American Monsters: Petto the Ox

0:00 Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening. Now true crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish, the strange in the darkly comic. I'm Zevan Odelberg, host of Kind of Murdery, a podcast that's about more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just so long as it's kind of murdery.

0:45 Hey there, as it says in the intro, I am Zevanoldberg, and this is kind of murdery. Thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed our last episode, Campfire's Stories with my daughter Daisy. It was a lot of fun to record it with her and knock on Wood. All Odelberg family members are now recovered from COVID nineteen. Thank goodness. I hope this episode finds you and your loved ones also well. Today's murder comes our way from a series of Washington Post Sunday features during the spring of nineteen fourteen in total.

1:19 It's the sprawling story of the busting of a Cosinostra counterfeiting ring, as told by William J. Flynn, chief of the US Secret Service under President Woodrow Wilson. But to tell you the truth, I had trouble wrapping my head or my attention span around the intricate details of a year's long funny money investigation. So we're going to focus the scope of the inquiry a bit and zero in on the contents of a wooden barrel with a coat thrown over it, a barrel left at the corners of Avenue D and Eleventh Street in New York City.

1:53 So please do join me now as we uncover what truths we can and solveties we may kind of murderies pet of the Ox and the Alphabet barrel. Murder starts now. Missus Francis Connors left her little room in an east side tenement house early on the morning of April twelfth, nineteen oh three, to go to the bakery for rolls for breakfast. Missus Connors was a normal woman and thereby endowed with a generous share of curiosity. Just a reminder, this is the story as told by William J. Flynn, head of a secret service in the early twentieth century.

2:44 I'm going to go ahead and let him tell the story, and so take any comments and editorializing he happens to do, such as all women are curious in the proper historical context. I'm sure you will all right back to the story. As missus Connors passed in front of the New York Mallet Works at Avenue D in Eleventh Street, she noticed a barrel standing near the curb. An overcoat was thrown over the head of the barrel. It was a decent looking coat, not ragged enough to be thrown away, and Missus Connor's curiosity grew.

3:14 Why should anyone, even a wealthy person, throw away an overcoat which was not worn out. She paused in her walking and regarded the barrel. Her interest increased. It had been drizzling all night, yet the overcoat was scarcely wet. It couldn't have been lying there very long. She glanced up and down the street. No one was in sight. Perhaps the coat was placed there to keep the contents of the barrel dry. While I was strange to use a coat for such a purpose, there would be no harm in Gratifying her curiosity, Missus Connors stepped to the barrel, lifted a corner of the garment, and peered in a cry of terror broke from her lips.

3:50 She dropped the coat back over the grizzly things she had seen and staggered, pale, and shaken away from the barrel. Other people had seen her strange actions. In a moment, a little group, also fired by curiosity, collected the frightened woman stammered out what she had seen. Someone ran for a policeman, An ambulance was sent for, and the crowd grew. Meanwhile, a policeman arrived and drew the body of a man from the barrel into which it had been jammed. When the ambulance surgeon arrived, he announced what everyone had already figured out.

4:20 The man was dead. A strip of gunnysack had been wound around his neck, hiding a dozen wounds, any one of which would have caused death. The neighborhood was in a panic, the police department was at sea, and the entire city of New York was agog, and all of this before Missus Connors even recovered from the shock of her discovery. At the Union Market police station, It was determined that the man had been dead at least two hours. He seemed about forty years old and well set up. His complexion was swarthy, and his ears were pierced for rings, after the manner of many Sicilians.

4:52 His clothing was of good quality, and from his general appearance it was judged that he was not a laborer. His forehead was high and receding, covered with thin, curly hair of a light brown tinge, his mustache streaked with gray. On the left cheek were two old scars which formed an inverted letter V. That's V as invictor. Photographs of the man were made promptly and compared with the pictures in the rogue's gallery at police headquarters, but the victim was not to be identified that way. The police investigation of the circumstances of the crime was pushed to the utmost.

5:24 Every detail of the man, his clothing, and the barrel was recorded. It was determined that at least two weapons had been used by the murderer or murderers. A wound directly below the left ear had been inflicted with a narrow, two edged blade, and the incision was three inches deep. It takes a strong wrist and a heavy lunge to drive a knife in so far. At that point a wound above the atom's apple, which penetrated sheer to the spinal cord, had apparently been made with the same weapon. There were numerous similar wounds of little account, but a deep gash across the throat, literally from ear to ear, had evidently been made with a heavy and more clumsy knife.

