The story of Joe Petrosino is very known and touches many that knew him or that are linked to him in New York. He was an Italian- american police agent that lived in the first half of the 1900. He is recognized for his work against the Mafia organization that ruled over Little Italy known as “Mano Nera”.
It all started because the Italian immigrants were threatened and killed if they didn’t pay what they were asked, even if it was illegal. So they used to live in this harsh economical condition. This made them the perfect target for criminal organizations like the Mafia, that were born to solve this social problem. That’s when Theodore Roosevelt became assessor of the police force of New York – later on he was elected president of the United States- and put Joe Petrosino in charge of the team of police men who had the hard task of reducing the illegality and destroying the mafia association.
Joe Petrosino was loyal and hard working and dedicated his life to protecting the state and it’s people. He had great investigation skills and operative methods, maybe a bit harsh at times but effective. He managed to really damage the american “Mano Nera”.
He understood that he needed to investigate about the relations between the american and the italian mafia to discover how to end this organization. Italy was his land of birth, and this is why he decided to travel to Sicily for a special mission once he was awarded the role of lieutenant of the New York police force. This mission was secret, know one knew about it , at least so was thought. The people who knew about this mission are the ones who, aware of his arrival, prepared a mortal attack in the Marina square in Palermo.