Best of the History Guy: Crime Fighters

New York City is a city of immigrants according to a survey done between 2007 and 2011 37 percent of the residents of New York City were born outside the United States the city contains more than 3 million foreign-born immigrants more than any other city on earth and it's been that way almost since the start for New York City but of course the Melting Pot has not always melted smoothly around the turn of the last century there was a large influx of Italian immigrants into New York City they brought with them their hopes and dreams but also connections to criminal organizations in the old world they call themselves The Black Hand and they terrorized New York City and other large Metropolis in the early part of the 20th century the story of one fellow immigrant who bought tradition and fought and died to stop that reign of terror deserves to be remembered born yesino Joe petrosino immigrated from Padula Italy to the United States in 1873 when he was 13 years old petrosina's early years in America have been a subject of debate but what Scholars do agree on is that he and his family faced Prejudice from the people and different nationalities already living in New York City notably the Irish who had footholds not only in the political structure of Tammany Hall but also the police department Italian American boys and girls were harassed by Irish children on their way to and from school petrosino became known as someone who wouldn't back down from a fight if anyone threw a rock at him petrosino would run at them throwing punches if they continued to harass him he'd bang their heads into the sidewalk until they relented he dropped out of school after sixth grade and began to work as a shoe Shiner on the streets but petrocino was certain that shining shoes was not going to be his future a friend Anthony Maria later said one afternoon petrosino seemed to snap and he smashed his shoe shine box to pieces on the pavement he said Tony I won't shine shoes anymore I'm going to be somebody after that Revelation petrocino became a street cleaner carting among other things the refuse of an estimated 150 000 horses used in New York City at the time off the streets he must have been good at his job because he was noticed by Alec clubber Williams an Irish Police Inspector who was remembered mainly for his corruption Williams ran the streets he patrolled giving permission to the different businesses and criminals to operate there Williams was heard to brag I'm so well known here in New York that car horses nod to me in the mornings Williams wanted petrocino to become a police officer but petrosina was only five foot three inches tall and at the time the requirement was that a man be five foot seven inches tall in order to join the force but Williams used his connection to get petrosino through and he became one of the first Italian-American officers in the New York police department in 1883. he received the shield number two eight five he was an excellent policeman petrocino had a photographic memory and could recall thousands of different names faces and crimes without having to refer to files he spoke nearly a half dozen different dialects and could talk to nearly any Italian in New York City which Grew From a population of a mere 830 Italian immigrants in the 1850s to almost 500 000 in 1910. he wasn't afraid to dress up in costumes to confuse criminals as to his identity or take up jobs to earn the trust of those he was investigating author Stephen talty reported that petrosino wouldn't just pose as a worker or minor to crack a case he would go out and become one in one year petrocino said a New York City Police Department record for the time of 17 homicide convictions he became so well known that it was said in order to make an arrest all petrosino had to do was walk up to the criminal and say I am petrosino and they would give up without a fight but petrosino's position as a police officer didn't make him popular in his own neighborhood shouts of fresh parsley for sale would follow him down the street petrosino means parsley in Italian others said parsley will make the American police taste better but indigestible it will always be the Italian immigrants of New York City behaved that way because petrosino had broken an Unwritten code of Italian life honor and Fidelity went to family and Community First never the authorities or Outsiders both of which the Italian immigrants believed the New York Police Department to be they had their reasons for believing as they did Italian immigrants were not treated very well at the time for example Italian immigrants formed a large part of the labor force but were not necessarily reimbursed equally to their Irish or American counterparts when a mine Explosion killed 16 workers all immigrants at the loss in mind in Washington in 1910 families of Irish workers killed were reimbursed twelve hundred dollars for the death of their family member Italian-American families were given only 150 dollars some Scholars estimate that 25 percent of industrial accidents at the turn of the century in the United States involved Italian-American immigrants in this discrepancy in treatment was partially why the black hand which has been called a precursor to the Italian mafia was able to take advantage of the Italian Community the black hand so-called because extortion letters usually included a drawing of a black hand was not so much an organization but a method of extortion used by various criminal groups they preyed upon those who wouldn't or couldn't report the crimes against them to the authorities not only did the Italian Americans believe the police wouldn't care if they reported the crimes they did not want to be seen as traitors to their own race like petrocino was Blackhand operations were numerous they extorted italian-owned businesses and bombed those who didn't pay they kidnapped children for ransom and sent threatening letters covered in cryptic crosses and black hand prints the origin of their name in some small cities outside of New York Blackhand criminals ran the entire local government and would send a representative to collect payment from entire labor groups on payday a miner would pick up his check and immediately hand over however much was demanded to the Black Hand reporters from The New York Times wrote the money collected was understood to be the price of life and Liberty until next payday supposedly even the United States Congress received black hand threats members were frantic until the letters were revealed to be a publicity stunt by a company Hawking its soap and playing on the black or dirty hand to sell their Wares despite the real dangers posed by the criminals perpetrating the crimes the public couldn't get enough of the black hand the sale of merchandise like stationary that had stylish black hands printed on them to send to their friends skyrocketed as well