Giuseppe Petrosino (August 30, 1860 – March 12, 1909) was an Italian-born New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer who was a pioneer in the fight against organized crime. Crime fighting techniques that Mr. Petrosino pioneered are still practiced by law enforcement agencies today.

On October 19th, 1883, Mr. Petrosino joined the NYPD. He was the first Italian language speaker in the NYPD’s history. Fluent in several Italian dialects, he was able to “make” cases that other officers could not.

On July 20th, 1895, police commissioner, good friend and future U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt promoted him to detective sergeant in charge of the department’s Homicide Division. The pinnacle of his career came in December 1908 when he was promoted to lieutenant and placed in charge of the Italian Squad, an elite corps of Italian-American detectives assembled specifically to deal with the criminal activities of organizations like the Mafia, which Mr. Petrosino saw as a shame upon decent Italians and Italian Americans.

In 1909, Mr. Petrosino travelled to Palermo, Sicily, armed with a long list of known Italian criminals who had taken up residence in the United States, and intended to get enough evidence of their criminal pasts to throw them out of the country once and for all.

On March 12, 1909, after arriving in Palermo, Sicily, Mr. Petrosino was invited to a nighttime rendezvous in the city’s Piazza Marina, where he was to receive information about the Mafia. While waiting for his “informant”, he was shot by two assailants and died.
The day after his death, the detective’s Italian Branch received an anonymous letter stating that the New York Black Hand had arranged the murder. The letter named members of the Morello crime family.

On April 12th, 1909, over 200.000 people took part in Mr. Petrosino’s funeral procession. At the time of his death the Italian Squad had made a total of 3557 arrests, Black Hander Giovanni Pelletieri being one of them.

Mugshot card Black Hander Giovanni Pelletieri (front)

Mugshot card Black Hander Giovanni Pelletieri (back)

PROVENANCE

The original 1907 NYPD mugshot card was obtained at one of world's largest global, online marketplaces.

Attached to the front of the mughot card is Giovanni Pelletieri's photo (side and front profile). The back of the card mentions his physical remarks like, height, weight and length and also the type of crime, occupation and Lt. Petrosino as being one of the arresting officers. What makes it even more special is that the writing has been confirmed to be in his hand.

Also pictured is a Harper's Weekly magazine published, May 8th 1909, less than two months after Lt. Petrosino's death. The article 'Fostering Foreign Criminals' features the same Giovanni Pelletieri with his brother Giuseppe Pelletieri.

Harper's Weekly Magazine - article