Today we think of the "mafia" as a synonym for organized crime, in reality at the beginning the American mafia was not that organized. In the early 1900s it was poorly structured. The symptom of this lack of organization was the brutal wars between the minor gangs waged against each other for domination over the various rackets. The gangs formed by the Italians compared to those of the Jews and Irish were much better organized and the components disciplined, ruthless and efficient, especially at times when wars were unleashed over the disputes over territories and customers. The survival of individual criminals required courage, cruelty and a lot of luck. Joe Masseria was one of the few organized crime leaders who embodied these qualities.

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In the creation of these podcasts dedicated to the history of the American mafia we have given a lot of space to those who have fought against the most powerful criminal association in the world. This was the case of New York Police Lieutenant Joe Petrosino and Detective Frances Dimaio. In this podcast we are dealing with a policeman whose worth, the solved cases and the greening of his memory need to be remembered. Today we are dealing with Michael Fiaschetti. Unjustly known alone and finally as the number two of the Italian Squad. In fact he was the one who inherited the command of the Italian team after the heinous murder of his boss and creator Joe Petrosino. Let's start with some biographical information of Fiaschetti known by friends and colleagues such as Mike.

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Starting from the twenties, the underworld in the United States of America and consequently the Cosa Nostra changed drastically. The cause of all this was to be attributed to Prohibition. In addition, as regards the American mafia, an important contributing cause should not be overlooked, namely the strong repression of the fascist regime against the Italian mafia, which took place in the same period of time. In fact, this led to the flight of many Sicilian mafia to the new continent. The era of so-called Prohibition comes into force in the United States with the approval of the eighteenth amendment to the American constitution. According to this new law, passed in 1919, the production and distribution and retail sale of any alcoholic beverage was prohibited in the United States of America, essentially the offender committing a federal crime.

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The postal inspector Oldfield investigated the extortion report filed by the Italian-American merchant Giuseppe Amicone. Furthermore, thanks to a director of a post office, he learned that Sam Lima, the head of the criminal organization called the Marion Banana Society, sent large sums of money to Italy via the post office.

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The cases we have dealt with related to the Black Hand happened in New York. But ignorance and fear and lack of collaboration all concerned the places in the USA where there was urban isolation and a deep, atavistic distrust of authority. However, there were also exceptions like the one in the Midwest. One of these, the subject of our narration today, concerns the story of a man who decides not to bend over and not to keep his mouth shut. This happened in Columbus (Ohio) in January 1909.

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Theodore Bingham had a secret plan to defeat the Black Hand. it was the development of Petrosino's idea, namely to stem the flow of criminals who emigrated from Italy to the USA. To achieve this, the Police Department would undertake to send the Italian-American police officer to Italy where he would consult the criminal records of the offenders of emigrants to America.

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Petrosino was now aware that he was not just a simple employee of the New York Police Department. The policeman felt the responsibility. He probably became a celebrity was the most famous Italian American in the USA. He was troubled by the growing intolerance of Italians on the part of public opinion. In 1904 he began to work out a plan to stop the growing spread of Black Hand crimes.

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In addition to the crime of the barrel which we have extensively discussed in previous podcasts, there are so many cases to which the Italian-American policeman devoted himself. As soon as he joined the police, Petrosino adopted techniques that are still part of the investigative activities of current use by the police all over the world.

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In many of the podcasts you have listened to, the name of one of the greatest policemen of all time often recurs, whose exploits are now remembered and narrated. This is Joe Petrosino. He is not a literary policeman, fruit of the imagination of a skilled crime writer, but he lived and died as a hero. He was not only a great investigator but he represented the ransom for many honest Italian immigrants who came to America to escape from hunger and misery.

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The head of the New York agency of services, William Flynn had expressly stated that the best way to proceed is to continue to keep an eye on the butcher shop and the men of Giuseppe Morello's gang who frequented it. Moreover, the criminals did not know they were under observation and therefore further elements could be acquired regarding the case of the murder of the barrel.

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