On this day, March 12, in 1909, Joseph Petrosino, a New York City police officer who was a pioneer in the fight against organized crime, was gunned down in Italy.
Petrosino was in charge of the New York Police Department’s elite Italian Squad. He busted the godfather of the New York mob, warned the Secret Service about an Italian anarchist plot to assassinate President McKinley and put away members of the Black Hand who blackmailed the famous tenor Enrico Caruso.
In 1909, Petrosino was sent to Italy to infiltrate the Sicilian Mafia. But the mob got a tip about Petrosino’s true identity and had him killed.
More than 250,000 people attended his New York funeral. Some of his crime-fighting techniques are still practiced today.
– Scott McCabe
