Tuesday,
February 12, 2008
Lieutenant Giuseppe “Joe" Petrosino Revisited
The
ANNOTICO Report
Joe
Petrosino was born in southern
In
1890, Joe Petrosino was promoted to detective, the
first Italian-American in the city to achieve that rank, and assigned to root
out crime in the Italian-American community.In 1895,
then police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, promoted him to detective sergeant.
A year later, he was promoted to lieutenant and appointed commander of an elite
unit known as "The Italian Squad", whose primary focus was
on a group known as the "Black Hand", which had been terrorizing
Italian-Americans through the delivery of extortion letters, followed by
bombings if the recipients did not pay up.
In
1909, Lieutenant Petrosino traveled to
“Joe" Petrosino Revisited
Ask
the DA
The
By
Charles J. Hynes
Kings County District Attorney
February
7, 2008
Q: I recently read about a famous
A: Lieutenant Giuseppe
"Joe" Petrosino was a celebrated
Joe Petrosino was born in southern
In
1890, Joe Petrosino was promoted to detective, the
first Italian-American in the city to achieve that rank, and assigned to root
out crime in the Italian-American community. He was an adept undercover, who
assumed roles as diverse as gangster and tunnel worker to ferret out
information on criminal activities. In 1895, then police commissioner Theodore
Roosevelt, who had befriended him, promoted him to detective sergeant. A year
later, he was promoted to lieutenant and appointed commander of an elite unit
known as The Italian Squad.
The
primary focus of The Italian Squad was on a group known as the Black Hand,
which had been terrorizing Italian-Americans through the delivery of extortion
letters, followed by bombings if the recipients did not pay up. To counteract
the nefarious activities of the Black Hand, Lieutenant Petrosino
founded the city and countrys first municipal bomb squad.
In
1909, Lieutenant Petrosino traveled to
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