The Barrel MysteryFlynn, William J. (William James)
General
The Barrel Mystery
Flynn, William J. (William James)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
Past experience with these Morello-Lupo counterfeiters had taught
me not to make an arrest until I had the net completely woven
around the men who made the money. It is futile to arrest the
"pushers-of-the-queer"--that is, the men who distribute the bad money
among the little Italian grocery stores and shoe shops, small
merchants, and the like. The arrest of these men only serves to warn
the manufacturers of the bad money that the Secret Service is on the
trail. The factory then closes down, and it is moved away to another
location. Even if a conviction of the distributor of the bad money is
obtained, no definite information can be obtained from the convicted
man. He could not tell the government anything of value even if he
wished to "squeal." As a rule, all that a "pusher" or distributor can
tell is where he got the bad money.
Here is where Antonio Cecala looms up as a very important criminal
factor in the counterfeiting game as plied by the Black-Handers under
the leadership of Lupo and Morello. Remember this: _Lupo and Morello
always remain in the background_. Cecala was the connecting link
between the two leaders and the "pushers-of-the-queer."
Cecala was the man who got in touch with those who wanted to buy the
counterfeit money to circulate it at the rate of thirty-five cents on
the dollar.
Cecala was careful to deal only with men whom he knew--men who were
from Corleone. He would pick six of these as his deputies. These
deputies would choose six others, and so on. Cecala made business
trips to other cities and took the orders for counterfeit money. He
also had the say as to whom should be the agent in each city directly
responsible to him. These various deputies were required to give their
O. K. before any money would be sent to or given to any person by
Cecala.
As soon as Cecala would receive a request from a deputy for money to
be passed to certain Italians asking for it, it was Cecala's job to go
to Lupo and Morello and obtain their sanction before the money would
be handed along down the line from the distributing plant to the
person buying it at thirty-five cents on the dollar for the obvious
purpose of "pushing" it off on some unwary store-keeper.
The reader can now readily appreciate that with a crafty organization
like this the "pusher" could not testify, even if he desired, that he
had got the bad money from either Lupo or Morello. In fact, the
"pusher" never even heard of either of the leaders except in some
indirect way. Always, however, when the money was passed over to the
pusher by one of Cecala's deputies or remote subordinates a sinister
warning was given not to "squeal" if caught--a warning always
portentous with the threat of murder.
To "squeal" meant fatal punishment. The man in the barrel is grim
testimony to that fact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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