It often happens that disputes occur among the different elements of the Italian criminals in New York City and in other parts of this country. For instance, the Neapolitan element deals almost exclusively in the traffic of women. Sometimes this business is invaded by a hostile group from among the Sicilian element. Invariably quarrels result and the disputes nearly always end in a shooting or a stabbing affair.
It is well known to the Service that the quarrels of the Italian criminals among themselves are settled without the help of the police whenever this is at all possible. When a gang member is wounded, secrecy requires that no ambulance be called or a doctor summoned who is not a friend of the gang. This precaution is easily appreciated when one comes to think that a call for an ambulance would require the presence of a policeman and a public report being made of the affair. Again, should a doctor, who is not known to the gang, be called in, he is required to make a record of the occurrence and report any suspicious injury to the police. If there is a death the coroner must needs be notified. To avoid entanglement and trouble with the authorities the various gangs have impressed in their service a physician or two who may be relied upon to bind up the wounds and keep the affair a secret. Many murders are in this way covered up and escape the attention of the police and the public.
There was a man at the trial of the counterfeiters who was unknown to Comito. Upon this man's testimony Morello expected to prove that he was ill in the house during the period that he was actually out and around and very active in the counterfeiting scheme.
Dr. Salvatore Romano is the man. The doctor perjured himself and testified to please Morello, whose vengeance he feared.
After being indicted by the Federal Grand Jury, we were able to get a statement from Dr. Romano. Incidentally this statement disclosed the method whereby Morello and Lupo gathered their first money by sending "Black-Hand" letters to countrymen who were suspected of having money, or who could in any way be coerced into being useful to the gang.
Dr. Romano's cross-examination follows:
Q. Tell us, doctor, from the beginning, how you happened to get mixed up; start from the time you knew Mr. Morello.
A. I met him in this country. He was living in East One Hundred and Seventh Street; we were living at East One Hundred and Sixth Street. He comes from the same town that my grandmother and mother hail from in Sicily—Corleone—and while I was studying in my third year at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia, my folks received a letter from a "Black-Hand" Society.
Q. Who received it?
A. My mother.