Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-06-08
A MALTA STRONGHOLD.
Brooklyn, N. Y, Full Of the Hot
bIooded ard Ugly Italians.
They Give the Police More Trouble than All
the Other People.

New York. June IF Brooklyn has
much 10 itself 20 public favor.
it has also some things which are ex-
tremely dicrcditabic TO IL.
The city IL a Malta stronghold. The
order ~ composed OF the worst element
Of the italian community. and, although
the membership IL not large. those who
belong to II ar" powerful enough to ter
rorize their fellow-countrymen as are not
connected with it.
There are something like 30. 900 Italians
in Brooklyn, but only a very small per
centage of them are affiliated with the
Malta. ana II would be a serious error to
suppose that any considerable number
sympathize with the organization or it's
object. But they are afraid of It. The
Malta works iii the dark. which policy
gives 1t a strength that ii would not
possess otherwise.
Italians who are connected with the or
ganiZation areafraid toopen their mouths
In denunciation of this dark-lantern and
stiletto conspiracy. for fear that the very
man they talk to Is in league with 1t or
regards 1t with approval.
Policemen dread the occasions which
compel them to deal with Italian law
breakers. especially Sicilians. Unless an
officer is at hand when Sicilian thugs
WELD daggers or pistols. ii is next 10
impossible to get evidence against them.
As a general rule Italian criminals are
men of little or no education. yet they
are extremely cnnning-rnasters of the
art OF Discrimination and deception.
a sergeant connected with the Rich
ards street police station, who has had
much to do with Sicilian desperadoes re-
siding in that section, said:
They are the hardest people in the
world o handle. They have a trick which
on other people seem 10 have acquired,
and that is their way of getting rid OF
knives and pistols used in committing a
crime. or which they may have had when
a crime was committed. Place ~ of these
men in a street and let them shoot at each
other until their ammunition Is exhausted.
and q policeman would not find a pistol
about them.
.He might find pistols all around the
pavement whore they stood but none in
their hands or pockets. No; the minute
they use Il knife or a pistol they throw it
away. They know it is hard to fasten a
crime on an unarmed man. When a man
Of amy other nationality uses a dirk or
pistol. he carefully puts ii in his pocket.
thus furnishing the very evidence that is
necessary 10 convict him. Not so with
your keen cunning. tricky Siciiian. He
gets rid of his weapons. He thinks it
much cheaper to buy. a new pistol or
knife than to lose his liberty or life"
Unless an officer is close at hand when
Mahaites or their associates shed blood.
evidence is practically out OF the quest
lion. Every man concerned or involved
seals his lips. and If he opens them Il is
only 10 say: NJ no understand" or
The mama he run away
Even when S~icilians themselves are the
victims of murderous assaults or rob
berries. which are frequent in the Italian
quarters, they. with rare exceptions, re-
fuse 10 say a word about the men who
wronged or injured them. Time and again
police magistrates have been reluctantly
forced to dimiss serious cases because
witnesses could not be induced to tell
what they knew. These people seem to
be under the malign influence of Italian
avengers who regard men exposing
crime As traitors and iniormers.
Almost invariably the police nave to de-
pend upon Italian women and children
Tor the information which enables them
to fasteu crime on Sicilian desperadoes.
who. ii seems. draw the line at wreaking
vengeance on women. boys or girls.
1t Is a matter of fact that a dozen Ital-
ians living on Hamilton avenue knew the
whereabouts of the quintette supposed to
he concerned i'm the murder of Serio, the
Italian barber, who was killed in Catan-
jaros saloon on May y. 1t is said that a
little italian boy furnished the first clue
to their Whereabouts.