as newspapers telling stories of the brutality and bombings by the Black Hand some even cashed in on the notoriety of the black can to try to extort money out of their relatives or business associates the son of John bosufi an Italian Banker was kidnapped by the Black Hand they demanded twenty thousand dollars and they're going to kill bazoofi's son as if he refused to be blackmailed and brought the information to petrocino but word spread around the Italian neighborhood the bazoofi was going to drain the accounts at the bank to pay the black hand in response there was a run on the bank bazoofi who was instructed to post a sign in the Wind of his bank detailing how he's going to pay the ransom to the black hand defiantly posted the money in this Bank belongs to the depositors and it will be paid to them even if I never see my son again he eventually got his son back but the damage had already been done to both his business and his reputation exact numbers of those targeted by the Black Hand in New York were impossible to estimate as so many of the victims of the crimes refused to talk to authorities to deal with the increasing disaster petrocino created what was essentially a special task force called the Italian squad or the mysterious six these men were hand-picked by petrocino for not only their ability to speak Italian but also their investigative skills the squad's mission was to deal with the peculiar problems constantly arising in the Italian districts they didn't have many resources to do so but they were dedicated in their mission in just one year of operations by the Italian Squad Black Hand crimes in New York City dropped by an estimated 50 percent The Washington Post called them a band of zealots and they were certainly zealous they for example figured out how to identify black hand cells by the handwriting on their notes when the Black Hand criminals found out what was going on they started using typewriters to try to conceal their identity to counter the bomb-making terrorism of the black hand which was Rife in Italian neighborhoods petrocino created the New York City Police Department bomb squad which was one of the first organizations of its kind in the United States he continued to innovate even though his superiors and fellow lawmen didn't necessarily support him in every Endeavor in another break with tradition petrosina was never accused of taking a bribe few on the New York City Police Department at the time could say the same the Press loved petrosino for his candidness and also the number of newspapers they sold as he fought the black ant one night a reporter went to petrosina's home to get a quote for his story which was to be printed the next day the reporter stood in the shadows of the hall near the doorway to petrosino's home when petrocina showed up he saw someone standing in the hall and charged him in a manner reminiscent of his school brawling days he knocked the wind out of the reporter who immediately declared his identity and what he was doing there later the reporter remembered petrosino saying someday they will get me petrocino had reasons to be cautious after a decade of careful courting petrosino married the love of his life a widow named Adelina according to the family's oral tradition petrosina met annalina when she was a waitress at her father's restaurant he was smitten with her and asked her father for permission to marry her adelina's father Vincenzo Selena refused to allow the match saying that she had already lost a husband in a career in law enforcement was simply too risky celino feared petrosino would die and leave his daughter Alone Again it didn't deter the lovers and after celino died the two were wed they had a child together a daughter and they named her Adelina after her mother petrosina was fiercely protective of his child going to Great Lengths to not even acknowledge her on the street so that the criminals he pursued wouldn't know who she was or her importance to him in 1909 petrosina was sent to Italy to gather original criminal files for nearly a thousand suspected criminal immigrants in New York City as well as to cultivate a network of informants for the New York City Police Department overseas he was also tasked with learning who the most dangerous criminals in Italy were and forwarded their names to the immigration services in New York if those men ever attempted across the Atlantic they would be turned back at the border by Immigration Services before entering the country but a New York City Police Commissioner had given the story of petrocino's Mission to a New York newspaper while petrosina was abroad sadly for petrosino hundreds if not thousands of the Blackhand suspects he'd evicted from New York City were waiting for him in Italy on a rainy night in March in the Italian town of cow tennisetta petrocino was shot dead by unknown assailants Joseph petrosino's body was returned to the United States and the day of his funeral April 12 1909 was proclaimed a public holiday in New York City and an estimated 250 000 mourners lined the streets to see the lawmen laid to rest by comparison only a hundred thousand came for the funeral of Rudolph Valentino the internationally famous film star when he died in 1926. the body of petrosino was taken from his home to St Patrick's Cathedral and then to a cemetery in Queens where he was buried his heartbroken wife Adelina Was Heard sobbing at the funeral even after his death petrosino continued to impact the New York City Police Department which cracked down on the remaining Blackhand criminals and finally broke their power crime fighting techniques that were pioneered by Joseph petrosino are still used by police departments today and the man who fought Against All Odds to do what he believed was right for the country that he had adopted as his own remains to this day to be the only New York City police officer to have died in the line of duty outside the United States but perhaps the the nature of petrosino's character is best seen in what he had on his body after he was murdered on his body they found in his pockets his original New York City Police Department badge number 285 and a postcard addressed to his family that said a kiss for you and for my little girl who has spent many months far away from her daddy [Music] first appearing in 1886 Nick Carter Master detective who had such superhuman strength that he could lift a horse with ease while a heavy man is seated in the saddle is considered a precursor to Modern superhero stories raised from a child to be a master detective the character has gone through many variations from a detective with pressure natural strength in memory to a classic film Noir hard-boiled detective to a super spy the character was a staple of diamond nickel pulp novels radio shows television programs and films thrilling's detective website estimated that Nick Carter had appeared in over 4 000 novels