One hundred years ago, the U.S. government scored an impressive victory over an interstate counterfeiting operation administered by New York-based Mafia boss of bosses Giuseppe Morello.A mountain of evidence gathered over a period of years by Secret Service agent William Flynn secured the conviction of Morello, his lieutenant and brother-in-law Ignazio Lupo and a number of their associates. The 1910 counterfeiting case revealed the methods, the hierarchy and the influence of the American Mafia. In this expanded issue, we look at that landmark case as well as at the incarceration of the Sicilian underworld leaders.
We start with excerpts from the story told by informant Antonio Comito to Secret Service investigators (preview). An out-ofwork printer, Comito claimed that Morello’s Mafia forced him to work at the production of counterfeit American and Canadian currency. Comito was the prosecution’s key witness at the Morello-Lupo trial.
A timeline (preview) shows the significant events during the imprisonment of the Morello counterfeiters. The courtroom testimony of several defense witnesses, including Ignazio Lupo himself, is presented next (preview). Morello’s long prison sentence dethroned him as Mafia boss of bosses and also sent him into a deep depression. We look within surviving correspondence and other prison records for evidence of the jailed underworld leader’s emotional struggle (preview).
Finally, we examine the life and career of William Flynn, whose detective work made him the nemesis of counterfeiters and also the terror of American radicals (preview).
The issue also includes an early Gambino Crime Family membership chart by Bill Feather (preview), Ask the Informer (preview), and A Look Back (preview).
Eighty pages including cover and advertisements
Published April 2, 2010.
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