6:01 All of these observations resulted in nothing. A search through the clothing of the dead man put a number of details in the hands of the police. The most striking object found was a small brass crucifix, the like of which is not often seen, and which, to my knowledge, was common to no one in particular locally. It was of a foreign make and bore a Latin motto on the scroll work above the figure of the Savior on the cross. At the base of the cross was a skull and crossbones. Since that time I have come across the same type of crucifix.

6:31 In the dead man's overcoat were two handkerchiefs, one small and delicately perfumed, but the only identification mark on the clothing was Burt and Co. Opposite produce exchange stamped on the shoes, which were well worn and had been patched. Stenciled on the bottom of the barrel were the letters W and T and on the side G two three three. It had evidently contained sugar, and in the bottom was a layer of sawdust mixed with the burnt stubs of cigars and a quantity of onion peel. Also there was a note in the handwriting of a woman.

7:04 Part of two lines were legible, and the Italian words giorne chevanite subito la urgenza could be made out. The translation is and by the way, apologies because I'm sure my pronunciation was awful, but the translation is day that you come dot dot dot illegible suddenly the urgency So again giornae chevanite subito la orgenza. That's the Italian and the legible part of the translation was day that you come suddenly the urgency. Inspector George W. Mcclutsky, then chief of the Detective Bureau of New York, took personal charge of the case and directed the work of his men.

7:44 Every art known to the police was employed. The entire uniformed force was put on lookout for chance clues and photographs of the murdered man were distributed in the hope that some policemen would recognize him. None did. The shoes were so worn that any marks of identification by which Bert and Co. Might have determined to whom they were sold had disappeared. The handkerchiefs told nothing. Not a pawn shop in the city had sold a crucifix similar to the one in the possession of the murdered man, nor had any of the regular dealers in such articles.

8:16 The markings on the barrel led to no discovery of value. The letter, which was regarded as perhaps the most promising clue, turned out to be only tantalizing half a dozen more words unobliterated. Perhaps only a single word might have told so much. Now there was a tendency on the part of many to attribute the crime to a woman, or at least to find a woman in the motive, because of the letter. However, as the identity of the victim was not established, there was no woman toward whom suspicion might point of all this, I I, of course, being William J. Flynn, head of the Secret Service, read in the evening papers.

8:53 I was at the time watching in New York a band of Sicilians, whom I suspected of certain crimes of which I shall treat lay. Many of you probably know, but the Secret Service has two main purviews, of course, one being the protection of the President, the physical protection of the President and at times other key government officials or their families. And the second one is the protection of the integrity of the American money supply, meaning rooting out counterfeiters. Chief of the Secret Service, William Flynn, continues in short as long ago as nineteen oh three, and this article, of course being written in nineteen fourteen, I Director Flynn, was convinced in my own mind of the existence of a black hand organization, black hand being what we today might refer to as the mafia or Coosinostra, the Godfather, the Sopranos, etc. From descriptions of the murdered man and from photographs, it seemed to me that I had seen him before.

9:53 Now we're back to the storytelling and observations of Director Flynn. I could not quite place him, and yet I was certain that I had seen the man. I shut myself up with a cigar and pondered the matter. The murder was brought to my attention on April fourteenth, only two nights previously, the band, which I had under surveillance, had exhibited unusual activity. On the night of April twelfth, I was in the possession of sufficient information in regard to this band to feel justified in making a personal expedition into their stronghold.

10:23 In other words, he had enough information to feel like he ought to go to New York. Of course, in nineteen fourteen, they like to say it a little more flowery, like I was in possession of enough of sufficient information in regards to this band to feel justified in making a personal expedition into their stronghold. He could have said, I had some info about this mafia group that made me feel like I should go to New York. But there you go. Certain of my men, playing the part of thieves, had gained the confidence of some of the lieutenants of Lupo and Morello.

