The Italian Squad - by Paul Moses

About the Book

"With blackmail, bombings and kidnappings terrorizing New York, courageous Italian immigrant detectives teamed up as the NYPD's Italian Squad. This explosive story follows them across the first two decades of the twentieth century as they battle increasingly powerful gangsters and deeply engrained prejudice against their beloved immigrant community"--

Book Synopsis

The unknown inside story of the NYPD's Italian-born detectives who fought both powerful gangsters and the deeply ingrained prejudice against their own beloved immigrant community

The story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12, 1909, at 8:45 p.m. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated even in Italy.

The Italian Squad, by veteran New York City journalist and historian Paul Moses, explores the lives of the nationally celebrated detectives who followed in the slain Petrosino's footsteps as leaders of the New York City investigative squad: Anthony Vachris, Charles Corrao, and Michael Fiaschetti. Drawing on new primary sources such as private diaries and city, state, and federal documents, this dramatic narrative history follows the Italian Squad across the first two decades of the twentieth century as its detectives battled increasingly powerful gangsters, political obstacles and deeply ingrained prejudice against their own beloved Italian immigrant community.

Vachris, Corrao, and Fiaschetti became, like Petrosino, famous for meting out tough justice to criminals who comprised the "Black Hand." Beyond trying to prevent horrific crimes--nighttime bombings in crowded tenements, kidnappings that targeted children at play, gangland shootings that killed innocent bystanders--the Italian Squad commanders hoped to persuade society of what they knew for themselves: that their fellow immigrant Italians, so often maligned, would make good American citizens.

In this explosive story, Moses carefully strips away the mythology that has always enveloped the Italian Squad and offers instead a nuanced portrait of brave but flawed men who fought the good fight for their people and their city.

Review Quotes

"Most people attracted to stories about organized crime are captured by the betrayal and violence that are part of the underworld milieu. Few realize its connection to everyday life and what it says about our culture. Paul Moses has captured a sliver of this culture through an unconventional lens--The Italian Squad of the New York City Police Department. He has unraveled the ethnic struggles and cultural polarization rooted in our immigration experience over the past 100 years. If you learn nothing more from Moses's impressive research, fear is the emotional trigger that dispenses with rationality, logic, and civility."-- "Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books"

"In this explosive story, Moses carefully strips away the mythology that has always enveloped the Italian Squad and offers instead a nuanced portrait of brave but flawed men who fought the good fight for their people and their city."-- "The Brooklyn Daily Eagle"

"The Italian Squad is a true-crime story expertly told and, though set in a bygone century, relevant to today's concerns about immigration, prejudice, and policing."-- "PopMatters"

"Historian Moses carefully strips away the mythology that has always shrouded the Italian squad and instead offers a nuanced portrait of brave, but flawed men who fought the good fight for their people and their city."-- "Italia Report USA"

"A story of ethnic stereotypes, immigration battles, and police brutality."-- "New York Daily News"

"In his new book, reporter-historian Paul Moses writes about the NYPD officers who fought the extortion racket known as the Black Hand during the early part of the 20th century--and did so from a position of ethnic familiarity. Immigrants fighting immigrants, Italians battling Italians, crime fighters operating from within the community that was being preyed upon."-- "Wall Street Journal"

"For Gang Land's money, this book should be required reading for law enforcement, a reminder of how powerful organized crime can grow when it's ignored."--Jerry Capeci "Gang Land"

"Moses provides the definitive account of a fascinating chapter in New York City's law enforcement history. New York history nuts will be in heaven."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"A well-researched examination of a little-known corner of the NYPD's past."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

"A thoughtful, enlightening, deeply researched exploration of the origins of organized crime in the United States. Moses brings to light the real-life origins of the Mafia and the attempts of Italian-American members of the NYPD to bring it to heel. The issues of ethnicity and criminality that Moses addresses are as timely today as they were a century ago. The Italian Squad is an engrossing read from first page to last."--Peter Quinn, mystery writer, historian, and author of Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York

"An original and deeply researched book that challenges many of the myths distorting our understanding of organized crime in the twentieth century. Paul Moses gracefully conjures the gritty world of Italian policemen, the struggles of the immigrant community they served, the complex realities of NYPD politics, and the formation of a transnational underworld stretching from New York to Sicily."--Daniel Czitrom, author of New York Exposed

"In this absorbing tale of a New York City plagued by bombings, blackmail, and child kidnappings, the unsung heroes of The Italian Squad battle ruthless Black Hand thugs as well as fierce Italian-American prejudice. Moses skillfully tells the little known story of how a group of undercover cops risked their lives to help a vulnerable Italian immigrant population grow and thrive."--Maria Laurino, author of The Italian Americans: A History

"In this impeccably researched book, Paul Moses does a masterful job bringing to life the brave men on the front lines of what was a new era in law enforcement. The Italian Squad is a must read for any student of history and organized crime."--Matt Birkbeck, author of The Life We Chose and The Quiet Don

"Moses shows how the Italian Squad was one of the first examples of community policing. With a reporter's eye for detail and a writer's feel for the sweep of history, Moses brings to life not only Petrosino, martyred during an investigation in Italy, but those many men and women who continued his fight for law and order for nearly two decades."--Helene Stapinski, author of Murder in Matera

About the Author

Paul Moses is Professor Emeritus of Journalism at CUNY-Brooklyn College and a former reporter and editor at Newsday. He is the author of An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians and The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi's Mission of Peace.