Italian police may have
uncovered who was behind the infamous murder over 100 years ago
of Italian-American New York City police officer Joe Petrosino,
it emerged Monday after police arrested 95 suspected Mafia
suspects in Palermo.
Among those arrested included Domenico Palazzotto, who was
caught bragging in police recordings that "the uncle of his
father, Paolo Palazzotto, committed the murder of the first
police officer killed in Palermo, Joe Petrosino, on behalf of
Cascio Ferro" in 1909.
Vito Cascio Ferro (1862-1943) was a boss of the Sicilian
Cosa Nostra who also operated in the United States.
He was let off charges of assassinating Petrosino, a
pioneering anti-Mafia policeman who had traveled to Palermo on a
top-secret mission that was leaked to the American press.
Petrosino continued on his mission despite the danger,
believing the Mafia would not dare harm a member of law
enforcement.
While waiting to meet with someone who claimed to be an
informant, Petrosino was ambushed and gunned down in Piazza
Marina.
Charges against the suspected assassin's heir and others
arrested Monday ranged from extorsion and association in a
criminal network, in the towns of Resuttana and San Lorenzo.
Police code-named the operation Apocalypse.
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