comic strips films and radio shows by 1949 and speculated that there was probably more Nick Carter Adventures than those of any other fictional Detective but as exciting as the fictional character little remember today was his abilities seem to pale next to his namesake a real detective who solved more than 650 crimes in a brief seven-year career between 1901 and 1908. the real Nick Carter skills were so impressive that he was called in on the most difficult cases of the day if he arrived at a crime scene it would draw huge crowds when Nick Carter was described in the newspaper it was almost always associated with the terms the famous or the celebrated Nick Carter what's more Nick Carter the real detective Nick Carter had undeniably undocumented super human abilities abilities so amazing that they wildly exceeded what any normal human detective could possibly do Nick Carter was quite possibly the most famous bloodhound in history Bloodhounds are large sent hounds originally bred for hunting deer or wild boar as a sent Hound they have shown a particular ability of tracking human scent and have been used for that purpose at least since the Middle Ages believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint Hubert in Belgium French speakers know the breed as the shin de Santi bear they have had at times a fearsome reputation with for example a terrifying scene in the theatrical version of Uncle Tom's Cabin portraying a terrified Eliza being pursued by vicious hounds that scene damaged the reputation of the breed but in fact Bloodhounds do not appear in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel at all and she describes the slave chasing dogs as Bulldogs in fact the breed was likely not imported into the United States until after the Civil War and breeds used for hunting slaves likely had little Bloodhound heritage the breed is in fact very friendly and when used in hunting are used to catch a trail but not used in The Kill Popular Science magazine described the breed's temperament in their July 1935 issue tracking is a game to them and they haven't the slightest ill will towards the ones they follow as one Aficionado of the breed explains if you are caught by a bloodhound your greatest risk is that it may lick you to death voni Gilbert mullikin was born in Kentucky in 1869. he became a breeder of bloodhounds and his hounds were used in a number of celebrated cases of his hounds Nick Carter named after the Pulp Fiction detective was the most famous and most celebrated a large dog with an exceptional e-rage of 23 inches tip to tip Nick Carter's first case was in 1901 when the dog was just one year old the dog was put on the scent of a man who had criminally assaulted a young school teacher as she walked home the dog followed the man's Trail several miles and then directly up a stair and to the man sleeping in his bed the man was then identified by the victim among his odd cases Nick Carter was credited with following one of the shortest trails in Bloodhound crime detection history when James R York was murdered in Lawrenceburg Kentucky in 1905 police were baffled Mr York did not seem to have any enemies and they could not Define a motive when militant and Nick Carter were called to the scene Nick Carter LED them 106 feet to Mr York's brother who confessed to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison demonstrating the gentleness and utility of the breed Nick Carter was brought in on a case where a toddler had been missing 27 hours mulkin and Nick Carter were called and arrived on the scene in the middle of the night Nick immediately caught a scent and took off followed by mullikin and the girl's father the dog went so fast that the men stumbled and dropped their Lantern by the time they caught up with him he was with the little girl who had become entangled in some brambles her arm was around Nick who was affectionately licking her face Nick Carter was most famous however for finding scents that were seemingly too old to find in one case he tracked down a pair who had murdered a woman in her home 56 hours after the crime following the scent 26 miles the pair confessed to the crime in his most celebrated case he filed a scent to find an arsonist that was a stunning 106 hours old Nick Carter had a significant impact on crime in Kentucky where he mostly operated helping to Tamp down long-standing blood feuds and showing so much skill at finding illegal Stills that reportedly Bootleggers put a price on his head Nick Carter's cases became Central to State decisions regarding the admissibility of Bloodhound evidence in criminal trials in 1907 Mulligan took a position with the Lexington Kentucky Police Department and Nick Carter and another of his dogs were officially hired as officers Nick Carter's legs gave out in 1908 and he died shortly after retirement his death made newspapers Nationwide VG Mulligan continued breeding Bloodhounds and solving crimes he eventually left the Lexington Police Department and formed his own detective agency he took risks himself he was nearly killed when he was shot while trailing a suspect and was shot at several more times he said that he also put his life at risk defending people his dogs found from lynch mobs believing they deserved a trial he died in 1931 at the age of 61. he is credited in helping to build the popularity of a breed that still serves law enforcement helping to find fugitives missing persons and people trapped after disasters [Music] foreign hi I'm the history guy I have a degree in history and I love history and if you love history too this is the channel for you [Applause] there's a good chance that you've heard of Elliot Ness and his Untouchables the prototypical square jawed straight lace Revenue agent who brought down Scarface Al Capone and while because of Hollywood you probably remember Ness you might not know that he was not by any means the most successful or the most well-known of the revenue agents of his day in fact there were two detectives in New York City who racked up thousands of arrests in the era of prohibition and had an astounding 95 percent conviction rate and they were the very opposite of the prototypical revenue agent that Elliot Ness was Izzy Einstein and mo Smith were nearly folk heroes in their day but they're nearly forgotten today and that is too bad because two of the best detectives in the history of the world deserve to be remembered when the 18th Amendment passed in 1919 followed by The Volstead Act in 1920 it became illegal to manufacture or consume alcohol in the United States of America at the time the anti-saloon league had assessed that Americans would be so very happy with prohibition that Congress would only need to allocate about five million dollars a year to enforce the law Congress only allocated enough money for about 1500 new prohibition agents than a unit of the Department of internal revenue at a salary of a