it was enough for the gang to feel that this was the way in
+which I was keeping in touch with Comito. Here is what happened:
+
+Don Gasparo had a drug store at No. 23 New Bowery, where he also had a
+branch post office and received letters there for a number of the
+"Black-Hand" crowd. Some one wrote to the postmaster of New York, on a
+change of address card, and asked the postmaster to have all of Pietro
+Rubano's mail sent to No. 23 New Bowery.
+
+Now you must sign your own name to the card asking for this change. So
+there was the difficulty of getting Rubano's signature to the card
+without his knowing it. That was easy for the writer. He forged
+Rubano's name on the signature line of the card. The gang was elated.
+
+They would now get the "Squealer" Comito's letters to the Secret
+Service and locate and destroy the traitor.
+
+But, like the plans of the little field mouse of whom Robert Burns
+wrote, the best laid schemes "gang aft agley."
+
+I asked Rubano if he had made the request of the post office to have
+his mail addressed to the New Bowery place, and the detective told me
+it was news to him.
+
+Then information came to me about Gasparo, and I found that the
+druggist had good reasons to stand in with Morello. He had formerly
+run a drug store up in the Bronx in the near neighborhood of Lupo and
+Morello's real estate venture and was a fast friend of Morello. In
+fact, he and Morello were co-workers in enterprises that do not
+propagate peace on earth and good will among men.
+
+We started to lay a trap for Gasparo. I sent a number of letters from
+different parts of the country addressed to Rubano at the Custom
+House, New York, knowing that they would be forwarded to the New
+Bowery address.
+
+The letters were placed in large envelopes of different and pronounced
+color and easily distinguishable to the eye when placed in the letter
+"R" box in Gasparo's branch post office.
+
+Then I set Secret Service men to watch those who called for mail and
+to shadow any one calling for the large colored envelopes.
+
+This scheme of mine did not work out, though, to any fruitful end
+because of the failure of any of the gang to call for the envelopes
+with Rubano's name on them. A number of the gang had gone in and out
+of the drug store for days, but not one took away any of the large
+colored envelopes. Either they were afraid to take the chance or some
+suspicious circumstance warned them off when at the post office
+window. Such things as a strange man passing and looking into the drug
+store, or the appearance of a stranger in the neighborhood, might have
+been sufficient reason for the member who started for the letters to
+refrain from asking for them at the last moment. These Morello-Lupo
+members are very suspicious, and in dealing with them this trait must
+always be considered.
+
+Another incident of the efforts of the gang to locate Comito may be of
+interest at this point when I relate that the gang offered $2,500 to
+any one who would reveal to the "Black-Handers" the whereabouts of
+Comito. This $2,500 was offered to the same member of the New York
+Police Department who was also offered $500 for the return of the
+letters, two of which I have given a few pages back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+METHODS OF BLACKMAILING
+
+
+A threatening letter is sent to a proposed victim. Immediately after
+the letter is delivered by the postman Morello just "happens" to be in
+the vicinity of the victim to be, and "accidentally" meets the
+receiver of the letter.
+
+The receiver knows of Morello's close connections with Italian
+malefactors, and, the thing being fresh in mind, calls Morello's
+attention to the letter.
+
+Morello takes the letter and reads it. He informs the receiver that
+victims are not killed off without ceremony and just for the sake of
+murder.
+
+The "Black-Hand" chief himself declares he will locate the man who
+sent the letter, if such a thing is possible, the victim never
+suspecting that the letter is Morello's own. Of course, the letter is
+never returned to the proposed victim. By this cunning procedure no
+evidence remains in the hand of the receiver of the letter should he
+wish to seek aid from the police.
+
+Also, Morello is in this way put in close touch with the mental
+attitude of the receiver of the letter, and he is in a position to
+tell whether the receiver will go to the police or not.
+
+Morello thus can tell whether to proceed with further threats; he can
+also tell what manner of threat is most likely to persuade the
+receiver of the letter to part with his money.
+
+The threat may be the stealing of his little child or the blowing up
+of his store or the horrible invitation to expect swift and sudden
+death from a knife thrust in the dark.
+
+Morello was practically the first man to make this manner of blackmail
+a commercial success in this country.
+
+Here are a few samples of letters taken by the Secret Service men from
+Morello's house when he was arrested on the charges upon which he was
+convicted of counterfeiting United States money. It was for these
+letters also that the offer of $500 was made in part.
+
+The letter which follows had been sent through the mail to Liborio
+Bataglia, at No. 13 Prince Street, New York City. Morello had got the
+letter back in the usual way that I have just explained. It reads in
+the English translation from the Sicilian as follows:
+
+     "MR. BATAGLIA:
+
+     "Do not think that we are dead. Look out for your face; a
+     veil won't help you. Now is the occasion to give me five
+     hundred dollars on account of that which you others don't
+     know respect that from then to now you should have kissed my
+     forehead I have been in your store, friend Donate how you
+     respect him he is an ignorant boob, that I bring you others I
+     hope that all will end that when we are alone they give me no
+     peace as I deserve time lost that brings you will know us
+     neither some other of the Mafia in the future will write in
+     the bank where you must send the money without so many
+     stories otherwise you will pay for it."
+
+Here is another letter that had been sent through the mails and
+obtained by Morello in the usual manner. It bears a Brooklyn postmark
+and is dated September 21, 1908. It was addressed to Rosario Oliveri,
+27 Stanton Street. It reads in the translation from the Sicilian:
+
+     "DEAR FRIEND:
+
+     "Beware we are sick and tired of writing to you to the
+     appointment you have not come with people of honor. If this
+     time you don't do what we say it will be your ruination. Send
+     us three hundred dollars with people of honor at eleven
+     o'clock Thursday night. There will be a friend at the corner
+     of 15th Street and Hamilton Ave. He will ask you for the
+     signal. Give me the word and you will give him the money.
