The Barrel Mystery

by William J. Flynn

  CHAPTER XXVI

  "BLACK-HAND" PROPAGANDA

  The method followed in enlisting Antonio Schiavi into the service ofthe gang affords a typical example of the cunning, watchful procedureof the Lupo-Morello secret propaganda, which was in a fair way tobecome of world-wide scope. A gang member, Giuseppe Gudo, managed tosend Schiavi to a drug store where he was sure to meet AntonioMiloni.[7]

  Schiavi tells of leaving Rio de Janeiro about February 23, 1909, onthe steamship _Gunther_, and arriving in New York in the middle ofFebruary of the same year. While on shipboard he became acquaintedwith Giuseppe Gudo, a tailor of Newark, New Jersey. After striking upa friendly acquaintance with Gudo Schiavi says, and telling Gudo thathe was a litho-engraver, Bono sent him to the drug store of Mocito,at No. 20 Broome Street, where Schiavi was to ask for GiuseppeCarlino, another litho-engraver who would get employment in New Yorkfor Schiavi.

  Schiavi never met any Carlino, he says, but Gudo had spoken about him(Schiavi), the latter learned at the drug store. Accordingly, Schiavicontinued to go to the Mocito store and remained there for a half dayat a time in the hope of meeting Gudo. He was unsuccessful in this,though, but often met Cecala at the drug store. One day Cecala spoketo him, Schiavi says, and suggested that with a little money he(Schiavi) could start in a profitable business.

  Cecala never said much more concerning this business venture, though,to Schiavi, but one day Cecala made a further suggestion that Schiavimight help a certain man learn the photo-engraving business. This man,according to Cecala, had been in the bicycle business, but had givenup this enterprise and was looking around for employment that promisedto be more remunerative.

  Finally, one day at the drug store, he was introduced to Antonio B.Miloni by Cecala who told Schiavi that Miloni was the man of whomCecala had been speaking and who wanted to learn the photo-engravingbusiness.

  Schiavi and Miloni had an extended conversation, and Schiavi agreed togo to the home of Miloni and teach him the business. Then for aboutsix weeks or two months Schiavi went to the home of Miloni daily, andtaught the "Black-Hander" the essentials of the photo-engravingbusiness. At the end of that time, according to Schiavi, Milonidiscovered that he could proceed by himself and announced to Schiavithat he (Miloni) had joined the photo-engravers' union.

  About a year or so after this, Schiavi says he met Miloni on ThirdAvenue near One Hundred and Fourteenth Street, and Miloni was on hisway home. The latter had in his possession, Schiavi says, a camera andall the necessaries for photographing. Also, Schiavi says, Miloni tookhim along to a photo-engraving supply store at No. 103 Mott Street,where the "Black-Hander" bought several kinds of the suppliesnecessary to the photo-engraving business.

  Schiavi then tells of making a rendezvous of the Mocito drug storeafter this incident. He met a man in the drug store by the name ofDon Ciccio (Francesco) who made the drug store a camping place. ThisDon Ciccio posed as being in the real estate business and declaredthat he was an agent. What manner of agent he was, Schiavi says, DonCiccio never made clear. This same Don Ciccio, according to Schiavi,once asked him whether he were able to make plates for money. Schiaviinformed the real estate man that he could make the plates, butpreferred his liberty to a term in the confines of a jail. Miloni waspresent during the conversation between Schiavi and Don Ciccio,according to Schiavi, but Miloni did not enter into the conversation.There were others who frequented the drug store and who wereidentified by Schiavi as members of the gang now imprisoned on thecharges of counterfeiting.

  In many ways, too numerous to relate, information of this sort came tome until the Secret Service was facing the onerous task of digestingand coordinating it for its special needs to keep the legal tender ofthe country secure.

  The subtle, round-about manner in which the "Black-Hander" scattersthe seeds of his propaganda so that they will grow and bear fruit ofthemselves and disarm suspicion is well-illustrated in the way inwhich the attempt was made to inveigle Schiavi.

  Corleone is the home town of Morello and Lupo, the arch-plotters. Itis a place fascinating to the eye of the artist. Nestling at the footof Mount Cardellia, in the province of Palermo, Sicily, it lies abouttwo thousand feet above sea-level and seems to be sailing in theclouds like a phantom city of the Middle Ages.

