Joseph Petrosino

Joseph Petrosino
Lt. Joe Petrosino, NYPD, Badge #285
Born	August 30, 1860 Padula, Campania, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (now Italy)
Died	March 12, 1909(1909-03-12) (aged 48) Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Occupation	Detective Police officer
Spouse(s)	Adelina Saulino
Children	Adelina Petrosino Burke

Joseph "Joe" Petrosino (August 30, 1860 – March 12, 1909) was a New York City police officer who was a pioneer in the fight against organized crime. The various crime fighting techniques that Petrosino pioneered during his law enforcement career are still practiced by various agencies.

Petrosino was born Giuseppe Petrosino in Padula, a village in southern Italy. In 1874, the balance of the Petrosino family immigrated to the United States. Joseph had been sent over previously with a young cousin (Antonio Puppolo) to live with his grandfather in New York. An unfortunate streetcar accident took the life of the grandfather, and the two young cousins wound up in Orphans/Surrogates Court. Rather than send the children to the orphanage, the judge took them home to his own family and provided for the boys until relatives in Italy could be contacted and arrangements made to bring over family members. In consequence, Joseph Petrosino and his cousin Anthony Puppolo lived with a "politically connected" Irish household for some time, and this opened up educational and employment avenues not always available to more recent immigrants, especially Italian immigrants.

Petrosino married the widow Adelina Saulino (1869−1957), with whom he had a daughter Adelina Petrosino Burke (1908-2004), who gave birth to Petrosino's granddaughter, Susan Burke. Susan represents the Petrosino family at functions honoring the fallen NYPD hero.

On October 19, 1883 he joined the NYPD. He was the first Italian speaker in the NYPD's history. At 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m), he had to get a waiver of the department's minimum height requirement to get the job. During his service he would become friends with Theodore Roosevelt, who was a police commissioner for New York City at the time. (At the time the NYPD was governed by a council of police commissioners.) Fluent in several Italian dialects, he was able to make cases that other officers couldn't. His ability to solve crimes in the Italian community was such that whenever a serious crime took place in that area, his superiors would call out, "Send for the Dago!"

On July 20, 1895, Roosevelt promoted him to detective sergeant in charge of the department's Homicide Division. The pinnacle of his career came in December 1908 when he was promoted to lieutenant and placed in charge of the Italian Squad, an elite corps of Italian-American detectives assembled specifically to deal with the criminal activities of organizations like the Mafia, which Petrosino saw as a shame upon decent Italians and Italian Americans.