+     Beware that if you don't come to this order we will ruin all
+     your merchandise and attempt your life. Beware of what you
+     do.
+
+            "M. N."
+
+Here is a polite invitation to a proposed victim that he very kindly
+dispense with his money. It reads:
+
+     "FRIEND:
+
+     "The need obliges us to come to you in order to do us a
+     favor. We request, Sunday night, 7th day, at 12 o'clock you
+     must bring the sum of $1000. Under penalty of death for you
+     and your dears you must come under the new bridge near the
+     Grand Street ferry where you will find the person that wants
+     to know the time. At this word you will give him the money.
+     Beware of what you do and keep your mouth shut...."
+
+I summoned a great many of the people to whom these letters were sent
+and asked them to tell who they met and how much money they gave to
+the "Black-Handers." But invariably these people, some of whom I knew
+were victims, would deny that they had met any person in answer to the
+letter, and they would also deny that they ever thought of giving any
+money to appease the wrath of the "Black-Hand" Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+TRACING A LETTER
+
+
+While I was hot on the trail of the counterfeiting gang led by Lupo
+and Morello, a letter came to my hand which contained a counterfeit
+five-dollar note. The letter was addressed to Andrea Pollara, Portage
+La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada. The letter was written in Italian and
+translated was as follows:
+
+     "DEAR FRIEND:
+
+     "I enclose a sample of those for $5 and beg you buy five
+     cents of Griciria (the "black-hand" word for glycerine) which
+     if rubbed on certain counterfeit bills will give them the
+     appearance of age, and so make them the more easy to pass,
+     and rub it on your hands, and then you will do whatever you
+     want. If you see they will go well, notify me at once and I
+     will send you as many as you want."
+
+The note was signed I. P. It was a registered letter and sealed with
+black wax by a stamp seal bearing the name of F. Acritelli, No. 243
+Elizabeth Street. The return address on this letter was Giuseppe
+Conti, No. 8 Prince Street, New York City. The letter also showed that
+it had been mailed at Sub-Station No. 78, which is in the Italian bank
+conducted by Pasquale Pati, at No. 240 Elizabeth Street, just across
+the street from where the letter had been sealed at Acritelli's
+banking place. This Acritelli, by the way, is the father of the former
+Coroner Acritelli.
+
+The initials on the signature of the letter, I guessed were those of
+Pietro Inzarillo. This man conducted a little Italian café at No. 226
+Elizabeth Street, in the same block where Acritelli's bank was, and
+also in the same block where the sub post office station was located
+where the letter had been registered. Also, I knew that this Inzarillo
+was just around the corner from the grocery store of Lupo, at No. 8
+Prince Street; and in the back of Lupo's café, Morello conducted his
+Italian restaurant.
+
+I examined the five-dollar counterfeit bill and saw that it was the
+work of the Lupo-Morello gang.
+
+Then, too, the return address, No. 8 Prince Street, was where Morello
+and Lupo were doing business. The problem was how to connect these two
+fellows with the writing of the letter. It had been rejected when
+brought back there by the letter carrier.
+
+I hit upon the plan of finding out whether the handwriting was that of
+Lupo, which I had reason to believe it was. I remembered that several
+of the Lupo-Morello gang were in the Tombs awaiting trial for
+counterfeiting. I knew that many of their friends applied to United
+States Marshal Henkel for passes to visit the members of the gang
+locked up. Two of these were Isadore Crocervera and Giuseppe DePriema.
+The latter, by the way, was the brother-in-law of the man found
+murdered in the barrel.
+
+I went to Marshal Henkel and told him what I was after, and made
+arrangements with him to get the handwriting of all those who called
+and asked for passes to see the two Morello-Lupo counterfeiters. So
+whenever the visiting members called at the marshal's office and asked
+for passes the marshal pretended that he did not understand and had
+the visitors write out what they wished and required them to sign the
+request for passes. In this way I obtained the signature and
+handwriting of a number of the gang, but failed in the main purpose,
+namely, that of obtaining a sample of Lupo's handwriting or his
+signature.
+
+Despite the fact that I was satisfied that the workmanship of the bill
+was that of the Lupo-Morello crowd, and though I was confident that
+Lupo wrote the letter, yet when the letter was returned to No. 8
+Prince Street nobody there would accept it for Giuseppe Conti, the
+information to the letter carrier being that no such person lived
+there or was known there. When you know the ways of the Sicilian
+criminal this occurrence alone is good grounds for believing that a
+great deal more was known about Giuseppe Conti at the Prince Street
+address than was given to the letter carrier.
+
+I hit upon another plan. I knew that Lupo was importing into this
+country a large quantity of olive oil, which had to pass the
+government officials. Accordingly, I went to see John Hughes, brother
+of former Inspector of Police Edward Hughes, who was at one time in
+charge of the Detective Bureau at Police Headquarters. I told Hughes
+what I wanted. He was in the Custom's service.
+
+Hughes brought it about so that the consignment of olive oil to Lupo
+was held up, compelling Lupo himself to write out a list of the goods
+he desired to have admitted over his personal signature. The statement
+was then taken to a handwriting expert and also the letter containing
+the counterfeit five-dollar bill was placed at the disposal of the
+expert, who declared that the handwriting of the letter and that of
+the statement written by Lupo for his consignment of olive oil was one
+and the same.