  Corleone means Lion-Heart. _Korliun_ it was named by the Saracens, whofounded it and made it a military stronghold in the picturesquethirteenth century. Something of the savage, marauding spirit of theSaracen, always a menace to civilization, hovers about the place--asavagery that has nursed into being a dangerous and powerful arm ofthe great Mafia or "Black-Hand" Society of Italy. The town holds onlyabout twenty thousand inhabitants and there is no industry to speakof. Palermo is but twenty-one miles to the north of it. There is asplendid old church in Corleone reminiscent of the time when KingFrederick II colonized these parts with Lombardian peasants as earlyas 1237.

  One night in the year 1889, while on his way home, Giovanni Vella,Chief of the Sylvan Guards, was murdered in a dark street but a shortdistance from his residence in Corleone. A bullet had torn its waythrough his back and into his lung. Vella lasted but a few minutesafter the shooting, but long enough to cause a nasty tangle for thepolice in their effort to solve the murder. Vella lived just longenough to utter a few remarks that were misused by Mafia influences tosend an innocent man to prison for twenty-two years.

  Anna Di Puma, a neighbor, returning to her house at that hour had justpassed through a dark alley and noticed two men lurking in the shadow.She passed close and looked into their faces, recognizing one of themen as Giuseppe Morello, whom she knew very well.

  A couple of minutes later, even before she had reached her door, sheheard a shot and ran back into the alley. There she found Vella lyingin the exact spot where she had seen Morello and his companionapparently hiding but a few minutes previously. Anna Di Puma told theneighbors what she had seen. She was also incautious enough to saythat she was going to court to tell on the witness stand just whatshe had observed.

  Anna Di Puma was shot in the back and killed two days later while shewas sitting on the door-step of a neighbor's store.

  Morello was arrested and charged with the murder of the Di Puma woman.He was held in prison to await trial, but powerful influences of theMafia were set to work and Morello was discharged for lack ofevidence. The only witness to the murder of Vella was dead. Twolawyers of his band testified that Morello was in Palermo with themand not in Corleone on the night the Di Puma woman was murdered.

  Michele Guarino Zangara, living in the next apartment to Morello, whonoticed when the "Black-Hander" arrived home and overheard theconversation that followed between Morello and his mother, was alsomurdered. He was thrown off a bridge one night while on his way home.He was found the next morning under the bridge dead. This man Zangarahad gone to the accused man's house, three or four days after theChief of the Sylvan Guards was murdered, and told the family of theman unjustly arrested for the crime that he (Guarino) had overheardMrs. Morello say to her son:

  "Peppe, what have you done? Now they will come and arrest you," and inresponse to this Morello said, "Shut up, mother, they have gone on thewrong scent."

  Zangara, being a man with a large family, feared to tell what he knewbecause he felt sure that Morello would murder him just as he hadslain the Di Puma woman. However, when the accused man, FrancescoOrtonello, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, Zangaracame to the front, declaring that his conscience troubled him to seean innocent man sent away for the murder of Vella. He went to theauthorities and told them that he was willing to risk his life andtell the truth for Ortonello. The authorities told Zangara that itwould have been better had he told it during the trial. Now it was toolate.

  A few days after this the murder of Zangara took place.

  Morello was on his way to America at this time, but the "Black-Hander"had many powerful friends still watchful for his interests, and someof these attended to Zangara.

  Pietro Milone, a police officer who trie
d hard to clear Ortonello, wasmurdered one night on his way home. The one who slew the officer wasnever punished.

  Biaggia Milone lived across the way from the spot where Morello andhis companion were seen hiding, and this woman subsequently admittedshe saw the shooting and that Morello did it.

  This woman is now in New York, and is the cousin of Domenico Milone,who conducted the grocery store at No. 235 East Ninety-seventh Street,which was the headquarters and distributing plant for the Lupo-Morellocounterfeit money. The Milone woman has even stated publicly that shewould not testify to what she knows in behalf of Ortonello in aneffort to get the old man out of prison where, she says, she knows heis unjustly kept!

  Ortonello's father, who tried to have his son freed, was threatenedwith death several times, and several shots were actually fired at himwhile the old man sat in his own doorway. The marksmanship was notgood and the old man escaped the bullets.

