The Barrel Mystery

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."

THE END

notes

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.

2

Piddu is the Sicilian diminutive for Giuseppe, the Christian name of Morello.

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.

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 (#Page_113)) in paying Michele's fare to Italy.

6

Mirabeau L. Towns, attorney for the gang.

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.