ITALIAN AMERICANS OF THE FBI

Pick up the November/December 2008 issue of PRIMO and read the reality about Italian Americans and criminal justice.

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.



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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.



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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.



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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.

From Primo's Editor Truby Chiaviello...

From PRIMO’s Editor Truby Chiaviello…

PRAGMATIC PELOSI
No matter what your view is about the recent financial bailout package that passed Congress and signed by President Bush, one thing is for sure: Italian American lawmakers had a considerable part to play in the passage of the historic legislation.

Italian American senators, congressmen and women were at the forefront of supporting and opposing the bill, titled the Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008.

Leading the fight for passage in the House was of course the Speaker herself, Nancy Pelosi. As the daughter of three-term Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., and sister of one term Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro III, Pelosi knows well the art of politics. She was the cover feature in the January/February 2007 edition of PRIMO where we highlighted her pragmatic style. We also noted that she is not one to repeat a mistake. A case in point: She failed at the first attempt in the bill’s passage by making a rare partisan speech on the House floor vilifying President Bush and conservative economic policies. By doing so, she alienated a number of Republicans and fence sitting Democrats. With defeat and the stock market tumbling, Pelosi acted differently when the bill came up again for passage. She was silent.

For Pelosi, pragmatism always wins out.


POPULIST DEFAZIO
If you think Pelosi’s major opponent in the bailout package debate was a conservative Republican from the Deep South, think again.

Fellow westerner, liberal Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio was the most vocal of any who opposed the bill.

First elected to Congress 20 years ago, DeFazio is now the senior member of the Oregon delegation. Not one to shy away from casting a controversial vote, DeFazio has voted in the past to criminalize OPEC, legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes in the District of Columbia, and allow Americans to travel to Cuba, just to name a few.

Like all good populists, DeFazio can sometimes convey truth amidst a deluge of class warfare hyperbole. After voting “no” he said, quite perceptively I might add, “The golden parachutes…were exchanged for camouflage parachutes. The executives on Wall Street are still going to get millions.”


DOMENICI’S CAUSE
Like all things in Washington, this bailout package contained revisions and mandates not related to the main purpose of the bill.

Besides $700 billion to help banks and other financial institutions get back on their feet, the bill also included tax credits for wind, solar and alternative energy companies; tax deductions for college tuitions and real property taxes; limits on the reach of the Alternative Minimum Tax, etc…

And the bill was not all about finance. It mandates medical insurance companies to cover mental illness as they would other afflictions. This part of the bill was drafted by retiring Senator Pete Domenici, Republican from New Mexico and longstanding proponent of helping the mentally ill. It took over 10 years for Domenici to get this bill passed. He was the voice in the wilderness regarding the mentally ill. What kept him going? Love of family. Domenici and his wife have first-hand experience dealing with the mentally ill. Their daughter Clare, one of eight children, is schizophrenic.

ROLL CALL
Here’s how Italian American lawmakers voted regarding the bailout package. (For full disclosure: Congressman Mike Ferguson is my cousin once removed.)
Yes
Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY)
Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA)
Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA)
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA)
Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ)
Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY)
Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN)
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH)
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA)
Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH)
Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL)
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM)
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT)

No
Rep. Jerry Francis Costello (R-IL)
Rep. Peter DeFazio (R-OR)
Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX)
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)
Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-IL)
Rep. John Mica (R-FL)
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA)
Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)

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RECONSIDERING AGE
A question that often arises when discussing 72-year-old John McCain’s presidential bid is whether he is too old to be president.

Actor Ernest Borgnine doesn’t think so. The living legend of Hollywood wants Americans to reconsider what age is.

The current edition of PRIMO contains a feature article on Borgnine. At 92, he just completed two films and is now promoting his new autobiography “Ernie,” an excellent book I highly recommend.

Like so many elderly people today, Borgnine is nothing like the 80 and 90 year olds we knew when we were kids. In speaking with him this past summer I found Borgnine energetic, articulate and insightful. He was full of new ideas and profound comments about fame, acting, what makes a great film and Hollywood’s future. He recalled at ease events from 50 years ago in his career such as the time he met Spencer Tracy or when he played opposite Bette Davis, one of my favorite actresses. Speaking with Borgnine was a highlight of my career. A fan of classic movies, I was enthralled conversing with a living link to Hollywood’s golden era.

Borgnine made me reconsider what age is. With new drugs, dieting and exercise, today’s elderly are perhaps 10 or 15 years younger than they were two decades ago. Like my father, now 86, and so many other PRIMO readers, in their 80s and 90s, Borgnine is working and living life to the fullest.

For him, McCain and others, age is no longer the obstacle it once was.

You have heard from me, now I want to hear from you. Please reply with your questions and comments. Thank you for reading PRIMO.