whopping two thousand dollars a year and those 1500 agents were supposed to stop 125 million Americans from manufacturing transporting or consuming anything stronger than root beer Isidore Izzy Einstein was born around 1880 in the austro-hungarian Empire part of a Jewish Family he grew up speaking Yiddish but also was fluent in Hungarian polish and German he immigrated to the United States around 1901. he married another austro-hungarian immigrant and they started to raise a large family he made a living as a push cart salesman and eventually as a postal clerk but when in 1920 the government created the Bureau of prohibition to enforce the Volstead Act Izzy Einstein decided that that sounded more interesting than being a postal Clerk and so with no background in law enforcement Isidore Einstein walked in and signed up to be Revenue agent number one at a salary of forty dollars a week at first the agent in charge looked at the five foot five inch 220 pound Einstein and said you don't look the part but Einstein argued that that was an advantage that no one would suspect that he was a revenue agent and that he knew people's nature and so he could get in places where someone who looked apart could not and as an added Advantage he spoke four languages and was passable in three others which would give him an even better ability to hide his identity and the method of doesn't look like a revenue agent actually worked out surprisingly well in one case Einstein was asked to get into a speakeasy that the bureau had been unable to crack and so Einstein's method was simply to walk up to the door pound on the door and say Izzy Einstein I need a drink when the guy guarding the door looked through the peephole and said what's your business here Einstein flashed his Revenue bad and said I'm a revenue agent I need a drink and the guy looked Izzy Einstein up and down and let him in saying that's the best gag I heard all week another time Einstein really used the doesn't look like a revenue agent by bringing two agents with him who look like Revenue agents he instructed them to stand outside for a while and then just walk away and while they were standing there he went in and talked to the Bartender Bartender was suspicious but he looked out and he said see those two guys out there their revenuers I can see him a mile away and so when they walked away his suspicions went away and he served Izzy a drink quickly followed of course by handcuffs in short order Einstein procured a job for his good friend MO Smith who at the time was running a cigar stand reportedly the two of them had been Brothers in the same Masonic Lodge Smith's only qualification apparently was that he also did not look like a revenue agent taller and even heavier than Einstein Smith and Einstein were quite a pair he was Watson to Einstein's homes or maybe Abbott to his Costello but whatever the case the two embarked Upon A stunningly successful career creating a host of schemes and disguises that got them into speakeasies and uncovered Stills that the bureau thought were uncrackable one of their best inventions was a device they built that built a funnel into their shirt collar that took a tube down to a flask in their pocket and thus they could appear to be sipping whiskey which would give them authenticity well at the same time they were preserving the evidence even as their prey became more Savvy and their faces became known from the newspapers they still managed to concoct schemes they got them in where no one else thought they could one of their best gags was to masquerade as a pickle salesman or a fruit salesman as both of them had been push cart salesmen they could do that quite believably they would sell their Wares slightly below market price not so low that it would raise suspicion but low enough that the bartender happy to get cheap pickles would often offer them a drink in compensation and end up of course Behind Bars they masqueraded as all sorts of things as football players as violinists as Kentucky delegates to the Democratic National Convention as a Polish count Einstein even famously made arrests in speakeasies where his picture was literally hanging on the wall to warn people one famous time he sat down at the bar and asked for a drink and the bartender looked him up and down and said I think you're that famous prohibition agent Izzy Epstein Izzy looked at him and said don't you mean Izzy Einstein and the two got into such an argument over the name that he bet the bartender a drink that the name was Izzy Einstein and of course as soon as the drink was poured Einstein came out with his signature line there's sad news you've been arrested the two became folk heroes in New York where they very frequently made the papers not just the tabloids but the New York Times and they reveled in it they would actually schedule their arrests around the news realizing that Monday was the day that the paper had the most room for news one Sunday they scheduled a record 71 raids in 12 hours just to make the Monday newspaper But ultimately they became victims of their own success in 1925 Izzy Einstein and mo Smith were laid off in a reorganization of the New York City bureau officially the argument was that the bureau didn't like agents making the news they thought it was untoward but unofficially it seemed clear that the real complaint was that Izzy and mo got more attention than their superiors the New York Times mourned their loss saying that the public which viewed them with as much delight as Robin Hood were now denied their Adventures Adventures as thrilling as Sir Lancelot as Richard Lionheart as Don Quixote de la Mancha and if this all seems like just some crazy Vaudeville act understand that in five years they made an astounding four thousand nine hundred and thirty two arrests and confiscated more than 4 million gallons of illegal alcohol with a 95 percent conviction rate they put thousands of violators of the Volstead Act Behind Bars and in what is maybe a supreme irony these two great detectives the two most successful prohibition agents of the era never carried guns never once shot a person and unlike their fellow revenueer Eliot Ness they never caused any collateral damage in some shootout with the mob in fact they were both ambivalent towards prohibition I just thought people should follow the law when he wrote his autobiography in 1932 Isadore Einstein dedicated it to the people he had arrested hoping he said that they would bear him no grudge for having done his duty and for doing their Duty with such success Isidore Einstein and Moe Smith deserve to be remembered [Music] in 1828 a set of Memoirs was released that became an instant sensation selling more than 50 000 copies in their first year they were so popular because they described a man whom a later biography said preferred the tumultuous life of danger to the contentment of security he was both a criminal and a detective who inspired his friends the likes of Victor Hugo Alexander demos and Nora de Balzac who was so famous that he merited mentions in the works of Melville and Dickens and Poe his name was Eugene Francois vidok and he was alternatively a master criminal and the head of the French secret police he was a failed entrepreneur and a private detective he was a man who lived a life of controversy that is by any standard a ripping yarn history that deserves to be remembered Eugene Francois vidok's early life is known mostly from his Memoirs which were heavily expanded by a Ghostwriter before publication while many events in the Memoirs have later proven to be accurate other parts are clearly invented he was born the night of July 23rd 1775 to Henrietta Francois Deon and her husband Nicholas Joseph Francois vidoc a baker in the town of Ross in northern France the third of seven children he worked for his parents they'll bring bread in his youth especially to the town's military Garrison and as a teenager he spent a lot of time in the armories of Aros fighting Halls where he became known as a talented fencer and earned the name or the vulture in his youth he stole often from his parents with the help of a slightly older boy he stole his parents silver he was arrested a few days after the theft and held in jail for two weeks she literally learned that his father had him arrested to teach him a lesson but that lesson didn't stick again with the help of his erstwhile friend he waited until his mother was home alone and his friend reported that vedok was in serious troubled and in across town when she laughed the pair stole a huge amount of money in bedok 14 years old ran away from home he got caught up with women and near-dwells in Belgium who left him half naked and penniless he joined a circus for a short while but received regular beatings so he sent returned to Ross and his mother interceded to get him back in his father's good graces his father gave him an earful but his vedok puts it he didn't remember a word of it he joined the army in 1791 at the age of 16. it was an active time in France two years earlier the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille and the country was stealing some turmoil the constitutional monarchy was established in 1790 but much of France outside of Paris experienced lawlessness and violence French King Louis XVI was captured attempting to flee and Austria and Russia declared their support for Louis in August 1791. war was on the horizon meanwhile vidok was dealing with his own issues in the next six months he claimed he fought 15 duels killing two men then in April of 1792 he faced the duty of a soldier War the French army in 1792 had lost half of its nobleman officers and was partly equipped and trained on April 20th the government declared war on Austria anyway and invaded the Austrian Netherlands vidoc was with the French Force at Marquan where General Dion ordered to retreat that quickly turned into a route Dion himself was killed by his own troops as he tried to Rally them fidoka was also at the Battle of balmy where the French turned back a Prussian invasion he got into an argument with an old Commander which led to his arrest instead of facing a court-martial he deserted but quickly re-enlisted and fought at the Battle of jamop under General Charles dumare when dumare was defeated by combined Habsburg Dutch Republic army the 1793 Battle of near Winden he tried to talk his army into overthrowing the French government when he failed he defected to Austria bedok likely followed him and deserted again and amnesty allowed him to return to the French army until he was wounded and returned to a Ross hear his womanizing began to get him into real trouble after challenging another man to a duel he was denounced this was the time called the reign of terror and public execution was definitely a possibility his mother interceded to save him he was briefly married but when his wife cheated on him he left and deserted the Army again he hid in Brussels for a time I mean he was not scrupulous in his means because soldiering had corrupted a naturally honorable mind in 1795 he was sentenced to three months in prison after he beat a soldier who he got sleeping with his latest girlfriend the event that kept vadok in trouble for years afterwards occurred during this day as a soldier he had a private cell and he allowed two men to use it for some ranking the men actually used the cell to forge release papers for a third prisoner who was duly released of course the dog was implicated and so not released at the end of his three months so he planned his first of many prison escapes he acquired the close of a senior prison officer and he simply walked out he spent the next several years escaping and being recaptured once he made a key out of a carrot another time he and several others dug a tunnel but they struck a river and it flooded his cell eventually he was sentenced to eight years hard labor on a galley ship because of the forgery but he acquired a Sailors uniform and managed to slip away he had many more Adventures was captured and escaped many times one time escaping by dressing like a nun he masqueraded as an Austrian businessman for a while and found some success until he was recognized and it was in that arrest that he found out that he had been sentenced to death in absentia he escaped by jumping out a window into a river and swimming away he attempted to live a normal life hiding in Paris with his mother now a widow and another woman a net Annette he says was special and that they could not live without each other he seemed to have had regrets about his life I saw about two plainly that the future was dependent upon the past he said and the law would not permit me to forget former Associates blackmailed him to participate in their crimes finally after years on the Run he was captured and instead of going back to jail he offered to inform on other criminals he convinced the Leon Inspector General of police now under the government of Napoleon that he was trustworthy by slipping his guard and escaping and then turning himself back in voluntarily imprisoned that paris's leforce prison he turned on the people he had spent most of his life with he made enough enemies at that point among other criminals so he played the part of the friend to the prisoners and began giving up everything he knew to the police it was especially good at getting criminals to treat him as a confidant it helped that he had a reputation among the prisoners thanks to his many escapes Annette also helped trailing suspects in the city and reporting to her husband at the prison were I to relate half of my successes in my new Department my reader's patience would be exhausted he wrote in his memoirs after 21 months he was finally released from prison but to preserve his reputation it was staged as an escape the prisoners not knowing that they had been had celebrated he wrote in his Memoir adored by thieves and esteemed by the most determined Bandits I could always rely on their Devotion to me it wasn't an uncommon practice for convicts to become informers and a number generally passed information to the police in Paris even the years before the Revolution but vidok proved to Be A Cut Above almost any other he immersed himself in the Underworld while feeding information to the police and took on a huge array of disguises he was such a Master of Disguise that an English paper would later say that it is thought only a chameleon Sir Robert peel or Proteus could surpass him in 1811 he organized that plain clothes largely undercover unit called the security Brigade which received recognition from the Paris Police in 1813 Napoleon made it a State security police force the suretade national or national security this was essentially a detective branch of the force and was among the first of its kind a precursor to the later Scotland Yard and FBI beginning with 80 employees by 1824 he had 28 agents he trained them in himself mostly ex-convicts in a variety of for the time fairly novel strategies his men learned of crimes committed or implanting and regularly participated long enough to turn on the others often his men suggested the crimes themselves traps from the very beginning he quickly began apprehending criminals by the hundreds from pickpockets to forgers an incredible memory for faces he had seen in prison and he had his own men watches prisoners were brought in to remember their faces he disguised himself as almost anything at one point he faked his own death he finally received a pardon for the forgery case in 1817. in that same year he was involved in 811 arrests his work was so effective that he cut crime in Paris by as much as 40 percent in one case he learned of a planned Carriage robbery so he replaced the carriage with one full of his own man and when the brigands attacked his men came out firing but Oak fell and broke his arm he put together a team of eight to arrest criminals in the courteel an area filled with dance halls he emptied a dance hall and marked men who had warrants with chalk they were arrested as they walked outside he made 38 arrests that day he also captured the famous burglar Jean-Pierre facade noticed that the particular way a door was damaged could only be done by facade but facade was supposed to be in prison started to actually escaped eight days earlier and two days later was arrested for the robbery well the duck was successful he made enemies of the Old Guard among the police and was always criticized as a man of low birth and poor morals a mere criminal he was constantly accused of creating crimes to solve he has a random money lending business which helped him a massive fortune in addition to his salary infused as a private investigator the 1820s brought changes including a new police prefect who emphasized his men going to church and the reign of Charles the tenth considered an ultra reactionary over policed his subjects after a rebuke from a new Superior on June 20th 1827 he resigned I have never received a single reproach from your predecessors so must therefore think I never deserved one to save you Mr the inconvenience of addressing me any similar complaints in the future myself the trouble of receiving them I have the honor to ask you to be good enough to accept my resignation afterward wealthy and at 52 still healthy began a paper mailment to reform former prisoners training them and giving them six months of room and board but it faced considerable local resistance and failed quickly he also wrote his Memoirs considered too short to publish ghost writers were employed until they reached four volumes it sold well but it continued to face accusations of past criminal activity going as far as murder and of obtaining his money through extortion or corruption he briefly led the security Force again but after cracking down on protesters In 1832 he again resigned the following year he established a detective agency the office of information which is recognized as the first known private detective agency in the world nearly two decades before Alan Pinkerton the company was hugely successful for a time until the police accused him of the false imprisonment and arrest of a man he had taken in to pay a debt the age of 67 he was kept in prison again for months and grew sick well he eventually was freed on appeal his trial drained his fortune and damaged the agency's reputation the agency closed in 1847. in 1848 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte won the first presidency of the second Republic vadoc also ran but he received only a single vote he was briefly imprisoned one last time in 1849 on charges of fraud he lived his last years largely in private still having affairs with various younger women even though he had lost much of his fortune he died in 1857 at the age of 81. the dog's Legacy has always been complex he certainly always had his critics but he is considered the father of modern police work especially in ballistics under cover work and record keeping he created plaster cast a Footprints he created unalterable paper he employed women in police work in relatively large numbers unlike much police work at the time he was not a fan of using torture to induce confessions he instead preferred to apply his suspects with drink and conversation and he reformed police work in important ways like allowing his detectives to operate across the jurisdictions and focusing on crime prevention notably he did all this in a time of enormous turmoil in France developing the principles and processes of order in a time of disorder his personality and stories inspired many authors he was the model for both Javert and Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables his exploits appear repeatedly in the Nora de Balzac's work and where the inspiration for French novelist Emil Gabriel's Monsieur the coke who was in turn an influence on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes he remains a figure in some Modern work in many movies and shows have been made of his Memoirs even appears in the video game Assassin's Creed Unity and in perhaps the greatest recognition of his work in 1990 the vedok society was created in Philadelphia named in honor of the man considered to be the world's first modern detective the collection of forensics experts and experienced investigators provides pro bono assistance to law enforcement agencies in the United States as they seek to solve Cold Case homicides on Thursday February 14 1929 at approximately 10 30 in the morning seven men were murdered in a garage on North Clark Street in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago's north side Saint Valentine's Day Massacre represented the crescendo and Chicago's buddy mob wars during the era prohibition and it shocked the nation so much so that the city of Chicago finally had to take extraordinary action to address the crime and violence that was tarnishing the city's reputation and yet despite their efforts the perpetrators were never positively identified and the crime remains officially unsolved still The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre represents one of the first high-profile applications of the still new science of forensic ballistics and much of what we know about the crime has to do with the efforts of a Pioneer in the field that transformed the way that the nation and the world investigates crime Dr Calvin Goddard the son of an army officer Calvin hooker Goddard was born in Baltimore in 1891. he earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and studied military medicine at the U.S Army Medical School in Washington D.C Dr Goddard served with the Army Medical Corps in France Germany and Poland during the first world war achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1920 he resigned his commission and worked in hospital Administration Goddard had had a keen interest in Firearms since he was a child and he began applying his expertise to the emerging science of firearms identification Goddard helped to develop the science that proved that every weapon makes characteristic marks on a bullet and a cartridge shell and they are the same every time that the gun is fired science has shown Goddard said that bullet markings are as valuable as fingerprints he helped to design important instruments for the study of firearms notably the helixometer or an adapted medical device used for looking inside the body which Goddard used to examine the effects in the rifling inside a gun barrel he also created the comparison microscope which is essentially two microscopes connected by an optical Bridge allowing for a split view of two samples this allowed a direct comparison of the unique marks and striations left on bullets and cartridges by rifling grooves firing pins and extractor claws both devices represented significant advances in the science of firearm identification and they published a paper describing these advances in the journal Army Ordinance in 1925. he became famous enough in the field of forensic ballistics a term that he himself coined that resigned his medical position and co-founded the Bureau of forensic ballistics in New York City the bureau was the United States first independent criminalistics Laboratory the laboratory brought not just ballistics but also fingerprinting blood analysis and trace evidence Under One Roof the bureau also published a journal called the American Journal of police science despite the lab's strong reputation it struggled as a business as police departments in the U.S largely lacked the sophistication needed to understand and utilize its services at the time Goddard gained a national reputation in 1927 when he was used as an expert in the infamous murder trial of anarchist Nicolas Sacco and bartolomew venzetti Sako and venzetti had been accused of two murders that had occurred during the commission of an armed robbery in 1920. they've been convicted by a jury in July of 1921 in a trial barred by accusations of bias by both the trial judge and members of the jury as well as questions about the firearms experts while defense attorneys sought a new trial Dr Goddard offered to test the bullets using the most current methods of forensic ballistics and definitely tied the Fatal bullet and shell casing to a 32 Caliber Colt automatic pistol owned by Sacco Goddard was called on again when Massachusetts governor Alvin T Fuller established a commission to investigate the fairness of the trial subsequent examinations using newer methods were conducted in 1935 1961 and 1983 and all have confirmed goddard's results however some argue that the police had tampered with the evidence by switching the bullets still after two appeals to the Massachusetts Supreme Court and the review by the Lowell committee the verdicts were upheld and Sacco and benzetti were executed in August of 1927. but Goddard would soon be involved in another even higher profile case at approximately 10 30 in the morning on February 14 1929 five members and two Associates of Chicago's north side gang had gathered in a garage and 2212 North Clark Street in Chicago called the SMC Cartage company the north side gang was largely an irish-american criminal organization that had developed from a street gang at the turn of the century and prospered under prohibition tension with South Side gangs notably the Italian-American organization of Johnny torrio eventually called the Chicago outfit had resulted in the murder of north side gang leader Dean obanian in November of 1924 and the two organizations had been at War interrupted by temporary truces ever since by February 1929 George Bugs Moran was the leader of the Northside gang and the war had again flared up with Al Capone than the leader of the Chicago outfit a series of tit-for-tat killings had occurred most recently the murder of Capone advisor and president of the politically influential for Turner order the Italian-American National Union Tony The Scourge Lombardo in September there are various stories as for why these men were meeting with the most common being that they've been offered a load of bootleg beer at a good price that was likely a setup Moran himself was laid some stories claimed that he had to wait longer than expected while getting a haircut upon arriving he saw a police car out front he assumed that the members of the gang were being shaken down by the Chicago Police and walked away moments later several witnesses heard what sounded like rapid gunfire and others watched as two police officers let out two or three men at gunpoint all then left in a police car described as one of those used by the Chicago detective Bureau that was the car that had scared off Bugs Moran other Witnesses reported at least one more such car driving by police later speculated that two men dressed as police had disarmed the group who likely assumed this was simply a Shakedown for money and made them stand up against the wall in the garage the three other men had entered the garage sprang the seven men with bursts of gunfire the two dresses police then escorted two of The Killers out pretending that they were being arrested while a third man retrieved the second car parked behind the garage a neighbor who had heard what they thought was gunfire and a dog barking a German Shepherd was tied up in the garage but not hurt went to investigate inside the garage still wrecking Gunsmoke were six dead men among the dead were Moran's second command and also the gang's bookkeeper and business manager but Northside gang enforcer Frank guzenberg was still clinging to life was taken to a hospital and briefly stabilized but when asked by police to identify his Killers refused to break the Code of