Shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, 1921, Chicago Mafia boss Anthony D’Andrea went to dinner with two male companions at a Neapolitan restaurant, the Amato Cafe at Taylor and Halsted Streets. They ate, socialized and played cards for hours. At about 1:15 Wednesday morning, D’Andrea’s friend Joseph Laspisa drove him home. For two weeks Laspisa had been acting as the underworld leader’s bodyguard and chauffeur. D’Andrea needed the protection...
100 years ago, Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino of the New York Police Department was shot to death on assignment in Palermo, Sicily. The most significant event in the annals of the NYPD Italian Squad, the assassination became a historical fulcrum for the squad, serving as the dramatic climax of all that went before and casting a long, dark shadow on all that was to come.
The Dreaded D'Andrea
Badges in Little Italy