+
+Now I had established a connecting link that would stand the test of
+the courts. But there were many other things about the letter that led
+me to go further before making any allegation against the wily Lupo.
+
+It occurred to me it might be well to know why the letter had been
+sent away out to a railroad camp in Portage La Prairie. I got men to
+work on that end of the case. We found that Andrea Pollara was a
+laborer in a railroad camp at the address to which the letter had been
+sent. Further, it was established that Andrea Pollara was the agent
+of the gang in the camp where a number of Italians were employed
+mending and building spurs on the railroad. He had been sent there to
+investigate and see whether it was a profitable place in which to
+distribute some of the spurious bills. Additional information
+disclosed the fact that the railroad camp had moved and the letter
+having been addressed to Portage La Prairie, and not being called for,
+was returned to the address written on the back, Giuseppe Conti, No. 8
+Prince Street. This cleared up in my mind the reasons for the letter
+being sent to the Canadian railroad camp and also the cause of its
+being returned.
+
+Other little connecting links were established over which I was
+building a bridge to Lupo in his Italian grocery store. It came to my
+mind that Lupo had done quite some business with Banker Acritelli, and
+Lupo was also on more than familiar terms with Banker Pati. I knew
+that Lupo and Inzarillo were very friendly. It was found that the man
+to whom the letter had been addressed to in Canada was not Andrea
+Pollara. This was an assumed name. The right name of the
+"Black-Hander" was Salvatore Maccari, who had a wife living in New
+York City. The net of evidence was closing on Lupo.
+
+While I was gathering the threads together, the tragedy of the barrel
+murder came to public notice. While the police of New York were
+groping around in the dark, I submitted information of which I have
+spoken previously in this book, and the arrest of a number of the gang
+for the murder of the victim in the barrel followed. Among those
+arrested was Lupo. When he was placed in custody his house was
+searched, and the following letter, written in Italian, was found. It
+was postmarked Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, addressed to
+Pietro Inzarillo, No. 226 Elizabeth Street, New York City, dated
+September 4, 1902, and translated reads:
+
+     "DEAR FRIEND:
+
+     "By the present I give you the news of my good health and of
+     all the friends who are with me, and so we hope to hear from
+     you and all the friends in New York, whom we respect.
+     Meantime, I beg of you warmly to tell me when the goods
+     arrive, and to send me the samples of a five in order to see
+     whether we can do business, prompt answer and samples. I and
+     all the friends salute you together with the friends over in
+     New York, I am your friend Andrea Pollara. My address is the
+     following, Mr. Andrea Pollara, Portage La Prairie, Manitoba,
+     Canada. P. S. Dear Paolo, I beg of you to send me five
+     dollars you or Ignazio (meant for Ignazio Lupo) that as soon
+     as I get my money I will return them to you, nothing else, I
+     am your friend 'Salvatore Matisi.' Be so kind as to put them
+     in the letter of your friend, I am sure you will favor me."
+
+The reader will not require much taxing of his thinking powers to
+realize that the returned letter containing the counterfeit $5.00 note
+was written in response to the above letter.
+
+When Lupo was searched we found another clue. A note book was found on
+him in which the following entry is recorded:
+
+"S. Matisi, sent to Canada $5.00--to his wife $5.00--ditto $4.00."
+
+Opposite this entry, that is, on the opposite page in the note book,
+is written:
+
+"The name Matisi is mentioned a number of times in this book as are
+also the names of a number of counterfeiters including Isadore
+Crocervera and Giuseppe DePriema."
+
+These entries were taken to a handwriting expert who declared that the
+handwriting was the same as that in the letter which I started tracing
+after its return here from Portage La Prairie. These entries, however,
+were in English, and I may note here that Lupo wrote English.
+
+Twelve of the gang were arrested by the New York police when they
+rounded up the crowd incident to the barrel murder. Among those
+arrested with Lupo was Pietro Inzarillo. When the latter was arrested,
+his café at No. 226 Elizabeth Street was searched and a letter from
+Maccari was found. The letter was postmarked Portage La Prairie,
+Manitoba, Canada, dated September 1st, 1902, and addressed to Pietro
+Inzarillo, alias Saitta (Lupo's full name being Ignazio Lupo Saitta),
+Elizabeth Street, New York. The rest of the address is illegible. The
+letter reads:
+
+            "Canada Pacife, August 31, 1902.
+
+     "DEAR FRIEND:
+
+     "With these few words I come to make you a note of my perfect
+     health, the same I hope to hear from you, you brothers also,
+     I desire to know how your father has been; therefore I
+     recommend to you that affair that I left in your charge. If
+     my Uncle Thomas comes from Ebgostien, do not forget the
+     affair that is the direction that you have given to Carmino,
+     do not let it go up in the air. As soon as possible that you
+     can, make it. Nothing else to tell you. Give my regards to
+     Paolo Marchese, regards to Giuseppe Morello and John Pecorain
+     and all the friends that ask for me, with the best of regards
+     to you, I say your dear friend 'Salvatore Matisi' accept the
+     regards from Carmelo Blandina. This is the direction--Salvatore
+     Maccari, P. O. Portage La Prairie Manitoba, Canada."
+
+No comment is necessary concerning the letter. It speaks for itself as
+another thread in the net I was weaving.
+
+It did not take agents of the Secret Service long to "pick up"
+Maccari. He was not aware of the fact that he was under surveillance
+for some time prior to May 2, of 1902, when he was placed under arrest
+at his home in No. 70-1/2 James Street, New York City. When his
+apartments were searched agents of the service looked under Maccari's
+bed and found letters written from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba,
+Canada, and signed Salvatore Maccari. These letters were addressed to
+Maccari's wife, and contained what is termed "rivetting" evidence.
