No, Italian Americans are not inherently connected to organized crime as it may seem we are according to mainstream media. We are not all gangsters, thugs and petty criminals.
Rather, as the issue highlights, Italian Americans have been and still are today at the forefront of enforcing the country’s laws and regulations, investigating crimes, apprehending and prosecuting suspects.
The 100th anniversary of the founding of the FBI gives us an opportunity to examine the extraordinary contributions Italian Americans have made to American justice. The FBI is one of the best law enforcement agencies in the world. Italian Americans have been a part of its successful run since its founding…by an Italian American. Pick up this issue and read our interview/profile of the first and only Italian American to serve as FBI director, Louis J. Freeh. Read about the Italian American who began the FBI, Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte. Read about six men, from different generations, who serve or have served in the FBI: Italian Americans Daniel J. DeSimone, Joseph Bonavolonta, Dr. Joseph DiZinno, Alfredo Principe, Drew Parenti and Joseph Persichini, Jr. Read about what they have done for our country in nabbing murderers, drug lords, gangsters, bank robbers and domestic terrorists.
Pick up the November/December 2008 issue of PRIMO and share with others one part of the true story of Italian American crime fighters.
This PRIMO issue instilled in me a newfound appreciation of the FBI as I am sure it will in you.
Although this issue focuses on the contributions Italian Americans have made to the FBI, it is important to note that the FBI prides itself on being neutral in ethnicity, race, gender and religion. A case in point: We were helped immensely by the FBI press office and other staff members there, almost all of whom were not Italian Americans, most notably press officer Betsy Glick.
A reputation the FBI has is one of secrecy and formality. I found this not to be the case in working with the FBI. The agents and support specialists we interviewed were approachable, courteous and answered most of our questions.
I extend my thanks to everyone at the FBI for their help in this special issue of PRIMO.
Here are two articles not included in this issue for lack of space; they highlight the ultimate sacrifice of two FBI agents and anecdotes of FBI investigations of some famous Italian Americans.
KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY
Fifty-one FBI agents lost their lives fighting crime over the past 100 years.
Two of them were Italian Americans.
Anthony Palmisano and Gregory W. Spinelli.
Both men were young: Palmisano was 27 years old and Spinelli 24.
A hallmark feature of the FBI often overlooked by critics is its advancement of racial equality and ethnic assimilation in internal operations.
Palmisano and Spinelli symbolized this attribute.
Palmisano was not alone when he was gunned down on January 8, 1969. His partner, also killed at the scene was Edwin R. Woodriffe, an African American.
The two agents were on the trail of Billie Austin Bryant, an escaped convict from Lorton Prison. They had entered an apartment in Southeast Washington, D.C. where Bryant was hiding. The fugitive shot the agents while they were in the hallway.
Consider the times and the FBI’s inclusive efforts regarding race and ethnicity are all the more noteworthy. Both Palmisano and Woodriffe were from the New York City metropolitan region. Palmisano was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1942 and earned his degree from Seton Hall University. Woodriffe was born in 1941, grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from Fordham University.
The two likely would not have known each other had it not been for the FBI. Palmisano entered the FBI in 1967, the year race riots consumed his hometown. He transferred to the Washington, D.C. field office where he worked with Woodriffe. That was in 1968, the year Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and race riots overtook the nation’s capital.
Special Agent Spinelli was killed on March 15, 1973 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Spinelli had been in the FBI only three years when he and several other agents attempted to arrest Arthur Tilmer Mankins and Bonnie Lou Logan, suspects in a savings and loan robbery. As the agents detained Logan, Mankins ran off through a nearby forest. They pursued him to a construction site where he shot Spinelli.
In looking at a black and white photograph of Spinelli taken at the time he joined the FBI in 1970, one finds it impossible to decipher his ethnicity. Tight features, a strong neck, thick black hair portrayed a healthy young man. His black rimmed glasses bespoke a person of intelligence and responsibility. He could be any American, any grandson of any immigrant from almost anywhere in the world. Only his last name betrays his ethnicity.
INVESTIGATED ITALIAN AMERICANS
Complying with the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI has become in recent years one of the more open and transparent of federal agencies regarding its past investigations.
They have made available to the public scanned copies of inner agency memos, reports, letters, press clippings and other correspondences kept on infamous criminals, celebrated politicians, activists and entertainers.