10:55 Lupo and Morello, Lupo the Wolf, and Morello were leaders of this mafia group, and I Director Flynn was shaping up evidence enough to arrest them on here you go a charge of counterfeiting. So yep. The reason the Secret Service is looking into the mafia is because they are suspected of counterfeiting. On the evening in question, I picked up the trail of several members of the band and followed them from their counterfeiting headquarters in the cafe at Elizabeth and Princess Streets to the butcher shop of Vito de Luca in Stanton Street, east of the Bowery.

11:29 The Elizabeth Street cafe was just around the corner from Ignacio Lupo's saloon. That's Lupo the Wolf, one of the mafia leaders in the rear of which Giuseppe Morello conducted a restaurant. In Vite de Luca's meat store, I saw Morello, who I had arrested four months before with a gang of counterfeitters. Morello had been acquitted, though all the others were convicted. Two other men president at the store were Antonio Geneva and Domenico Pocarero, both of whom I knew well as members of the band. I was watching.

12:00 These three men stood in the rear of the shop in animated conversation, and while they talked, a fourth man, whose face was strange to me, stood alone on the sidewalk near the door, close to the flickering glare of the street light. Smoking, the three men were evidently arguing, and presently they hung up a piece of bagging as a curtain at the door of the street. I knew the men were still talking behind the curtain when a covered wagon stopped in front of the shop, and two men left it and entered the store.

12:28 One of them came out almost immediately and drove away. Shortly after eight o'clock, the visitors to Laduca's place left. They divided into two groups. The stranger went towards the bowery with Morello and Peccarero. All this on the evening of April twelfth. Now, as I sat smoking and pondering the whole thing, two nights later, the feeling grew that the stranger I had seen in the little Butcher's shop and the man who was found in the barrel might be one and the same person. Yet the pictures did not seem to portray the same features exactly as I remembered them, and the suit of the dead man was described as blue, while I remembered him to be clothed in brown.

13:04 Of course, he might have changed his clothes before meeting his death, but this didn't seem likely. I couldn't eliminate from my memory. The covered wagon I had seen two nights before it seemed to possess me. Finally I gave up on finding the reason for its presence and the unusual conduct of the drivers. The more I thought, the more I believed that the means by which the dead man had been transported from the place where he met his doom to the pavement on Avenue D was in that wagon. The men were Italians and associates of the Black Handers.

13:35 Then again, the fact that the men and La Ducas had been afraid of being seen and had hung the bagging over the glass door, and the stranger standing apart on the street just outside the door, where he could not hear the talk, all strengthened my suspicions that the man in the barrel was the man I had seen. I knew much of the inside working of the gang, and I felt in some way that the stranger had incurred the hatred of the Black hand The murder was not within my province, yet I wanted, if possible, to solve it, partly for my own satisfaction, partly because every fresh fact I learned regarding the organization I was after could be used to my advantage.

14:13 It was in a peculiar slanting ray of light that I had seen the stranger, and I determined to reproduce, to the best of my ability, the same lighting effect and make certain of the man before committing myself. Accordingly, I went to the morgue and viewed the body in the same kind of light in which I had first seen the face. I was no longer in doubt the dead man was the stranger of Luduca's butcher shop. To prove this, rather than just knowing, it was a different matter altogether, several of my men went with me to the morgue.

14:43 We measured the body according to Bertillion methods. Still, the man had not been identified, nor did his measurements correspond with any record in the Bertillion files. Just a moment, I'm curious what Bertillion methods are, so I'm going to google it. Here we go. The Bertillion method had developed by Alphonse Bertillion, was a system used to track and identify suspects and criminals. Police to use special instruments to take precise measurements of a criminal's arms, ears, nose, trunk, head, face, feet and hands, as well as standing height, sitting height, distance between the fingertips and arms outstretched.

15:21 It's no longer used. The flaws seem somewhat apparent. In particular, it's really only relevant for grown men who have reached full physical maturity and have short hair. But it was in use in nineteen fourteen, so they tried it to no avail in this case. Despite no matches in the Bertillion files, I was positive I was correct in my statement and that I had seen the man as described, But I was troubled by the fact that the clothing was blue instead of brown as I had seen it. Finally, with the aid of my men, I rigged up a light in my office such as I had seen the man standing near on the night of April twelfth, at the same height.

15:58 Anyway, the clothes were brought from the Morgan under the light. Sure enough they looked brown instead of blue. I was then sure I was right, and the man had been a victim of the black hand. I at once notified Inspector McCluskey and his men, working in conjunction with certain of mine, arrested eleven of the gang. They were Giuseppe Morello, Ignacio Lupo, Messino, Genova, Vita la Duca, Pietro Inzarillo, Domenico Peccarero, Lorenzo Libido, Giuseppe Finara, Lorenzo Lobido, what kind of That's quite a name.

16:31 It's like Michael vicks alter Ego when he goes to Italy instead of Ron Mexico, he's Lorenzo Lobido. In addition to Lorenzo Lobido, there was Giuseppe Finara, Giseppe Lelamia, Nicola Testa, that's almost Nicola Tesla, whoa Nicola Testa and Luciano Pirino. All of these men were Sicilians, and most of them, when arrested, were armed with knives or revolvers. On Morello, the police found a forty five caliber revolver and a knife tucked in the waistband of his trousers. A cork fixed on the point of the blade prevented it from scratching his leg and allowed him to bring it into play with a single motion of the wrist, much more readily than if he had carried it in a sheath.

17:12 Luciano Pirino, known as Ilbovai or Tomaso Petto the Ox, carried a pistol in a regulation holster and a stiletto in a sheath. Most of the men arrested were in possession of permits to carry revolvers issued by the Police Department of New York. It was this round up of desperate men, most of them armed, which did much to bring about the passage of a law forbidding the carrying of dangerous weapons. Now, while it was established beyond reasonable doubt that the man whose body was found jammed into the barrel was the stranger I had seen in Vito de Luca's meat shop, we were still at a loss to identify him.

17:47 The eleven prisoners were taken to the morgue, and each one separately was confronted with the murdered man and questioned as to his acquaintance with him. When Morello, whom I had seen walking with the murdered man, viewed the body, he showed not the slightest sign of recognition or of agitation. Though my secret servicemen and police detectives watched him as an animal does its prey, he shrugged his shoulders and volunteered the statement, don't know. Domenico Peccarero, who might also seen with the victim when he left the butcher's store, was similarly as loquacious.

18:21 In other words, he wasn't. He shrugged his shoulders as only an Italian can, and varied the formula by muttering the words no understand. The other nine prisoners denied all acquaintance with the victim of the murder. None of them had ever seen him, they said. We then hoped that relatives or friends would claim the body and thus establish the victim's identity. But for all we could tell after days of waiting, he had died without a single friend, with no relative to care whether he went to Potter's Field or not, Potter's Field being where they would bury impoverished people in unmarked graves.

18:55 The police redoubled their efforts, but to no avail every clue, and there were few enough of them, as it was led to nothing. Each new line which was run down to no purpose, and all left the case more baffling. Joseph Petrosino was at the time in the Italian squad of the New York Detective Bureau. He received an anonymous letter telling him to keep off the case and describing the murder as a vendetta, which seemed to the writer of the letter sufficient reason for the Baryl crime. Petrosino showed this letter to me.

19:27 Here was a clue worth following. The writer was evidently afraid to divulge his name, even to the police, out of fear of the vengeance of the terrible Black Hand. I knew of no man so well qualified to handle the case as Petrosino himself, so after carefully thinking out a plan of procedure, I suggested that he go to sing Sing prison, where several of the Lupo Morello band were serving terms for counterfeiting. Petrosino took with him a photograph of the Beryl victim and showed it to several of the convicts, whom he knew to be identified with the b Black Hand.

20:01 They too professed ignorance of the dead man's identity. It seemed as if it was to be the same story over again. But at last Petrosino showed the photograph to Giuseppe de Prima, and, without telling him of the murder, asked him if he knew whose likeness it was. Diprima glanced at the detective, an alarm showed on his face. He clutched at the pasteboard on which was the likeness of the murdered man. That is mourinno Benedetto, my brother in law. He cried, what has happened? The detective told him that Benedetto was murdered.

20:31 Giuseppe d Prima felt a trembling like a leaf. Fear distorted his features. He knew the power that was behind the knife that had slit the throat of Morainno Benedetto, his brother in law. He overcame his fear, and it turned to anger. He cursed the murderers from his cell. He shook his fist against the bare walls, and he swore a vendetta against the men who had slain his relative by marriage. When he was calmer, Deprima convinced Petrosino beyond reasonable doubt that he had identified the victim correctly.