+Also, there were letters from his wife to Maccari and addressed to him
+at Portage La Prairie.
+
+When placed under arrest Maccari at first denied that he knew either
+Lupo or Inzarillo, and proved to be a proverbial Italian at giving
+information to the police. He would not admit that he had ever seen or
+heard of either of the two men. He knew nothing about the counterfeit
+money, and had never even seen any spurious bills either in this
+country or in Italy. He made the sign of the cross and called on the
+saints to prove the truth of his lying statements. He declared that he
+could not read, neither could he write.
+
+Later on he admitted that he was intimately acquainted with Lupo and
+that Lupo's father and his father were great friends in Italy for
+years and that both families were life-long friends. He also admitted
+that he was well acquainted with Inzarillo. He also declared that the
+letters were written by a friend and signed at his, Maccari's,
+dictation. And more evidence was ferreted out.
+
+The water mark in the billheads used by Lupo in his grocery business
+was identical with that in the letter sent to Portage La Prairie, and
+having on it the return address of Giuseppe Conti, No. 8 Prince
+Street. The envelope upon which the return address was written was the
+same make as the envelopes found in the café of Inzarillo when that
+place was searched following Inzarillo's arrest in connection with the
+barrel murder.
+
+On October 24, 1902, a registered letter addressed to Andrea Pollara,
+with the return address P. Inzarillo and Giglio, was returned to Lupo
+at his residence, No. 433 West Fortieth Street. Pollara could not be
+located in the Canadian camp and so the letter came back. Lupo signed
+the receipt for the returned letter. The handwriting was the same as
+in the instances already related wherein the "Black-Hander's"
+scribbling was identified by an expert.
+
+I will not weary the reader with further efforts along this line of
+reaching one of the big chiefs of the gang as he stood far in the
+background, certain of his immunity from any connection in a legal
+sense with the distributor of the money his brain had planned to build
+up his fortune on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+"BLACK-HAND" PROPAGANDA
+
+
+The method followed in enlisting Antonio Schiavi into the service of
+the gang affords a typical example of the cunning, watchful procedure
+of the Lupo-Morello secret propaganda, which was in a fair way to
+become of world-wide scope. A gang member, Giuseppe Gudo, managed to
+send Schiavi to a drug store where he was sure to meet Antonio
+Miloni.[7]
+
+Schiavi tells of leaving Rio de Janeiro about February 23, 1909, on
+the steamship _Gunther_, and arriving in New York in the middle of
+February of the same year. While on shipboard he became acquainted
+with Giuseppe Gudo, a tailor of Newark, New Jersey. After striking up
+a friendly acquaintance with Gudo Schiavi says, and telling Gudo that
+he was a litho-engraver, Bono sent him to the drug store of Mocito,
+at No. 20 Broome Street, where Schiavi was to ask for Giuseppe
+Carlino, another litho-engraver who would get employment in New York
+for Schiavi.
+
+Schiavi never met any Carlino, he says, but Gudo had spoken about him
+(Schiavi), the latter learned at the drug store. Accordingly, Schiavi
+continued to go to the Mocito store and remained there for a half day
+at a time in the hope of meeting Gudo. He was unsuccessful in this,
+though, but often met Cecala at the drug store. One day Cecala spoke
+to him, Schiavi says, and suggested that with a little money he
+(Schiavi) could start in a profitable business.
+
+Cecala never said much more concerning this business venture, though,
+to Schiavi, but one day Cecala made a further suggestion that Schiavi
+might help a certain man learn the photo-engraving business. This man,
+according to Cecala, had been in the bicycle business, but had given
+up this enterprise and was looking around for employment that promised
+to be more remunerative.
+
+Finally, one day at the drug store, he was introduced to Antonio B.
+Miloni by Cecala who told Schiavi that Miloni was the man of whom
+Cecala had been speaking and who wanted to learn the photo-engraving
+business.
+
+Schiavi and Miloni had an extended conversation, and Schiavi agreed to
+go to the home of Miloni and teach him the business. Then for about
+six weeks or two months Schiavi went to the home of Miloni daily, and
+taught the "Black-Hander" the essentials of the photo-engraving
+business. At the end of that time, according to Schiavi, Miloni
+discovered that he could proceed by himself and announced to Schiavi
+that he (Miloni) had joined the photo-engravers' union.
+
+About a year or so after this, Schiavi says he met Miloni on Third
+Avenue near One Hundred and Fourteenth Street, and Miloni was on his
+way home. The latter had in his possession, Schiavi says, a camera and
+all the necessaries for photographing. Also, Schiavi says, Miloni took
+him along to a photo-engraving supply store at No. 103 Mott Street,
+where the "Black-Hander" bought several kinds of the supplies
+necessary to the photo-engraving business.
+
+Schiavi then tells of making a rendezvous of the Mocito drug store
+after this incident. He met a man in the drug store by the name of
+Don Ciccio (Francesco) who made the drug store a camping place. This
+Don Ciccio posed as being in the real estate business and declared
+that he was an agent. What manner of agent he was, Schiavi says, Don
+Ciccio never made clear. This same Don Ciccio, according to Schiavi,
+once asked him whether he were able to make plates for money. Schiavi
+informed the real estate man that he could make the plates, but
+preferred his liberty to a term in the confines of a jail. Miloni was
+present during the conversation between Schiavi and Don Ciccio,
+according to Schiavi, but Miloni did not enter into the conversation.
