Mafia Part II
Perhaps the best trailing nugget from this week’s column is Joseph Petrosino. Here, we have an Oscar-worthy narrative replete with a tragic, unlikely, and fortuitous embryogenesis. It was followed by a plucky and eccentric career at the infancy of modern law enforcement. Although parts of Joe’s Mafia-busting undertakings have been featured long ago in typical Hollywood fashion, a full accounting of his story might not have been presented due to its dreadful ending. Still, no pantheon of American law enforcement could exist without his name near the top.
Prof. Alex Taylor’s crime history column originally appeared in the Gainesville Times, Tuesday, May 10, 1988.