What one finds examining the FBI files is a deposit of fascinating anecdotes in FBI history, a composite of America’s pop and criminal culture. There are files on a number of famous Italian Americans, many of whom were victims of crime.
Wladziu Valentino Liberace
The FBI file on Liberace contains almost 400 pages, much of it an inventory of the entertainer’s stolen jewelry recovered in 1974.
Liberace came to the attention of the FBI in the mid-1950s. The agency was investigating an extortion racket aimed at famous homosexuals. They considered interviewing Liberace a possible victim of the scheme.
The FBI uncovered in a separate racketeering investigation Liberace placing almost weekly $40 to $60 bets on horse races with a bookie in Buffalo, New York.
Later Liberace reported to the FBI nearly $25,000 of his jewelry stolen on Valentine’s Day while staying at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The FBI recovered within months of the robbery dozens of 14 karat gold watches and rings from a Chicago jewelry store. The items had inscribed Liberace’s unique initials.
Viola Liuzzo
Italian American through marriage, Liuzzo was killed by the KKK in Alabama on March 25, 1965.
Registering African Americans to vote, she was driving back from a meeting with Leroy Moton. After interviewing scores of police officers and civil rights workers, the FBI concluded that Liuzzo and Moton were ambushed by KKK assassins on the highway from Selma to Montgomery. Eugene Thomas, Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr. and William Orville Eaton were arrested and convicted of violating Liuzzo’s civil rights and each sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison.
Frank Sinatra
The FBI file on Sinatra is massive, some 2,403 pages.
As FBI documents show, Sinatra’s fame and wealth often made him a victim of anonymous death threats, frivolous lawsuits, and unfounded rumors.
The FBI began monitoring Sinatra as early as 1944. They investigated parents that year who threatened to lynch Sinatra because they thought their bobbysoxer daughters skipped school to see his shows. One night in 1966 Miami police received a phone call from someone who announced he was going to throw a live hand grenade at Sinatra while the singer performed on stage. Several letters from an anonymous sender in Illinois some years later requested $11 million in return for not killing Sinatra.
The FBI kept tabs of civil lawsuits filed against Sinatra throughout his career. Publishing companies initiated most of them claiming copyright infringement and damages against him in the millions of dollars. All were considered frivolous and dismissed by the courts.
The FBI files validate the reputation of Sinatra as an egalitarian individual who supported numerous charities and promoted better race relations and intercultural understanding. He penned an article in 1946 titled “We’re All Americans – We’re All Immigrants,” that was republished in a Croatian American newspaper employing some former Communists. For this Sinatra was alleged to be a Communist sympathizer. The FBI investigated the matter and concluded otherwise. They found Sinatra one of the most patriotic of celebrities who often volunteered to entertain troops overseas in World War II and the Korean War.
Sinatra was dogged for some time over an anonymous allegation that he bribed officials $40,000 to obtain a draft deferment in World War II. The FBI found that allegation “baseless.” The physical examination of Sinatra for draft service revealed he suffered from mastoiditis, a rare disease that could adversely affect one’s hearing, and so warranted his 4-H draft status.
The FBI performed an exhaustive investigation into Sinatra’s alleged ties to organized crime. Sinatra was rumored to have been sponsored by mobster Willie Moretti in New Jersey, a bag man for Lucky Luciano in Cuba, a partner with Sam Giancana in Las Vegas. The FBI investigation found these allegations unsubstantiated. True, Sinatra partied with gangsters; but he also partied with politicians, sports figures, writers, artists and other entertainers. The FBI concluded that Sinatra was really a victim of guilt by association, fodder for the rumor mill by gossip columnists and anonymous informants with dubious motivations.
Rocky Marciano
With a right cross that instilled fear in opposing boxers, Rocky Marciano was apparently not all that scary to one extortionist.
The heavyweight champ contacted the FBI in 1954 after his father Perrino Marchegiano received a letter that began “Listen Mr. Marchegiano.” The writer announced Marciano’s wife and child would be killed if the champ did not take a dive against challenger Ezzard Charles. The letter was signed “Desperate Duo.”
Marciano received weeks later another letter, this one addressed to “Cocky Rocky.” It stated in part “We mean business…if you fail to obey us and win the fight its curtains for your wife and child…”
Lab analysis of the letter’s envelope, paper and handwriting led the FBI to arrest a subject who was mentally ill.
Marciano refused to press charges.
You have heard from me, now I want to hear from you. Please reply with your questions and comments. Thank you for reading PRIMO.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment