The Barrel MysteryFlynn, William J. (William James)
General
The Barrel Mystery
Flynn, William J. (William James)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
Ignazio Lupo, of No. 433 West Fortieth Street.
Messina Genova, of No. 538 East Fifteenth Street.
Vito La Duca, of No. 16 Stanton Street.
Pietro Inzarillo, of No. 226 Elizabeth Street.
Domenico Pecoraro, of No. 198 Chrystie Street.
Lorenzo Lobido, of No. 308 Mott Street.
Giuseppe Fanara, of No. 25 Rivington Street.
Giuseppe La Lamia, of No. 47 Delancey Street.
Nicola Testa, of No. 16 Stanton Street.
Luciano Perrino, of No. 47 Delancey Street.
Perrino was also known as Tomasso Petto. He was known among the
members of the Black-Hand aggregation as "Il Bove," meaning "The Ox."
Here was certainly a murderous aggregation of the most pronounced
criminal type. They were all of them from Sicily. Most of them were
armed with a revolver, some also had knives and even stilettos. On
Morello the police found a .45 caliber revolver. A knife was tucked
away in the waistband of his trousers, a cork being fixed at the point
of the blade so that it would not scratch his leg. Petto, the Ox,
whom Inspector McCafferty of the detective bureau, and I arrested
later, carried his pistol in a holster and a sheath for his stiletto.
Most of the suspects had permits from the New York Police Department
to carry revolvers. It was this incident, practically, which brought
on the crusade against, and the passing of the law forbidding, the
carrying of dangerous weapons.
The prisoners were presently hurried to the Morgue, where each of them
had a look at the dead man. They were asked individually whether they
knew him. The answer was the usual one--a shrug of the shoulders and
the words "No understand," "don't know." Morello and Pecoraro were
both asked whether they knew the dead man, but denied that they had
ever seen him; this in face of my seeing the two in the company of the
man now dead less than forty hours before he was murdered. The dead
man still remained without a name, and without a friend or relative
coming to claim kinship.
Information began to percolate into my office which induced me to take
a trip to Sing Sing prison in an effort to bring about the
identification of the dead man. It was plain to me already then that
the police force was failing in its efforts. I resolved to take a
personal interest in the murder and to clear it up if possible.
At this point, let me inform the reader that an anonymous letter was
addressed to Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino of the Italian Detective
Squad, then a part of the New York Police Department. This letter
proved to be of value in elucidating particulars aiding us in
identifying the man found murdered in the barrel. The Lieutenant
showed this letter to me. Knowing that Petrosino was the best man in
the Police Department to handle the situation, I asked him to go to
Sing Sing Prison to investigate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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