+There were others who frequented the drug store and who were
+identified by Schiavi as members of the gang now imprisoned on the
+charges of counterfeiting.
+
+In many ways, too numerous to relate, information of this sort came to
+me until the Secret Service was facing the onerous task of digesting
+and coördinating it for its special needs to keep the legal tender of
+the country secure.
+
+The subtle, round-about manner in which the "Black-Hander" scatters
+the seeds of his propaganda so that they will grow and bear fruit of
+themselves and disarm suspicion is well-illustrated in the way in
+which the attempt was made to inveigle Schiavi.
+
+Corleone is the home town of Morello and Lupo, the arch-plotters. It
+is a place fascinating to the eye of the artist. Nestling at the foot
+of Mount Cardellia, in the province of Palermo, Sicily, it lies about
+two thousand feet above sea-level and seems to be sailing in the
+clouds like a phantom city of the Middle Ages.
+
+Corleone means Lion-Heart. _Korliun_ it was named by the Saracens, who
+founded it and made it a military stronghold in the picturesque
+thirteenth century. Something of the savage, marauding spirit of the
+Saracen, always a menace to civilization, hovers about the place--a
+savagery that has nursed into being a dangerous and powerful arm of
+the great Mafia or "Black-Hand" Society of Italy. The town holds only
+about twenty thousand inhabitants and there is no industry to speak
+of. Palermo is but twenty-one miles to the north of it. There is a
+splendid old church in Corleone reminiscent of the time when King
+Frederick II colonized these parts with Lombardian peasants as early
+as 1237.
+
+One night in the year 1889, while on his way home, Giovanni Vella,
+Chief of the Sylvan Guards, was murdered in a dark street but a short
+distance from his residence in Corleone. A bullet had torn its way
+through his back and into his lung. Vella lasted but a few minutes
+after the shooting, but long enough to cause a nasty tangle for the
+police in their effort to solve the murder. Vella lived just long
+enough to utter a few remarks that were misused by Mafia influences to
+send an innocent man to prison for twenty-two years.
+
+Anna Di Puma, a neighbor, returning to her house at that hour had just
+passed through a dark alley and noticed two men lurking in the shadow.
+She passed close and looked into their faces, recognizing one of the
+men as Giuseppe Morello, whom she knew very well.
+
+A couple of minutes later, even before she had reached her door, she
+heard a shot and ran back into the alley. There she found Vella lying
+in the exact spot where she had seen Morello and his companion
+apparently hiding but a few minutes previously. Anna Di Puma told the
+neighbors what she had seen. She was also incautious enough to say
+that she was going to court to tell on the witness stand just what
+she had observed.
+
+Anna Di Puma was shot in the back and killed two days later while she
+was sitting on the door-step of a neighbor's store.
+
+Morello was arrested and charged with the murder of the Di Puma woman.
+He was held in prison to await trial, but powerful influences of the
+Mafia were set to work and Morello was discharged for lack of
+evidence. The only witness to the murder of Vella was dead. Two
+lawyers of his band testified that Morello was in Palermo with them
+and not in Corleone on the night the Di Puma woman was murdered.
+
+Michele Guarino Zangara, living in the next apartment to Morello, who
+noticed when the "Black-Hander" arrived home and overheard the
+conversation that followed between Morello and his mother, was also
+murdered. He was thrown off a bridge one night while on his way home.
+He was found the next morning under the bridge dead. This man Zangara
+had gone to the accused man's house, three or four days after the
+Chief of the Sylvan Guards was murdered, and told the family of the
+man unjustly arrested for the crime that he (Guarino) had overheard
+Mrs. Morello say to her son:
+
+"Peppe, what have you done? Now they will come and arrest you," and in
+response to this Morello said, "Shut up, mother, they have gone on the
+wrong scent."
+
+Zangara, being a man with a large family, feared to tell what he knew
+because he felt sure that Morello would murder him just as he had
+slain the Di Puma woman. However, when the accused man, Francesco
+Ortonello, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, Zangara
+came to the front, declaring that his conscience troubled him to see
+an innocent man sent away for the murder of Vella. He went to the
+authorities and told them that he was willing to risk his life and
+tell the truth for Ortonello. The authorities told Zangara that it
+would have been better had he told it during the trial. Now it was too
+late.
+
+A few days after this the murder of Zangara took place.
+
+Morello was on his way to America at this time, but the "Black-Hander"
+had many powerful friends still watchful for his interests, and some
+of these attended to Zangara.
+
+Pietro Milone, a police officer who tried hard to clear Ortonello, was
+murdered one night on his way home. The one who slew the officer was
+never punished.
+
+Biaggia Milone lived across the way from the spot where Morello and
+his companion were seen hiding, and this woman subsequently admitted
+she saw the shooting and that Morello did it.
+
+This woman is now in New York, and is the cousin of Domenico Milone,
+who conducted the grocery store at No. 235 East Ninety-seventh Street,
+which was the headquarters and distributing plant for the Lupo-Morello
+counterfeit money. The Milone woman has even stated publicly that she
+would not testify to what she knows in behalf of Ortonello in an
+effort to get the old man out of prison where, she says, she knows he
+is unjustly kept!
+
+Ortonello's father, who tried to have his son freed, was threatened
+with death several times, and several shots were actually fired at him
+while the old man sat in his own doorway. The marksmanship was not
+good and the old man escaped the bullets.