20:58 He described a watched jane which had been found in one of Benedetto's pockets, and described the curious crucifix which had been found with the body. He told of the scar on the murdered man's face, and other unmistakable marks of identification. Benedetto, he said, was a stonecutter and lived in Buffalo for some months. He had been out of work, and Dprima believed he had recently been operating with a band of counterfeiters in New York. This, of course was the Lupo Morello gang. But Duprima, for reasons of his own, would not tell too much, nor would he tell if he knew who was likely to have committed the murder.

21:32 His was vengeance, and he did not intend to aid the law to take over his prerogative. He steadfastly denied that he had the slightest idea who was the guilty man or men. At last it was learned who the Baryl victim was, and Petrosino returned to New York. Together, we went to police headquarters and examined all the letters and papers taken from the men arrested as suspects in the case. Among the possessions of Luciano Pirino or petoviox I found a pawn ticket for watch which had been pledged in a Bowery pawnshop for one dollar on the day of the murder.

22:04 We sent to Buffalo for Benedetto's wife. To the minutest details. She described the watch which her husband had worn, the one which the ox had pawned, was procured, and it tallied to every particular with the woman's description. She was certain when it was shown to her that it had belonged to her husband. Before seeing it. She described certain markings and engravings which could have only been known to a person familiar with it. With the evidence in hand, Pet of the Ox was indicted by the grand jury for murder in the first degree.

22:33 The other suspects had been held on a charge of murder without bail, but because the evidence was not sufficient to hold them, Magistrate Barlow turned them out. The Secret Service continued to watch these men, however, and what developed from this surveillance will be shared with you soon. At this time came fresh evidence of the existence of the Black Hand organization. Pet of the Ox was apparently penniless and counsel would have been provided for him by the state, but suddenly, apparently from nowhere, a great fund was raised.

23:04 High priced counsel was engaged to fight his case in court, and money was spent freely in a campaign for his release. This money, for the greater part, was contributed by members of the Black Hand. Some of it was wrung from terrorized Italians, some of it was begged from the campari or godfathers of members of the gang. Every Sicilian has two compari and they are bound to aid their charges when they are in trouble. Meanwhile, the police worked tirelessly in efforts to accumulate evidence against Peto.

23:32 The watch, which he had pawned, was the only incriminating evidence they unearthed. I was morally certain who had murdered Benedetto, and reports from my men strengthened my belief. From information in my possession, I was certain the Black Hand organization was furnishing the funds to conduct Peto's defense. It was to my interest to find out just who were in this organization and just where the money came from, for I knew the band to be engaged in counterfeiting. It's interesting because, as I've mentioned before, as we've discussed before, the two goals of the Secret Service are the physical protection of the President and the protection of the money supply rooting out of counterfeiters.

24:11 Now, when you just sort of think of that abstractly, you don't necessarily think that chasing down counterfeit money is going to lead you directly to a mob barrel murder. I also find it sort of philosophically academically interesting that the Secret Services to jobs are protect the integrity of the President and protect the integrity of American money. Of course, practically that does make sense, but it's also hard not to wonder or feel like there's a certain symbolic synergy there as well, America being the consumer society that we are.

24:47 All right, back to the murder investigation and the musings of Secret Service Chief William J. Flynn. He's just said it was in my interest to find out just who were in this organization and just where the money came from. But I knew the band to be engaged in counterfeiting. It was at this time that I learned a great deal about the organization of the Black Hand. While Petto was in the tombs. That's a fun old timey metaphor for prison. I ascertained that every member of the band was from Corleone, while a name made very famous by the Godfather, of course, a town about twenty seven miles from Palermo, Sicily.

25:23 It was in Palermo that Joseph Petrosino was later murdered while executing a mission for Commissioner Bingham of the New York Police Department. So the police officer who identified the murder victim later became some kind of an international undercover spy for a New York PD operation against the Italian mafia. I would like to know more about that, Okay, I promised not to interrupt the story quite so much with my own musings. Let's get back to it. II, being William J. Flynn, was seeking to get one or more of my operatives into the inner circle of the Black Hand, and I learned that in order to accomplish this, the man must be from Corleone, or he must come recommended by a member of the society who came from Corleone or lived there at present.

