The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia

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The unknown inside story of the NYPD’s Italian-born detectives who fought both powerful gangsters and the deeply ingrained prejudice against their own beloved immigrant community The story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12, 1909, at 8:45 p.m. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated even in Italy. The Italian Squad, by veteran New York City journalist and historian Paul Moses, explores the lives of the nationally celebrated detectives who followed in the slain Petrosino’s footsteps as leaders of the New York City investigative squad: Anthony Vachris, Charles Corrao, and Michael Fiaschetti. Drawing on new primary sources such as private diaries and city, state, and federal documents, this dramatic narrative history follows the Italian Squad across the first two decades of the twentieth century as its detectives battled increasingly powerful gangsters, political obstacles and deeply ingrained prejudice against their own beloved Italian immigrant community. Vachris, Corrao, and Fiaschetti became, like Petrosino, famous for meting out tough justice to criminals who comprised the “Black Hand.” Beyond trying to prevent horrific crimes―nighttime bombings in crowded tenements, kidnappings that targeted children at play, gangland shootings that killed innocent bystanders―the Italian Squad commanders hoped to persuade society of what they knew for themselves: that their fellow immigrant Italians, so often maligned, would make good American citizens. In this explosive story, Moses carefully strips away the mythology that has always enveloped the Italian Squad and offers instead a nuanced portrait of brave but flawed men who fought the good fight for their people and their city. Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Characters Part One: 1904 to 1909 1 “Dies Martyr” 2 “On the Dead Quiet” 3 “The Same Fate as Petrosino” 4 “We Are on the Ground and He Is Not” 5 “He Got Me Some Clerical Work” 6 “Petrosino Is Dead, but the Black Hand Lives” 7 “They Have Those Responsible for the Murder of Detective Petrosino” Part Two: 1910 to 1914 8 “The Impotence of the Metropolitan Police” 9 “The Policeman’s Club” 10 “My Boy Will Be Cut to Pieces” 11 “Where Is Tony Vachris” 12 “The Temperament of Your Race” 13 “Arrested by One of His Own Countrymen” 14 “This Is Another Administration” 15 “That Is the Stuff” Part Three: 1915 to1919 16 “Framed for Something He Did” 17 “They’ll Get Theirs” 18 “The Man with a Hole in His Hand” 19 “Appreciation and Thanks” Part Four: 1920 to 1922 20 A “Vast and Complex” Mission to Naples 21 “Cunning, Effective Detective Work” 22 “The Most Famous of Detectives” 23 “Broken Up” 24 Conclusion: A Bridge to an Alienated Community Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index About the Author