+
+While Morello was in prison charged with murdering the Di Puma woman
+he met Ortonello in the prison. Morello admitted to Ortonello that he
+had murdered Vella, the chief of the Sylvan Guards, for which crime
+Ortonello was there in the prison awaiting trial. Morello also
+informed Ortonello that if he and all his family did not care to join
+Vella in the world to come that the whole family had better be careful
+of what they said and what charges they made, and that any evidence
+tending to show his (Morello's) complicity in the crime must be
+suppressed.
+
+In order that the reader may view the foregoing facts in proper
+perspective it will be necessary for me to relate a little of the
+politics and the relation of the so-called Mafia to the murders.
+
+Vella, the murdered chief, was a very active and knowing man. He had
+dug up a great amount of evidence against the criminal band of which
+Morello was a member, and which was under the leadership of a very
+wealthy and powerful young man named Paolino Streva.
+
+Vella had sworn in public that he would put this band out of business
+in and around Corleone. He also had decided to place Morello under
+surveillance, which means that Morello would have to be home every
+night at a certain time and subject to be called at any hour of the
+night by the police who would see whether he was behaving himself.
+Also, Morello would be compelled to make reports of his whereabouts
+and conduct and what work he was at to Vella whenever the chief should
+require it.
+
+In return for the stand Vella had taken Morello swore publicly that he
+would be avenged on Vella for this punishment.
+
+Vella also knew of the extensive criminal operations of Streva and
+that Morello was Streva's trusted lieutenant. Vella knew that Streva
+had a great deal of influence with judges and other public officials
+and even boasted that certain senators in Rome would do his bidding.
+Through this influence Streva managed to get out of prison a number of
+thieves, murderers and blackguards who in turn would go to any
+extremes for Streva. By crooked politics and sometimes by fear Streva
+exerted a baneful influence over the community the same as his uncle
+had done before him, the uncle who had handed down the wealth and
+political power that the younger man enjoyed. All these things were
+well known to Vella.
+
+A further circumstance must be related here. During the latter part
+of 1889, a large number of cattle had been stolen in the neighborhood
+of Corleone and the country people were making many complaints. Vella
+had been working on the case, and succeeded in rounding up facts and
+evidence sufficient to strike a telling blow at the Streva-Morello
+team and the rest of the Mafia crowd. The chief was contemplating a
+raid on the gang. The Streva crowd, however, were tipped off that the
+arrest orders were about to be signed.
+
+Beyond and behind all this there was a tense political situation.
+Vella's term of office was about to expire and election day was not
+far off. Streva and his crowd feared Vella, but they knew that they
+could not hope to beat the chief for re-election if they opposed him
+with one of their own crowd.
+
+The "Black-Handers" looked the field over and hit upon Francesco
+Ortonello, who was a man of upright life and character respected by
+his townsmen for miles around. Ortonello's father had been mayor of
+Corleone. An uncle was the best-known priest in the southern extremity
+of Sicily. Ortonello, though, had never meddled with politics, nor
+with the Mafia or any other organization. He was quite content to
+mind his own business and devote himself to his family. One day a
+committee of influential men called on Ortonello, and after persistent
+argument induced him to run for the office of Commander of the Sylvan
+Guards against Vella.
+
+This induced Vella to suspect Ortonello for being in league with the
+Mafia and intent on spoiling all the good work done toward wiping out
+the plundering band of which Morello was a member.
+
+Accordingly, with some liquor in him, Vella went to Ortonello's house
+and hurled the following at Ortonello, who did not understand the
+political conditions that prevailed at the time:
+
+"So, Ortonello," said Vella in a rage, "you have dropped the mask. I
+never thought you were one of the Mafia's puppets. I thought you were
+an honest man, but evidently I fooled myself."
+
+This onslaught in his own house brought Ortonello to his feet. He
+grabbed a gun and forced Vella to flee. Now, Ortonello's eyes were
+opened. He realized that he had been duped into accepting the
+candidacy against Vella. He realized that his clean record of
+citizenship was to be used in order to beat Vella. He promptly went
+to the authorities and notified them to cancel his name.
+
+The Mafia was thrown into panic. The bandits knew that Vella would win
+if Ortonello did not oppose him.
+
+The very night following Ortonello's cancelling of his name for the
+office, Vella was murdered.
+
+Previously on the evening that he was shot Vella had been making merry
+at the café "Stella d'Italia" with a number of public officials and
+was well "under the weather," as they say, when he started for home.
+He was seen to rest against a lamp-post. A neighbor offered him
+assistance to his door but Vella refused.
+
+As soon as the shooting took place there was a commotion. Vella's
+wife, feeling that some such fate would befall her husband, rushed out
+terror-stricken and fell prostrate across the dying chief. The
+carabineers arrived and with them a crowd of people. Vella was taken
+in a dying condition to his house, which became jammed with excited
+neighbors. Among those present was Morello. He had hidden his gun in a
+pile of rubbish at the river's edge and hurried into Vella's house to
+look for developments. The hiding of the gun by Morello was testified
+to at the trial of Ortonello by a man named Antonio Caronia, who, by
+the way, was not murdered. He was a good shot himself, and had the
+reputation of being able to mix it up with any of the Morello crowd
+without much fear of the results.
+
+The commander of the carabineers was a dear friend of Vella's and had
+been dining with the chief but a few minutes before the shooting. The
+commander asked Vella who shot him and the chief muttered:
+
+"Cows, cows,--the Mafia." The chief also recited a long list of names
+of the men he had been camping after in his efforts to rid the
+community of the Mafia band. At this the commander of the carabineers
+interrupted the dying chief, and told him he was naming too many men,
+and that so many could not have done the shooting. The result, the
+commander told the chief, would be that no one would suffer for the
+offense. The commander then asked Vella whether he had any quarrels
+recently and the chief answered:
+
+"Yes, I quarrelled with Ortonello yesterday. He wanted to take my job
+away--take the bread and butter from my wife and children--and he
+threatened me with a gun."
