Remembering Lt. Joe Petrosino

Long before New York City knew the name of police officer Frank Serpico or Starsky and Hutch or any other "super-cops" that were either real or invented or dressed up to heroic proportions by the media, there was a police officer who really was the real thing: his name was Joe Petrosino - the first Italian American police officer to join and serve with the New York City Police Department.

Although Petrosino's career spanned the end of one era and the beginning of another (1860 - 1909), he is still venerated by current officers as well as older veterans who "knew someone who knew someone else who knew Joe Petrosino." I wasn't quite so fortunate, I only recently learned about the man and his incredible legacy of public service by chance -- during a weekend road trip to the small town of Padula -- which sits nestled in the mountain regions outside of Salerno, Italy.

The town of Paula is famous for a UNESCO protected monastery and its surrounding gardens -- one of the largest and most opulent in all of Italy. But I discovered Padula is also the home of Giuseppe or Joe Petrosino. One of New York's finest who -- by a strange twist of fate-- saw his life begin an end in the same town of his birth.

According towww.italophiles.com/petrosino, Joe Petrosino first arrived in New York City in 1878. On October 19, 1883, Petrosino joined the NYCPD. During his service, he would become friends with future president Theodore Roosevelt who was police commissioner of New York City at the time. On July 20, 1895, Roosevelt promoted Petrosino to Detective Sergeant and put him in charge of the department's Homicide Division, making him the first Italian-American to lead the division.

The pinnacle of Petrosino's career came in December of 1908 when he was promoted to Lieutenant and placed in charge of the Italian Squad, an elite corps of Italian-American detectives specifically assembled to deal with the criminal activities of organizations like the Mafia, which Petrosino saw as a shame to decent citizens in the USA and Italy.

According to Buhner.com, Petrosino's investigations into Mafia activities led him to Don Vito CascioFerro, the godfather of the Mafia in New York. In 1903, Petrosino arrested him on suspicion of murder, but Cascio Ferro was acquitted. He later returned to Sicily, where he became increasingly involved with the Sicilian Mafia.

Angolonero.it points out that In 1909, Petrosino made plans to travel to Palermo, Sicily, on a top secret mission. However, because of the incompetence of Thomas Bingham, New York's police commissioner, the New York Herald published the story of Petrosino's mission on February 20, 1909, just days before his departure. Even though he was aware of the danger, Petrosino headed to Palermo as planned. However, this decision would prove fatal. Petrosino wrongly believed that the Sicilian Mafia would not kill a policeman, as they did not in America.

On March 12, 1909, after arriving in Palermo, Petrosino received a message from someone claiming to be an informant, asking the detective to meet him in the city's Piazza Marina to give him information about the Mafia. Petrosino arrived at the rendezvous, but it was a trap. While waiting for his 'informant,' Petrosino was shot to death by Mafia assassins.

Vito Cascio Ferro was arrested for Petrosino's murder but was released after an associate provided an alibi. However, he later claimed to other crime figures that he had killed Petrosino, which helped propel him into the position of capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses). Ironically Ferro died in prision in 1945 after being arrested in 1927 on a murder charge he probably did not commit.

Petrosino was a man of firsts. He was the first officer ever to log more than 700 arrests per year. He was also the first officer to be officially recognized for introducing the techniques of disguise and working "plain clothes" in order to infiltrate criminal organizations. Certainly, Petrosino accomplished so much in his 20 years on the force I'd need several articles to recap it all. You can learn a lot more by clicking here. In the meantime -- suffice to say -- the world could certainly use a few more heroes of the caliber of Joe P.

And so it ends. Back in New York, Lt. Perosino was given a hero's send off. A ceremony that saw an estimated 250,000 people pay their respects to one of their favorite sons during a 6 hour ceremony. Come to think of it, that is another first -- Petrosino received a state funeral not only in New York but in Palermo, Italy where he was gunned down.

His small humble home in Padula was turned into a museum and that's where I made the connection. Originally maintained by his niece and now by the Lt. Joe Petrosino International Foundation in addition to the community of Padula, the Salerno Province and the Region of Campania -- visitors can catch a glimpse of the humble surroundings that provided the early foundation to a man who more than left his mark on the world.