  While Morello was in prison charged with murdering the Di Puma womanhe met Ortonello in the prison. Morello admitted to Ortonello that hehad murdered Vella, the chief of the Sylvan Guards, for which crimeOrtonello was there in the prison awaiting trial. Morello alsoinformed Ortonello that if he and all his family did not care to joinVella in the world to come that the whole family had better be carefulof what they said and what charges they made, and that any evidencetending to show his (Morello's) complicity in the crime must besuppressed.

  In order that the reader may view the foregoing facts in properperspective it will be necessary for me to relate a little of thepolitics and the relation of the so-called Mafia to the murders.

  Vella, the murdered chief, was a very active and knowing man. He haddug up a great amount of evidence against the criminal band of whichMorello was a member, and which was under the leadership of a verywealthy and powerful young man named Paolino Streva.

  Vella had sworn in public that he would put this band out of businessin and around Corleone. He also had decided to place Morello undersurveillance, which means that Morello would have to be home everynight at a certain time and subject to be called at any hour of thenight by the police who would see whether he was behaving himself.Also, Morello would be compelled to make reports of his whereaboutsand conduct and what work he was at to Vella whenever the chief shouldrequire it.

  In return for the stand Vella had taken Morello swore publicly that hewould be avenged on Vella for this punishment.

  Vella also knew of the extensive criminal operations of Streva andthat Morello was Streva's trusted lieutenant. Vella knew that Strevahad a great deal of influence with judges and other public officialsand even boasted that certain senators in Rome would do his bidding.Through this influence Streva managed to get out of prison a number ofthieves, murderers and blackguards who in turn would go to anyextremes for Streva. By crooked politics and sometimes by fear Strevaexerted a baneful influence over the community the same as his unclehad done before him, the uncle who had handed down the wealth andpolitical power that the younger man enjoyed. All these things werewell known to Vella.

  A further circumstance must be related here. During the latter partof 1889, a large number of cattle had been stolen in the neighborhoodof Corleone and the country people were making many complaints. Vellahad been working on the case, and succeeded in rounding up facts andevidence sufficient to strike a telling blow at the Streva-Morelloteam and the rest of the Mafia crowd. The chief was contemplating araid on the gang. The Streva crowd, however, were tipped off that thearrest orders were about to be signed.

  Beyond and behind all this there was a tense political situation.Vella's term of office was about to expire and election day was notfar off. Streva and his crowd feared Vella, but they knew that theycould not hope to beat the chief for re-election if they opposed himwith one of their own crowd.

  The "Black-Handers" looked the field over and hit upon FrancescoOrtonello, who was a man of upright life and character respected byhis townsmen for miles around. Ortonello's father had been mayor ofCorleone. An uncle was the best-known priest in the southern extremityof Sicily. Ortonello, though, had never meddled with politics, norwith the Mafia or any other organization. He was quite content tomind his own business and devote himself to his family. One day acommittee of influential men called on Ortonello, and after persistentargument induced him to run for the office of Commander of the SylvanGuards against Vella.

  This induced Vella to suspect Ortonello for being in league with theMafia and intent on spoiling all the good work done toward wiping outthe plundering band of which Morello was a member.

  Accordingly, with some liquor in him, Vella went to Ortonello's houseand hurled the following at Ortonello, who did not understand thepolitical conditions that prevailed at the time:

  "So, Ortonello," said Vella in a rage, "you have dropped the mask. Inever thought you were one of the Mafia's puppets. I thought you werean honest man, but evidently I fooled myself."

  This onslaught in his own house brought Ortonello to his feet. Hegrabbed a gun and forced Vella to flee. Now, Ortonello's eyes wereopened. He realized that he had been duped into accepting thecandidacy against Vella. He realized that his clean record ofcitizenship was to be used in order to beat Vella. He promptly wentto the authorities and notified them to cancel his name.

  The Mafia was thrown into panic. The bandits knew that Vella would winif Ortonello did not oppose him.

  The very night following Ortonello's cancelling of his name for theoffice, Vella was murdered.

  Previously on the evening that he was shot Vella had been making merryat the cafe "Stella d'Italia" with a number of public officials andwas well "under the weather," as they say, when he started for home.He was seen to rest against a lamp-post. A neighbor offered himassistance to his door but Vella refused.

