Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1921-11-19
True
Detective Stories
TEN YEARS LATER

( NNE of the first acts of William J.
~ Flynn after taking charge of the
/ New York office of the United
/ States secret service was TO order the
arrest of two Italians, Nincenzo LupO
and Giuseppe Morello. on charges Of
/ manufacturing and passing counterfeit
/ money. But the Sicilans, anticipat-
ing such a move, had taken care that
1 their trails were well covered, and at
! the trial they produced flock of Wit
/ neSSeS who Swore To alibiS which ef-
fectually prevented a conviction.
AS Morello and his companion
/ passed out of the courtroom, after the
/ case against them had been dismissed.
i Lupo remarked in a voice loud enough
! for Flynn to oyerhear: Those pigs
/ of American detectives haven't the
brains TO get the evidence they need.
/ They'll never land US"
The man who later became the head
/ of the secret service said nothing ut
the time
1t was three years before Flynn
again came into contact with the two
! Italians. and again the federal forces
/ had to be content with the losing end
of the argument
This time the case was the famous
one of the "Morristown Fives"-five-
/ dollar bills printed in precise imitation
/ Of the currency issued by the National
| Iron bank Of Morristown. y. J. Flynn's
men found that the trail led directly
( IA n In, isTIR
/ up to the door of a grocery store
/ owned by Giuseppe de Primo. But
/ there, apparently, it disappeared into
thin air.
/ Flynn investigated the matter very
/ carefully from the outside but the
only suspicious circumstance that he
i could discover was that De Primo was
/ importing a much larger quantity of
/ olive oil than his business appeared to
warrant. On account of the duty.
/ olive oil is usually imported in bar
/ Tells and then canned or bottled on this
side-the empty cans being shipped
from Italy ready for use.
Feeling certain that there must be
/ some connection between the olive oil
and the mysterious cOunterfeits Flynn
/ first tapped several of the barrels con-
signed to De Primo. But these were
/ filled to the brim with oil of the pre-
else quality mentioned in the bills of
/ lading. Then, merely to make certain
/ that he had not neglected any possible
angle of the case, the secret service
1 man ripped open one of the boxes Of
''empty cans" Instantly the mystery
/ was solved The cans contained roll
upon roll of the "Morristown Fiyes,"
! manufactured in Italy.
/ In the roundup which followed this
/ discovery, Lupo and Morello were
gathered in by the government agents
/ and charged with passing counterfeit
money. 1t was a moral certainty that
the two Sicilians had had hand In
the plot--in fact, FLYNN suspected that
they We're the ring-leaders--bu none
of the others would implicate them,
even to save themselves. De Primo
and his associates went to the penl-
Tertiary but Lupo and MoreIlo walked
/ out of the courtroom still sneering ut
the "brainless American detectives"
During the years that followed
counterfeiting operations and Black
Hand murders, eXtortion and black
mail of all kinds were almost traced
TO Lupo and Morello-almost Appar-
emily they worked as far west as Chi
cago and south to New Orleans, but
every time the police or the govern
ment agents started to close in on
them, the pair slipped out through
some legal lOophole prepared in ad-
vance.
1t was nine years after the original
Lupo-Morello case that Flynn got wind
of the fact that the Italian colony in
New York was planning d big counter
feiting coup. The only thing lacking,
according TO the information which
reached government headquarters, was
a printer.
A few DAYS later, a young Italian
named Comita, who claimed to be
printing expert who had been forced
10 leave Italy on account Of participa-
tion IN "a number Of Malta outrages,
applied to Lupo for a position. The re-
cruit was put through a grilling Cross
examination but Flynn had seen to {:
that he was supplied with the proper
answers 10 all the questions. and It
wasn't long before the secret service
had an operative planted IN the very
heart Of the counterfeit plot.
Comlto reported that the gang was
operating from a small farm near
Highland n y. ana that thousands Of
dollars in spurious currency was ready
60 be released.
But Lupo,' he added, sis prepar-
Ing 10 take a trip 70 Italy and won't he
back until the spring"
Very wel,7 replied Flynn I'VE can
wait. Just lay low until he returns.
Then we'll nail the whole bunch"
1t was early ia the following year
ten years after the first arrest ana re-
ease Of the Lupo Morello combination
that the secret service sprung Its
trap and rounded up 1G Italians. Dur