26:10 Peto the Ox was in the tombs four months awaiting trial. During this time the police bent every effort to produce evidence against him which would hold in court. Meanwhile, the Black Hand was raising money for his defense, and my men the Secret Service were working into the confidence of the Black handers. Nevertheless, scarcely a single piece of evidence which would have held for a moment in a court of law was unearthed by the police. Peto steadfastly denied his guilt. Of course, there was no witness to the crime.

26:41 Peto had not been seen with the victim by any person who was available as a witness, and the watch was the only slender clue that connected him with the crime. There were a dozen different ways in which that could be accounted for. Peto's lawyer asked that the prisoner be released on his own recognisance, on the ground that there was not sufficient evidence upon which to bring the accused to trial with any fair hope of a conviction. The barrel murder was more of a mystery than ever. The one man to whom circumstances pointed as guilty of the crime was discharged by the court because there was not sufficient evidence against him to make a conviction even possible.

27:17 The police tried other clues. They worked more upon the theory that there was a woman in the case. They tried to find some person with a grievance against Benedetto, but they failed. Peto disappeared from his accustomed haunts, but the eyes of the Secret Service followed him, and the long arm of Uncle Sam hovered over him, ready to strike. What happened to Petto The ox and how Secret Service Chief William J. Flynn finally solved the mystery of the murder of Maurania Benedetto, which was never solved by the police.

27:47 Well you'll find that out after a super quick break and we're back. I hope that wasn't too painful. Hey, before we jump back into the story, I wanted to remind you, as I often do, of the free three digit number nine eight eight, the twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, toll free lifeline nine eight eight, that you can call anytime to receive immediate counseling for substance use, mental health or suicidal thoughts. So if you find yourself in a very dark place, please do call nine eight eight, and please remember that you are loved and the world is a better place with you in it.

28:37 If you'd like to reach out to someone just to make a connection and talk about your life, you can also reach out to me Kindomurdery at gmail dot com or at kind of Murdery on all social media, or you can call the kind of Murdery hotline eight eight eight Murdery that's eighty eight six eight seven three three seven nine. I would love it if you would share a per kind of Murdery story from your own life. A few episodes ago, I did an episode called kind of Murdery Stories from Zevin's real life, my real life.

29:09 So if you're wondering what to share, you could go back and listen to that. But really it can be anything. Kind of Murdery doesn't have to be about murder. It can just be strange, intriguing, scary, fun even funny. And also if you're a person like me I have cerebral palsy, a person who is living with a disability, and you would like to share something unique about your life, experience something that you feel like doesn't just occur to most people, please do that either through email or social media, as I mentioned, kindomurdery at gmail dot com or at kind of Murdery on all social media, or do it by calling that kind of Murdery hotline eight eight murdery.

29:49 And you don't have to be disabled. You can just share something unique about your own life. My goal here is that we, hopefully as a community and then building that out as a country in a world, can start to build just a little bit more empathy people who live differently than us, or people that we don't see on a daily basis. It's too easy to begin to feel like they're others, to forget that they're human beings just like us. Driven by the same hopes and dreams and fears and insecurities and all that.

30:19 So that's the truth of things that I'm hoping we can all share together. Also, on a lighter note, I've been trying to figure out what the name for our community for kind of murdery listeners should be. I know, shows like my favorite murder call their listeners murderingnos. What do you think kind of murdery listeners should be called? If you have any suggestions, please send them to me, and if I pick your suggestion, I'll read your name on the air and send you a mysterious kind of murdery prize.

30:49 All right, thanks for giving me this time. Let's get back to the story. Pet of the Ox, released by the courts because there was not sufficient evidence to bring him to trial for the murder of Marine Benedetto, disappeared from his accustomed haunts in New York. Whether the police followed his movements, I do not know, but the eyes of the Secret Service were ceaselessly on him, and the long arm of Uncle Sam hovered ever over him, ready to strike. Aside from a matter of pride, it was my business to follow Peto, for I knew him to be identified with a band of counterfeiters.