+
+The commander of the carabineers immediately directed his men to go
+and get Ortonello and bring him to the house of the dying chief.
+
+When Morello heard this order he smiled and departed for his home. It
+was upon returning there that the conversation took place which
+Zangara declared he had overheard between the "Black-Hander" and his
+mother.
+
+When the carabineers arrived with Ortonello in their custody, Vella
+was in his last breaths. When asked by the commander of the
+carabineers if Ortonello was the man with whom he had quarrelled on
+the previous day, Vella nodded his head and fell back dead.
+
+Another arrest followed that of Ortonello. It was that of Francesco
+Orlando, who was also a candidate against Vella. Orlando was tried and
+sentenced to a term of fifteen years, which he served and is now out.
+Needless to say that Orlando's sympathies and activities are not
+directed toward any movement favorable to the Morello crowd.
+
+The trial of Ortonello shows the methods of the Mafia--methods that
+the Lupo-Morello gang would transplant to this country in the conduct
+of the trials of our courts of their criminal brethren if it could be
+done by them. Morello's powerful friends brought it about so that the
+two attorneys for Ortonello deserted him at the moment the case was to
+go to trial so that the unfortunate Ortonello was forced to take a
+young lawyer who knew little of the details of the case and who was
+not sufficiently versed in the practice of courts.
+
+But worse still, the two attorneys that deserted Ortonello on the eve
+of his trial had all along advised him that his innocence was so
+evident that no jury would ever convict him. It was not, therefore,
+the attorneys told Ortonello, necessary to go to any great pains to
+prove his innocence. The value of this advice to the Mafia crowd may
+be brought out more strongly when I tell you that both of these
+attorneys were betraying Ortonello and keeping Morello's friend
+Streva, the powerful young leader of the Mafia, informed of every move
+of Ortonello. They advised Ortonello not to bring out any evidence
+that would be injurious to Streva or Morello. It would not be
+necessary to do this to prove his innocence, the two attorneys told
+Ortonello.
+
+In vain Antonio Caronia testified in Ortonello's behalf that he had
+seen Morello hide the gun in the pile of rubbish at the river's edge
+shortly after the shooting took place. To offset this testimony of
+Caronia's, the Morello crowd worked upon the police and had the gun
+spirited away. Later on, it may be added here, the police official who
+was responsible for the hiding of this gun at the time of Ortonello's
+trial, was dismissed from the service for his conduct.
+
+In vain did Ortonello's attorney bring out evidence that the bullet
+extracted from Vella's body was much larger than the caliber of the
+gun found in Ortonello's home. Testimony was admitted at the trial to
+offset this. A Mafia henchman was produced who declared that the
+bullet had been made larger because of hitting a bone in Vella's body
+and thus flattening the missile.
+
+In vain was it shown that a grocery wagon had been placed in front of
+Ortonello's door more than an hour before the shooting and that this
+wagon had to be removed before the carabineers could get admittance to
+Ortonello's house when they went after him to bring him to the house
+of the dying chief. In vain was it brought out at the trial that
+Ortonello was in bed when the carabineers entered his room to take
+him into custody. In vain was it shown that he could not have got into
+the house or out of it while a grocery wagon was backed up to his door
+an hour previous to the time of the shooting and was still there when
+the carabineers arrived to arrest him. In vain was it shown that this
+grocery wagon had been drawn up in front of Ortonello's door by the
+groceryman next door who had come from Palermo that night with a large
+amount of groceries, and when the mail stage was to pass, and because
+the street was narrow, the groceryman backed the wagon up to the door
+and left it there until he could unload his goods.
+
+In vain did the groceryman testify that he was unloading his wagon
+when the shot was fired, that he did not leave his wagon from then
+until the carabineers arrived, and that Ortonello had not entered the
+house nor come from it during that period. In vain was testimony given
+that the grocery wagon, being backed up to the door, prevented
+Ortonello from either coming out of the house or entering it.
+
+In order to contradict the testimony of the grocer and three others
+who corroborated him concerning the wagon, friends of Vella went to a
+prostitute who lived in the rear of Ortonello's house and paid her
+money to testify that she had seen Ortonello after the shooting climb
+a rope and enter the rear window of this house. The window was forty
+feet from the ground. This woman is now dead, but before her demise
+she told the truth and declared that she had perjured herself for the
+money given her by the commander of the carabineers. This man was very
+bitter against Ortonello because he believed at the time that
+Ortonello had murdered his friend Vella.
+
+To no avail was the testimony of an expert shoe-maker who showed the
+court that the footprints examined in the spot where Morello was seen
+hiding by the Di Puma woman, just prior to the shooting, were not the
+footprints of Ortonello nor of Orlando.
+
+As further proof of the unfair trial suffered by Ortonello let me
+relate that the commander of the carabineers was so convinced of
+Ortonello's guilt, and so determined to prove a strong case against
+the unfortunate Ortonello that the commander went to the house of
+Biaggia Milone and frightened her by threats into testifying that she
+had seen Ortonello and Orlando do the shooting, that she had seen
+this from the window of her home, and that she had seen the two
+surveying the ground on the previous Sunday. This is the Milone woman
+whose cousin operated the grocery store in East Ninety-seventh Street,
+which was the headquarters distributing plant for the Lupo-Morello
+counterfeit money.
