The Barrel MysteryFlynn, William J. (William James)
General
The Barrel Mystery
Flynn, William J. (William James)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
Among other things, I learned that Morello made frequent trips to
Chicago and other cities where the counterfeit money seemed to
flourish. Morello made a flying trip to New Orleans on one occasion
when my men tracked him all the way. When his train arrived in
Philadelphia we knew he was on board; when the train reached Baltimore
we knew he was on the train, and when he arrived at Washington we knew
where the "Black-Hand" leader was; and so on, till he arrived in New
Orleans. On his arrival there certain Italian confederates were
waiting for him and escorted their chief to a little Italian café
where a conference was held in a back room lasting a little longer
than two hours. Immediately after the conference was over, Morello
took the next train back to New York.
Now enters into the story a man by the name of Antonio Cecala.
Remember the name of this man, for he plays an important part in the
game for the remainder of the story. Cecala, whom we will establish
here as the third executive bandit in the Lupo-Morello group, made
trips to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Cecala proved a
valuable aid to the two "Black-Hand" captains.
Lupo was tracked by Secret Service men to cities where the counterfeit
money was circulating. Another thread of investigation disclosed the
not unimportant fact that there were members of the Ignatz Florio
Association scattered all over the United States, especially in the
populous centers where the five- and two-dollar counterfeit bills were
being circulated. Besides, I was getting information daily from banks
and merchants that the bills were being "pushed on the market" in
abundance. I also learned that Italians from Corleone, Sicily, were
the only Italians who were trusted in these centers by the
Morello-Lupo gang, pointing to the probability that the bad bills were
being circulated and "pushed" through native Corleonians exclusively.
Another clue showed that the bills were being manufactured somewhere
in the immediate vicinity of New York City. I fine-combed the State of
New York upon learning this. Naturally, my attention was focused on
the Corleone Italians in New York City. In this way I gathered that
Lupo had fled from his creditors, to whom he owed money in connection
with his Italian grocery stores business. I finally succeeded in
locating him living in Ardonia, New York, which is not very far from
Highland on the Hudson River.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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