31:22 I was trying to break up. The very fact that he shunned New York after his release strengthened my growing belief in the existence of a black hand society. There was not sufficient evidence in the hands of the police to make him fear them. New York was the headquarters for his band. Yet he fled to Pittston, Pennsylvania, and we knew that he feared something. It was reasonable to suppose that if he was the murderer of Benedetto, he feared vengeance. In Pittston, on the outskirts of the city, Peto lived in a small house where many a foul plot was hatched, and many a blackmailing scheme was originated, with Peto as its master plotter.

32:02 The decent Italians of the district feared him as they would a plague. Even the poorest of them were not safe from his depredations, and the most powerful were his easy prey. One night, the Ox was sitting in a comfortable room of his little house. Doubtless he was gloating over some rich haul, or plotting some new trick by which to wring gold from an industrious neighbor outside. A scotch mist chilled all things, and Peto hugged the fire for warmth. A shrill whistle pierced the night. Peto must have started, for he was not a brave man, though he held cheaply human life when it was someone else's.

32:38 From his pocket. He snatched a heavy revolver. At the same time, he quickly turned out the lights that no man might see him through the window. Peto the Ox knew the meaning of that shrill whistle. Cautiously he crept toward the door of his house. Slowly he opened it and peered through the mist on His quickness of eye depended his life, and it was hard to see. Something must have moved in the darkness, for Petto fired once. At the same instant. Five quick stabs of red pierced the curtain of mist.

33:07 The Ox fell dropped as drops the animal for whom he was named, when struck with a pole axe. Five leaden slugs had found his body. One had carried away a part of the hand with which he gripped his own revolver, which fell fully loaded by his side. The murderer of Petto took no chances lest the Ox should be playing possum. He sank a dagger into Peto's heart. So far as the police records of any city go, the slayer of Petto has never been discovered. Nothing which might help materially in the solution of the mystery was found.

33:40 But about Petto's neck hung a little brass crucifix, just such a one as was found in the body of the barrel victim, with a skull and crossbones beneath the feet of the figure on the cross. Here was another mystery, and yet it confirmed my theory of the first. It started a train of thought on which I worked to a certain conclusion and act. Afterward. My ideas were confirmed by the confessions of black handers with whom I talked. In my mind, there was no doubt that the slaying of the Ox was an act of vengeance.

34:09 The most reasonable supposition I was already morally certain that Petto had killed Benedetto, was that he had died at the hand of a relative of Benedetto's. It was but a step further to attribute the killing of Benedetto himself to vengeance. Now, for a moment, I must lead you back again. In January nineteen o three, several months before the Beryl murder baffled the police of New York, three Italians were arrested in Yonkers, New York, charged with counterfeiting five dollar notes of the National Iron Bank of Morristown, New Jersey.

34:39 These notes were being imported from Italy by the Lupo Morello gang. The three men arrested were Isidoro Crocevera, Salvatore Romano, and Gisebe di Prima. The last you will remember was the brother in law of the Beryl victim, and was the first to identify him as Mourinho Benedetto. When I took hold of the case, the Yonkers, New York police told me that there had been a fourth man in the company of the three arrested, but that he had gotten away. I knew at once that this man, the fourth man, was the treasurer of the crew passing the counterfeit money.

35:11 The treasurer, with the bills on his person, always lurks in the background, and if the others get into trouble, he immediately flees with the bulk of the counterfeit notes. His first move is to go to the headquarters of the gang, where all the machinery of the Black Hand Society is immediately set in motion in the effort to win the release of those captured. The description that the Yonker's police gave me of the escaped man was so accurate that I at once identified him as a counterfeiter known in the files of the Secret Service as Number six.

35:41 Incidentally, I knew Crochevera and de Prima were members of the Corleone band, in other words, members of the Black Hand. The men who made the arrests in Yonkers went with me to New York, and I stationed them where they could get a good view of Number six. They at once declared that he was the man who had escaped from them, and on February nineteenth we arrested him. He gave his name as Giuseppe Gaalombardo and was sentenced to serve six years in prison. Meanwhile, I several times questioned Crochevera, Duprima, and Romano.

36:13 I knew that none of these men would talk. If any one of them did and was released, his body would doubtless be found broken and mutilated within twenty four hours. On one occasion, I had Crochevera and Duprima brought to my office at the same time. I left Crochevera in the outer office, and with a great show of secrecy, kept Duprima locked up with me in the inner office for more than an hour. Crochevera, of course, knew that he was in there, and my scheme was to make him think that Daprima had confessed, thus leading the other prisoner, in a spirit of spite, to incriminate his companion and perhaps divulge many secrets of the band.