+
+For four years Ortonello remained in prison at Palermo, where the case
+should properly have been tried; but the Mafia crowd became frightened
+at the public sentiment that was being aroused in behalf of Ortonello
+and feared that if he were tried at Palermo, where he was so well
+known, and where the truth was slowly leaking out, he would be set
+free. Through the influence of Streva the case was transferred to
+Messina, at the other extremity of Sicily, where Ortonello was tried
+and convicted. He was sentenced to serve life imprisonment. Five of
+the jurors believed him innocent.
+
+Perhaps the reader is curious to know what became of Paolino Streva,
+the young and powerful leader of the Mafia of that time, the protector
+and patron of Morello. His fate will probably serve as a warning and
+please the reader. He is missing from the vicinity of Corleone for
+some time past. He quarrelled with Bernardo Verro, the very popular
+leader of the Socialist party in Corleone, and caused Verro to be
+shot. The shooting was inaccurate, though, and Verro recovered. Then
+the friends of Verro thought they would do a little shooting of their
+own, and they attempted to hit Streva on three different occasions,
+but were unsuccessful. Then Verro's friends went after Streva still
+more effectively. They burned down his house and barns and destroyed
+his farm lands. Streva suddenly disappeared and his whereabouts are
+not known.
+
+As for Morello, he is safely lodged in the Atlanta Federal Prison on a
+sentence of twenty-five years for counterfeiting. He is, however, no
+longer in danger of being prosecuted for the murder of Vella because
+the Italian Code provides that a man cannot be tried for a crime when
+twenty years have expired after the committing of the felony.
+
+As for Ortonello and his family I can state that his wife and children
+are now in New York and prospering. The old man himself, I am happy to
+state, is free through friendly influences I have succeeded in
+bringing to bear on his case. He has taken a new grip on life since
+the day of his release, even though he is broken in body and weighted
+with years, showing plainly the terrible suffering of his twenty-three
+years of unmerited prison life. His spirit is revived and his mind is
+clear. He prays for me and mine.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[7] Miloni was Treasurer of the Ignatz Florio Co-Operative
+Association. He was indicted and confessed. He is now in Italy a
+fugitive from justice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE WATCHWORD OF THE "BLACK-HANDERS"
+
+"_Have no fear--I am not asleep--and I have not slept ever since that
+time!_"
+
+
+These ominous words were underscored in a letter written by Morello,
+the arch-bandit, to a friend in Palermo who had warned the chief to be
+on his guard against betrayal in his extensive criminal operations.
+The words "that time" undoubtedly refer back to the Corleone murders
+that made the chief change his habitat from the mountain haunts of the
+Mafia to the by-ways of New York.
+
+I have quoted Morello because in that ominous sentence he has spoken
+the watchword of the "Black-Handers" in New York City. The criminal
+element among the Italians here is not sleeping. At the time he penned
+these words Morello had advanced to the leadership of the worst and
+most elusive band of criminals that ever slipped past the scrutiny of
+the Ellis Island officials.
+
+In contrast to the criminal element, the honest Italians of New York
+City, and other large centers of population in this country, are
+certainly sleeping. It is a restless, fearful sleep in which they are
+indulging. A sleep from which they will be aroused sometimes by a bomb
+at their door, or by the stealing of the smallest child in their
+household, or by a knife-thrust in the dark. The Italian, the honest
+Italian, the good citizen, knows that what I say is true.
+
+But why does the honest Italian go back and sleep again when he knows
+that the same danger is imminent still?
+
+The honest Italian is drugged with fear.
+
+He fears to open his mouth and tell the police and the government
+officials about the threats that have been sent to him by letter or by
+those whom he knows are among the criminal element. His mouth is
+closed with the drug of fear. He goes back to sleep in silence not
+realizing that by so doing he invites another crime upon his
+household.
+
+The antidote for the drug of fear is courage.
+
+Perhaps courage is not the correct word; I mean rather disregard of
+threats. If the honest Italians in this country would disregard the
+threats of the very small number of criminals among them, the
+"Black-Hand" nuisance would be wiped out before the sun returned to
+the meridian many times. If the honest Italian would help the police
+authorities by telling the facts when threatened there would be a
+swift ending of the "Black-Hand" gang.
+
+The reason for the fear in the mind of the honest, and even the most
+intelligent, Italians is born of the thought that such leaders as
+Morello and Lupo, were more than human in their craftiness, and had
+dark and mysterious ways of avoiding the best detectives in this
+country, and that they could even commit murder and laugh in the teeth
+of the police. The answer to such a thought is the sentences imposed
+on Morello, Lupo and the other members of the gang now confined in the
+federal prison. If there are other leaders of less magnitude than
+these two, and who have caused any Italian fear through threat or
+otherwise, I invite such honest Italian to tell me what he knows.
+There are cells unoccupied in many prisons.
+
+In conclusion I ask the honest Italian to disregard the idea that the
+criminals of his race are infallible and may not be reached by the
+law. It is to honest Italians particularly that I send out this book.
+I repeat the words of Giuseppe Morello:
+
+"HAVE NO FEAR, I AM NOT ASLEEP, AND HAVE NOT SLEPT EVER SINCE THAT
+TIME."
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+Spelling and hyphenation variants were standardized to the most
+frequently used, as follows: Black Hand(er) to Black-Hand(er), calibre
+to caliber, getaway to get-away, maccaroni to macaroni, post-office to
+post office.
+
+Chapter XXVI, p. 239: "Schiavi tells of leaving Rio de Janeiro about
+February 23, 1909, on the steamship _Gunther_, and arriving in New
+York in the middle of February of the same year." This apparent error
+in dates has been retained as in the original since it could not be
+resolved.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42010 ***