  As soon as the shooting took place there was a commotion. Vella'swife, feeling that some such fate would befall her husband, rushed outterror-stricken and fell prostrate across the dying chief. Thecarabineers arrived and with them a crowd of people. Vella was takenin a dying condition to his house, which became jammed with excitedneighbors. Among those present was Morello. He had hidden his gun in apile of rubbish at the river's edge and hurried into Vella's house tolook for developments. The hiding of the gun by Morello was testifiedto at the trial of Ortonello by a man named Antonio Caronia, who, bythe way, was not murdered. He was a good shot himself, and had thereputation of being able to mix it up with any of the Morello crowdwithout much fear of the results.

  The commander of the carabineers was a dear friend of Vella's and hadbeen dining with the chief but a few minutes before the shooting. Thecommander asked Vella who shot him and the chief muttered:

  "Cows, cows,--the Mafia." The chief also recited a long list of namesof the men he had been camping after in his efforts to rid thecommunity of the Mafia band. At this the commander of the carabineersinterrupted the dying chief, and told him he was naming too many men,and that so many could not have done the shooting. The result, thecommander told the chief, would be that no one would suffer for theoffense. The commander then asked Vella whether he had any quarrelsrecently and the chief answered:

  "Yes, I quarrelled with Ortonello yesterday. He wanted to take my jobaway--take the bread and butter from my wife and children--and hethreatened me with a gun."

  The commander of the carabineers immediately directed his men to goand get Ortonello and bring him to the house of the dying chief.

  When Morello heard this order he smiled and departed for his home. Itwas upon returning there that the conversation took place whichZangara declared he had overheard between the "Black-Hander" and hismother.

  When the carabineers arrived with Ortonello in their custody, Vellawas in his last breaths. When asked by the commander of thecarabineers if Ortonello was the man with whom he had quarrelled onthe previous day, Vella nodded his head and fell back dead.

  Another arrest followed that of Ortonello. It was that of FrancescoOrlando, who was also a candidate against Vella. Orlando was t
ried andsentenced to a term of fifteen years, which he served and is now out.Needless to say that Orlando's sympathies and activities are notdirected toward any movement favorable to the Morello crowd.

  The trial of Ortonello shows the methods of the Mafia--methods thatthe Lupo-Morello gang would transplant to this country in the conductof the trials of our courts of their criminal brethren if it could bedone by them. Morello's powerful friends brought it about so that thetwo attorneys for Ortonello deserted him at the moment the case was togo to trial so that the unfortunate Ortonello was forced to take ayoung lawyer who knew little of the details of the case and who wasnot sufficiently versed in the practice of courts.

  But worse still, the two attorneys that deserted Ortonello on the eveof his trial had all along advised him that his innocence was soevident that no jury would ever convict him. It was not, therefore,the attorneys told Ortonello, necessary to go to any great pains toprove his innocence. The value of this advice to the Mafia crowd maybe brought out more strongly when I tell you that both of theseattorneys were betraying Ortonello and keeping Morello's friendStreva, the powerful young leader of the Mafia, informed of every moveof Ortonello. They advised Ortonello not to bring out any evidencethat would be injurious to Streva or Morello. It would not benecessary to do this to prove his innocence, the two attorneys toldOrtonello.

  In vain Antonio Caronia testified in Ortonello's behalf that he hadseen Morello hide the gun in the pile of rubbish at the river's edgeshortly after the shooting took place. To offset this testimony ofCaronia's, the Morello crowd worked upon the police and had the gunspirited away. Later on, it may be added here, the police official whowas responsible for the hiding of this gun at the time of Ortonello'strial, was dismissed from the service for his conduct.

  In vain did Ortonello's attorney bring out evidence that the bulletextracted from Vella's body was much larger than the caliber of thegun found in Ortonello's home. Testimony was admitted at the trial tooffset this. A Mafia henchman was produced who declared that thebullet had been made larger because of hitting a bone in Vella's bodyand thus flattening the missile.