36:48 After I thought Crochevera had had time to think things over, I dismissed Duprima as he left my office. I went to the door with him, and insight and hearing of Crochevera, shook him cordially by the hand and bade him goodbye, heartily, as if I was much gratified by what he had told me. As a matter of fact, he had told me next to nothing, but I wished to strengthen Croceevera's suspicions against him. The ruse was fruitless. Crochevera told me absolutely nothing. He did, however, convey to the leaders of the Black Hand news of all that had transpired in my office.

37:21 This I learned later through a number of different channels. He gave it out that Duprima had confessed all and that every member of the band was in danger. Although my little piece of acting did not result in forcing Croceevera to discourage secrets of the Black Hand, it had convinced him of Duprima's duplicity and had far reaching results of an unexpected and startling nature. The members of the society had no reason to doubt the truth of Crochevera's accusations against Duprima, and when we arrested the treasurer, the man called Number six, they were absolutely convinced that the prisoner Duprima had betrayed them.

37:58 The three men captured in Yonkers were sent to sing Sing, convicted of passing counterfeit money. The fact that Daprima himself was serving a term in prison did not excuse him in the eyes of the Black Hand Society, which believed he had betrayed its secrets. According to the tenets of the organization, Daprima should be punished by death. But Daprima was in prison, and it did not suit the desires of the Black Hand to wait for vengeance until he was released. The anger of the Sicilian flares up like loose powder when it is kindled, and revenge must be quick if possible, according to the unwritten law of the Black Hand.

38:34 As Daprima was where he could not be punished, his nearest male relative was marked to pay the penalty. Duprima had no male blood relatives, and so at a conference of the leaders of the society, it was decided that his brother in law should die instead. This was Mourenno Benedetto, the man whose body was found in the barrel, covered by an overcoat. Pet of the Ox was selected to commit the crime. So pet of the Ox was chosen to kill Benedetto, the barrel victim. In turn, Peedo was shot to death by a kinsman of Benedetto.

39:06 Many supposed that the avenger of the barrel murder was Duprima himself, who, in the natural course of events would have been called upon to act. This is because Diprimo was released from sing Sing at about the time of Peto's death. But I can say for a certainty that Daprima did not shoot Ilbobe the Ox, for he was still in prison when Peto answered the shrill whistle, which drew him to his death. The police will also tell you that Daprima, when released, attempted to flee to Palermo, and that he died at sea, probably at the hands of a mafia assassin.

39:40 And that is the conclusion of the case of Peto the Ox and the Alphabet Barrel murder. So the black Hand Cosinostra. The mafia believed that Diprima had ratted out their secrets to the Secret Service regarding the counterfeiting ring, but Daprima hadn't. Because they couldn't kill Duprima who was in prison, and because he didn't have an amia be it male relative, they killed Daprima's brother in law, and by they I mean they had pet of the Ox killed Daprima's brother in law, and then pet of the Ox himself was killed, likely to cover their tracks, because if there's one thing both pirates and mobsters know, it's that dead men tell no tales.

40:19 Here's what I find interesting, I suppose not surprising, but interesting. You could argue, in the endless chain of cause and effect, that in fact, the murderer, or at least the killer of the barrel murder victim Murano Benedetto pet of the Ox and Duprima was actually Secret Service Chief William J. Flynn because it was his bit of office play acting the friendliness and handshaking he engaged in with Daprima in front of Crocevera that convinced Crocevera that Duprima had flipped on the black hand and set off the chain of triple murder that this story was about.

41:01 And so I ask you who killed the Baryl Victim Murano Benedetto. Was it Pedo Theox Ilbove or was it in fact Chief of the United States Secret Service, William J. Flynn, And does he also bear responsibility for the subsequent murders of Pedo the Ox and Giseppi di Prima. Let me know what you think. I'm Zevan Odelberg and this has been kind of murdery. I'd like the show. The subscribe, review and tell your friends. You can find us on social media at Kino Murdery or email at Kinomurdery at gmail dot com.