WHY GIULIANI’S CAMPAIGN FAILED

One of the most popular editions ever of PRIMO happened last November.
We featured a cover story on Rudy Giuliani and his historic presidential bid. That issue sold out on both the newsstand and by special order within a couple of weeks from when it came off the press. We also received numerous calls from readers all over the country expressing their support and enthusiasm for his campaign.
No doubt, Italian American pride was at its peak at the prospect of having Giuliani the country’s first Italian American president.

I too was excited about Giuliani’s quest for the White House. He was the first political hero I witnessed in my lifetime. His courageous and inspiring leadership during 9/11 was truly exemplary. Growing up in the New York City metropolitan region, I can attest to the vast improvements the city witnessed under his mayoralty. I thought he had the qualifications and experience to be president. Although I doubted he would get his party’s nomination because of his stand on specific social issues, I thought his high poll numbers was proof enough that he would be in the top running for some time; at least through the spring.

Hence, I was stunned to see Giuliani at the bottom of the heap when he bowed out in late January. His drop in the polls was perhaps the steepest of any candidate in American political history.

The question arises as to what went wrong. In looking back at Giuliani’s campaign demise, I have come to a disturbing conclusion that ethnic bigotry may have been the overriding cause.

Most political pundits and commentators would probably disagree with my assessment. If asked, they would tell you that poor tactics and performance by Giuliani and his staff were the root causes of his campaign’s freefall. His high poll numbers in December were a shill. His candidacy was inherently weak. Being socially liberal, he really never had a chance to win over the socially conservative GOP. His strategy of a Florida firewall made him non-competitive in the Iowa caucus and early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. He was out of the headlines too long to gain a following among voters.

All that may be true.

But those reasons do not go far enough in my opinion to explain the unprecedented collapse of Giuliani’s campaign. Something else had to be at work that helped to cause a shocking 20 percent drop in his poll numbers within a month’s time.

Subtly reinforced in voters’ minds by critical reports in mainstream media, bigotry of his Italian ethnicity may have been the overlooked but major reason for Giuliani’s defeat.
If you go back and review articles and reports on Giuliani during the fall, you will see his character repeatedly attacked.

Giuliani was described in a number of newspapers, magazines, and television programs as “harsh,” “petty,” “cruel,” “vindictive,” “mean-spirited,” “hot tempered,” “an ego maniac,” “a bully,” “arrogant,” “simple minded,” etc…

He was admonished by critics for his two failed marriages and the estranged relationship he had with his children.

One’s character is inherently tied to one’s ethnicity. Be it intentional or not, Giuliani’s critics linked him to the negative stereotypes most often associated with the Italian American male.
What the reports and commentaries together showed was not Giuliani, the former two-term mayor of New York who possessed an excellent legal mind, who made law review at NYU, who was a respected former federal prosecutor, but rather Giuliani the rogue figure, a misogynist, a deadbeat dad.He was made out to look like Tony Soprano.

No wonder his drop in the polls was so dramatic. He was the first Italian American to make a serious bid for the presidency. The first caucus and primaries were in some of the states with perhaps the least number of Italian Americans in the country. If voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina knew Italian Americans only by what they saw in film or on television, then the criticisms of Giuliani would have reinforced the negative stereotypes and prejudices they may have had about Italian Americans.

How could they elect Giuliani to represent the United States on the world stage when mainstream media made him out to be a thug?

They didn’t.

It is sad to see how Giuliani was treated in the media when compared to another milestone candidate Democratic Senator Barack Obama. Reports on Obama have mostly been positive. Why? Because African Americans demanded it. They defended Obama when his character was unfairly attacked and maligned earlier this year.

When members of his opponent’s team brought up Obama’s past drug use, as he wrote in his autobiography, the African American community, some of whom supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, rose up to defend him. The message was clear: Back off! Obama’s critics had to publicly apologize as a result. The senator was judged from then on not by his past indiscretions, but on his record and where he stood on the issues. He went on to win South Carolina and a number of primaries and caucuses that followed. He may make history as the first African American elected president.

Italian Americans must do for future Italian American presidential candidates what African Americans did for Obama. No matter if they are Republicans or Democrats, we must defend them when the character attacks ensue. By doing so, we help to stop false and misleading perceptions of our Italian ethnicity.

In Giuliani’s case, for example, his passion and combativeness was not atypical of Italian Americans. And yet, he was criticized for such behavior as being “mean” and “insensitive.” As Italian Americans, we know that sometimes our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters may come across as overly expressive and didactic. We also know, however, that when it comes to making important decisions, they are as reasonable, thoughtful and fair-minded as is everyone else in America, no matter their ethnicity. Those who are not Italian could easily misinterpret or misconstrue traits unique to Italians as negative attributes of a person’s character. This is what happened to Giuliani, not to mention other Italian American political figures, both Democrat and Republican, in the past.

Therefore, it is important that we unify in future elections when Italian American candidates come under personal attack. We do not have to vote or support candidates simply because they are Italian Americans; but we must defend them. Only then can we ensure that America is truly a land that accepts all ethnic groups, especially those among us who run for president.