  In vain was it shown that a grocery wagon had been placed in front ofOrtonello's door more than an hour before the shooting and that thiswagon had to be removed before the carabineers could get admittance toOrtonello's house when they went after him to bring him to the houseof the dying chief. In vain was it brought out at the trial thatOrtonello was in bed when the carabineers entered his room to takehim into custody. In vain was it shown that he could not have got intothe house or out of it while a grocery wagon was backed up to his dooran hour previous to the time of the shooting and was still there whenthe carabineers arrived to arrest him. In vain was it shown that thisgrocery wagon had been drawn up in front of Ortonello's door by thegroceryman next door who had come from Palermo that night with a largeamount of groceries, and when the mail stage was to pass, and becausethe street was narrow, the groceryman backed the wagon up to the doorand left it there until he could unload his goods.

  In vain did the groceryman testify that he was unloading his wagonwhen the shot was fired, that he did not leave his wagon from thenuntil the carabineers arrived, and that Ortonello had not entered thehouse nor come from it during that period. In vain was testimony giventhat the grocery wagon, being backed up to the door, preventedOrtonello from either coming out of the house or entering it.

  In order to contradict the testimony of the grocer and three otherswho corroborated him concerning the wagon, friends of Vella went to aprostitute who lived in the rear of Ortonello's house and paid hermoney to testify that she had seen Ortonello after the shooting climba rope and enter the rear window of this house. The window was fortyfeet from the ground. This woman is now dead, but before her demiseshe told the truth and declared that she had perjured herself for themoney given her by the commander of the carabineers. This man was verybitter against Ortonello because he believed at the time thatOrtonello had murdered his friend Vella.

  To no avail was the testimony of an expert shoe-maker who showed thecourt that the footprints examined in the spot where Morello was seenhiding by the Di Puma woman, just prior to the shooting, were not thefootprints of Ortonello nor of Orlando.

  As further proof of the unfair trial suffered by Ortonello let merelate that the commander of the carabineers was so convinced ofOrtonello's guilt, and so determined to prove a strong case againstthe unfortunate Ortonello that the commander went to the house ofBiaggia Milone and frightened her by threats into testifying that shehad seen Ortonello and Orlando do the shooting, that she had seenthis from the window of her home, and that she had seen the twosurveying the ground on the previous Sunday. This is the Milone womanwhose cousin operated the grocery store in East Ninety-seventh Street,which was the headquarters distributing plant for the Lupo-Morellocounterfeit money.

  For four years Ortonello remained in prison at Palermo, where the caseshould properly have been tried; but the Mafia crowd became frightenedat the public sentiment that was being aroused in behalf of Ortonelloand feared that if he were tried at Palermo, where he was so wellknown, and where the truth was slowly leaking out, he would be setfree. Through the influence of Streva the case was transferred toMessina, at the other extremity of Sicily, where Ortonello was triedand convicted. He was sentenced to serve life imprisonment. Five ofthe jurors believed him innocent.

  Perhaps the reader is curious to know what became of Paolino Streva,the young and powerful leader of the Mafia of that time, the protectorand patron of Morello. His fate will probably serve as a warning andplease the reader. He is missing from the vicinity of Corleone forsome time past. He quarrelled with Bernardo Verro, the very popularleader of the Socialist party in Corleone, and caused Verro to beshot. The shooting was inaccurate, though, and Verro recovered. Thenthe friends of Verro thought they would do a little shooting of theirown, and they attempted to hit Streva on three different occasions,but were unsuccessful. Then Verro's friends went after Streva stillmore effectively. They burned down his house and barns and destroyedhis farm lands. Streva suddenly disappeared and his whereabouts arenot known.

  As for Morello, he is safely lodged in the Atlanta Federal Prison on asentence of twenty-five years for counterfeiting. He is, however, nolonger in danger of being prosecuted for the murder of Vella becausethe Italian Code provides that a man cannot be tried for a crime whentwenty years have expired after the committing of the felony.

  As for Ortonello and his family I can state that his wife and childrenare now in New York and prospering. The old man himself, I am happy tostate, is free through friendly influences I have succeeded inbringing to bear on his case. He has taken a new grip on life sincethe day of his release, even though he is broken in body and weightedwith years, showing plainly the terrible suffering of his twenty-threeyears of unmerited prison life. His spirit is revived and his mind isclear. He prays for me and mine.

  FOOTNOTE:

  [7] Miloni was Treasurer of the Ignatz Florio Co-OperativeAssociation. He was indicted and confessed. He is now in Italy afugitive from justice.