The Barrel Mystery

  CHAPTER V

  THE GREENHORN'S STORY

  In the latter part of June, 1907, a young Italian landed in New Yorkfrom the southern part of Italy. He was an ambitious sort of cleverchap. He not only spoke his mother tongue well, but he had a goodcommand of Spanish and French and was posted on several of thedialects current in the "boot" or southern part of Italy. He knew verylittle of the English tongue, however. Among his variousaccomplishments he was also a practical printer.

  The career of this young man up to the time of his landing at EllisIsland is significant, to say the least. He was a native of the littletown of Cananzero in Calabria, one of the provinces of southern Italy.He had been a teacher there and had taught technical subjects. Lateron he taught in private, and finally became an instructor ingovernment schools. From Italy he had gone to Brazil, where he spentseven years of his time. He had engaged in teaching school there, andhe had also worked at the printing trade in Rio de Janeiro, thecapital of Brazil. At one time he had been engaged by the ItalianConsul at Rio de Janeiro to assist that official in legal matters.

  The young man's name was Antonio Viola Comito.

  In course of time he proved to be the connecting link that joined thechain of evidence identifying Lupo and Morello legally andinseparately with the counterfeiting gang which manufactured anddistributed the counterfeit money in the summer of 1909. His own storyin full, which has never been made public before, is given here. Thisstory of his contains many statements which ought to interest thepublic, statements that were not divulged by Comito even at the trialwhere he was the pivot upon which turned the conviction of the mostnotorious and troublesome band of counterfeiters this country everknew. As a result of his damaging evidence, the gang vowed to destroyhim. He has changed his identity completely meanwhile, however, andwas last heard from in South America, where he is very prosperous. Hehas a good deal more courage than his own story, as told by him, wouldindicate. He will never be reached by the Black-Hand gang withoutseveral of them paying with their lives for his. He is confident ofthat.

  Comito's own story follows:

  "The reader will pardon me, if, in reading this story of my life inNew York, there are errors of language and periods not well expressed.

  "During the latter part of 1908 and a good part of 1909, I hadoccasion to know many malefactors who horrified me from the verystart, and whom I gradually came to fear as I studied their brutalcharacter. I refrained from denouncing these men to the police becauseI was constantly in danger of losing my life had I done so.

  "These men were the leaders of the notorious 'Black-Hand' Society,which spreads terror among the Italians all over the United States.While among them I studied the badness, the power, the brutality andthe arrogance of the counterfeiter and the assassin.

  "They were not a very civil lot. They were villains incarnate. One oftheir characteristic traits is that one alone would not commit acrime because of cowardice. When a 'job' was to be executed it wasalways carried out by three or four directed by a 'corporal,' who wasput in charge by the head bandit. This 'corporal' bossed the job,remaining all the while in the distance so that in case the operationsof those committing the deed were discovered by the police the'corporal' would be sure to escape and report the circumstances to thehead bandit of the society. The head bandit would in turn notify allthe other members, when a counsel would be called at which steps wouldbe taken to aid those apprehended by the police.

  "What puzzled me not a little was the fact that when it came to goingto trial for an offense no eye-witness would ever appear in court totell of the crime with which the members under arrest might becharged. Those arrested usually gave fictitious names, and when placedon trial they were always freed. These men governed their associationby secret orders. They operated on a vast scale and extended theircrime even to the kidnapping of little children."

  At this point Comito enters a long apology to those people of SouthernItaly who are good citizens and law-abiding. He does not refer inthis article, he says, to the honest Sicilians, who labor and earntheir living honestly. It is of the malefactors, he says, that hespeaks.

  Comito then tells of entering New York and meeting his brother at theBattery. He relates his sensations at seeing the tall buildings of NewYork and the hurrying crowds in the noisy streets.

  After going to the home of his brother in Bleecker Street, Comitosays:

  "During the dinner I was carefully advised by my uncle, an intelligentman and very cautious, having served the Italian government for twelveyears as non-commissioned officer in the line infantry. He said, 'Donot acquire bad friendships. Be careful of traps that strangers maylay for you. There exists in New York a band of malefactors which bearthe name of Black-Hand. Every day this band commits crimes,assassinating persons, setting fire to houses, breaking in doors,exploding bombs, and kidnapping children.'

  "He told me also never to tell any one where I worked and how much Iearned. He advised me to think only of bettering my condition andthat of my family, because in America, in time, the man with a goodwill can acquire a good position."

  Perhaps these words that follow may be of interest to the reader ingetting an insight into the mentality of the newly arrived immigrant.Says Comito:

  "My only wish was to work and put aside something; to economize, andso help the condition of my family and provide some day for mydaughter that she might have a profession. I did not think of evil,and hoped from day to day to find occupation. I was a printer, and,though I did not know English, I felt confident of finding work insome Italian printing-office."

  Comito then tells of finding employment in the Italian printing houseof M. Dassori, at No. 178 Park Row, where he was getting along well.He tells of sending money to Italy to his wife and children. He tellsof his brother here introducing him to honest Italians of the workingclass and of how he joined the order of the Sons of Italy and also theForesters of America. Comito then relates his rapid rise in theForesters, mentioning also how he became Supreme Deputy of the Orderof the Sons of Italy, besides being chosen a member for the Congressof Italians abroad, which was held in Rome in 1908. He dwells on hislosing employment because of lack of work in the place where he wasemployed. After getting employment again he finds himself once moreout of a place, about the beginning of September, 1908. He tells veryfrankly of taking up with a lady named Caterina and how they sharedthe apartment which he furnished as well as his means afforded. He andCaterina lived together, he says, "respecting one another as husbandand wife." Describing his affair with Caterina, who, by the way,enters in some measure into the counterfeiting story, Comito says:

  "I, together with Caterina, lived agreeably, and what was earnedweekly was divided equally, and we did not take into account whichearned the more or the less. We made an honest front with friends. Idischarged my duties with the societies with zeal."