Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-08-26

victims OF, instead of co-operators with the gang.
thorities sought the murderers of one Joseph
Sinacola, the actual witnesses of the crime
including the mans wife and authenticated
to testify. They knew nothing about 1t. they
maintained stubbornly.
In New York the police are constantly picking
UP murdered Italians whose murderers are
shielded by a shroud of silence. If the man
is killed by a swift bullet coming through the
window, his relatives, who saw 1t come, Will
protest that he had no enemies and that he had
never received a threat of any kind. They can
not imagine who could have done it. If a man is
shot down in broad daylight in the centre of
the Italian business district, not a soul will be
found who will admit having witnessed the
crime.
A Valuable Confession.
Yet. once in a long while. the police are able
to get hold of a ~gangster like Fontano, who will
give them valuable information. Usually the
man is on the point of death or is under a life
sentence. One such was an Italian named Laga-
puto, who was picked up half dead from a gum
shot wound and made a confession while hover
ing near death in a city hospital. Another was
Ralph the Barber" whose sensation confession
implicated dozens of influential Italians of the
underworld.
Ralph Daniello, widely known as Ralph the
Barber was a professional murderer. employed
to kill by the boss of his district at the rate
of SIS a week. Ralph betrayed this boss and
several other leaders of the band because they
failed to keep their promise to him. They had
promised Ralph to send his wife and children
safely back to Italy so that he could elope to
Nevada with another woman. Accordingly, the
young murderer eloped, but once in Nevada the
learned that his wife and children were right
where he had left them They had not gone
back to Italy. In this failure of the boss men"
or padrones to keep their promise Ralph read a
sinister sign. He had been In their service long
enough to know what happened to a henchman
out Of favor-he was usually found early some
morning with his throat cut.
That did not happen to Ralph. Instead the
mother Of the girl with whom he had eloped
followed them to Reno and had him arrested
This action, the young man believed, had been
taken only with the consent of the bosses back
home and he SWOre he would get even. he
would take vengeance also, he who had Tor SO
long a time made vengeance his business. Ihat
in November, 1917. Since then, the ponce
have known a great deal about the men VINO
rule Little Italy.
They know. for instance. that the Italian un-
1erworld recognizes no law against gambling
drug trafficking, white slavery, or liquor selnng.
These activities are controlled entirely by boss
men" of the district, who earn a luxurious lve-
ihood BY licenses and tributes exacted from
he owners Of such enterprises. Occasionally,
hey go in for Matchmaking or kidnapping put
,hese are usually resorted to in order to terrorlze
someone who has defied their authority. Through
the police learned that there were three
zig gangs or trusts" that controlled all OF the
big Italian colonies of the city. One of them
was the Mulberry street or downtown gang, one
was the Harlem gang and the third was the
Navy street or Brooklyn gang. Each OF the frst
wo was ruled by three pandrones, while the
Brooklyn gang had four bosses. These ten men
lad forty or fifty killers, he told the police, VINO
we're each SIS or 500 a week. They administered
ustice by means of these henchmen and never
participated in the shedding or plooo.
All of them were engaged in legltlmate enter
,rises of some sort-being either wholesale mer-
.hants or importers-but most OF their wealth.
vas obtained through taxes and biackmaiL
Kings of the Underworld. -.
No man could open a gambling house In their
districts without consulting them first and pay,
ng for the privilege. They encouraged ana
rofited from the sale OF Illicit drugs, ana 'Hey
handing s25 for every wagonload taken by an
Italian from the city markets. The controinns
en- also granted monopolies on olive on, ICE
and wood to certain p%eddlers of their dis.
in consideration of specified payments, OF
course, and once such a monopoly was es'a'
ished no one dared dispute it.
To those who paid their dues promptly the
,adrones gave their utmost protection, but upon
hose who failed in this, vengeance @esfeau the
ebel. After that one of the forty killers was
allied before his general, presented with a SUIT
bile weapon and given. precise lnstructons.
hen it was only a question of time before the
ffender was gracing his hearthrug or doorstep
knife wound in his back or a bullet wound IN
is forehead.
AS a result Of Ralph the BARRIERS confession,
e~venteen gangsters were indicted for murder
nd several men We're brought TO trlai IN ,aanS
asses conviction failed because the principal WIT
ess insisted upon maintaining an opstlnate 81
ance, refusing to corroborate Ralph's testlmony.
the chief offenders-the padrones
were able to leave the country before the po-
ice could get on their trail. nevertheless, the
onfusion had a restraining effect upon the gang
~ctivities of Little Italy, and for a time things
remarkably quiet: Ihen' suooesly wy
he enforcement of prohibition, an epidemic OF
started up again. n
All the recent italian murders, which have
cured so prominently in the newspapers, are
lle to feuds resulting from traffic in liquor, the
olice believe. The chief padrones are fighting
or the control of bootlegging monopo1es, ana
here are constant quarrels, constant strategy
nd constant murder. 4
'Prohibition is incomprehensible to the Italian
( New York" explains one police official. In
is opinion a man can no more be prevented oy
,w from drinking than he can from eating,
nd he regards water as a liquid to be used only
or cleansing purposes. The boss men or the
nderworld do not regard the prohibition law as
Joke. They regard it as a godsend. 1t means
.uge and easy profits to a man with strong
erves, a hardy staff of killers and a Keen ap-
of vengeance"