The Italian Squad: A Group of 1920s NYPD Immigrant Detectives Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12th, 1909. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated even in Italy. He was part of the “Italian Squad,” a group of immigrant NYPD members who battled increasingly powerful gangsters and crooked politicians in the early 20th century. They were famous for meting out tough justice to criminals who comprised the “Black Hand,” an international extortion ring. Beyond trying to prevent horrific crimes—nighttime bombings in crowded tenements, kidnappings that targeted children at play, gangland shootings that killed innocent bystanders—the Italian Squad commanders hoped to persuade society of what they knew for themselves: that their fellow immigrant Italians, so often maligned, would make good American citizens. Today’s guest is Paul Moses, author of “The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This guy here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast.
0:08.2	With the rise of organized crime in New York in the early 20th century, many police officers
0:13.3	blamed the Italian immigrant population for reducing a disproportionate number of criminals.
0:18.5	However, one police commander, Joseph Petrassino, looked at the data and argued that Italian
0:23.8	presence in criminal stats was no greater than that of any other ethnic group.
0:27.9	He got the attention of police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, who was appointed the
0:31.7	first leader of the Italian squad, to take on the first limerines of the mafia in the city.
0:36.9	He went to Sicily where an organized crime ring called the Black Hand was based, and
0:41.0	their enterprise reached all the way to New York, but he was assassinated there.
0:44.8	But other Italian American police officers took up the mantle of the Italian squad, and
0:48.5	their battle against organized crime went for the next couple of decades.
0:51.7	Today's guest is Paul Moses, author of the Italian squad, the true story of the immigrant
0:56.0	cops who fought the rise of the mafia.
0:58.7	With looking to the origins of organized crime in the United States, efforts by the police
1:02.6	to combat it, whether different populations are more susceptible to getting involved in
1:06.8	crime, and if this story has relevance to today.
1:09.7	Hope you enjoyed this discussion with Paul Moses.
1:11.7	And one more thing before we get started with this episode, a quick break for a word
1:17.6	from our sponsors.
1:20.0	Are the first steps the most beautiful they'll ever take?
1:24.1	Life is blessed with a hundred once-in-a-lifetime moments from their first holiday to their first
1:29.6	birthday.
	...

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