Silence One account had him saying nobody nobody shot me despite his 14 bullet wounds he died a few hours later the murders quickly dubbed The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre by the Press shocked both Chicago and the nation and Chicago City leadership had to respond while the Chicago police detectives Bureau started their investigation the Cook County State's Attorney suspecting that the police may be involved also started an independent investigation meanwhile the Cook County coroner Dr Hermann bundesen impaneled a blue ribbon commission to investigate the case thus three different investigations were going at the same time the six members of the quarters jury included leading citizens like Bert a Massey president of the Colgate Palmolive company Colonel A.A Sprague the Chicago Commissioner of Public Works Walter E Olson owner of the Olsen rug company and Dr John McCormick dean of the Loyola University Law School bundesen had been careful before the bodies were taken to the morgue bundesen ordered that dozens of photographs be taken and that all shells bullets and bullet fragments be gathered and preserved they were carefully cataloged and placed in sealed envelopes to protect the evidence much of that evidence has been preserved Coroner's jury member Bert Massey had heard of Dr Goddard and knew that his expertise would be valuable to help make sense of the evidence and determine which weapons have been used to commit the murders when told that there was no money available to hire Goddard Massey together with Olsen use their own private funds to hire Goddard services on behalf of the panel as the Chicago Police Department was still suspect at benderson's suggestion Goddard set up a lab under the auspices of the Northwestern University Law School Goddard was able to determine from the Slugs taken from the victims and the shell casings recovered from the scene that 70 45 caliber slugs had come from two Thompson submachine guns one firing 50 rounds from a drum magazine and the other 20 rounds from a box magazine a 12-gauge shotgun was also used Goddard was then able to obtain and test fire all the Thompson submachine guns owned by the Chicago Police in their suburbs his analysis determined that the Slugs did not come from any of the police weapons meanwhile police have been searching for what they considered to be their best suspect a man named Fred Burke Burke was a swindler armed robber and Contract Killer suspected admitting notorious crimes he had been a member of the eagan's rats gang of St Louis and had done contract work for the Detroit Purple Gang before having a falling out with them he then moved to Chicago where he had formed an association with Capone in the Chicago outfit Burke had become a suspect in The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre because two witnesses had encountered one of the men pretending to be police and had reported that one was conspicuously missing two front teeth that led police to immediately suspect Burke police in St Louis confirmed that in addition to the missing teeth Burke had been known to impersonate a police officer while committing crimes knowing that he was a suspect Burke had gone into hiding in Michigan under the name Frederick Dane but he slipped up in December when he got into a modern traffic accident in St Joseph Michigan Burke tried to flee the scene but the other driver followed him and alerted a local police officer when the officer stepped on the running board of his car Burke who was drunk at the time panicked and shot and killed 25 year old patrolman Charles Kelly Burke managed to escape the resulting Manhunt but a search of his home in Saint Joseph turned up a small Arsenal including saw-off shotguns revolvers tear gas bulletproof vests a high-powered automatic rifle and two Thompson submachine guns the guns were taken to Goddard who was able to definitively determine that they were the two guns used in The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre gutter was also able to identify one of the guns as being the weapon used to murder Brooklyn gangster Frankie Yale in July of 1928. Yale had been killed in a blazing shootout in which Foreman in a Buick fired into his car Yale had been hit with both a shotgun blast and bullets from a Thompson submachine gun it was the first use of a Tommy Gun in a ganglang killing in New York City Yale and Capone had been friends but Capone had figured out that Yale had been hijacking liquor shipments from him the fact that the same gun that was used in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre had been used to kill Frankie Yale further implicated Capone ironically Yale was suspected of being one of the men who had murdered Dean O'Banion in 1924 working on behalf of Johnny torrio and Al Capone although police did not have enough evidence to arrest him that murder sparked the war that had finally resulted in the infamous Saint Valentine's Day Massacre Fred killer Burke was finally caught in Green City Missouri in 1931 turned in by an amateur detective who had seen his photograph in True Detective magazine he was extradited back to Michigan where he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Officer Skelly for reasons that aren't completely clear he was never sent back to Chicago to answer questions in The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre killings it's possible that Chicago officials realizing that he was going to be spending life in prison anyway and that most of the other suspects had already been killed in Gangland violence just didn't see it as being valuable that said he simply wanted to put the massacre behind them Burke died in prison in 1940. despite all his findings Dr goddard's evidence didn't result in a conviction The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre Still Remains officially unsolved but still identifying the guns from which the balls were fired left little doubt in historians mind that it was the work of the Capone organization although it's still unclear whether Al Capone ordered the killings directly the case that roiled the nation resulted in the federal effort to get Capone which finally resulted in a seven-year imprisonment for violations of prohibition and tax evasion it was released in 1939 but by then was disabled by complications from syphilis and never played a significant role in organized crime again he died in 1947 a man destroyed by the terrible Massacre committed on his behalf the two Thompson submachine guns that were used in The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre are still in the possession of the Barron County Michigan's Sheriff's Department much of the evidence including bullets fragments shells Corner reports and the wall from the SMC Carthage company against which the massacre occurred still showing bullet POC marks are on display at the Mob Museum the national museum of organized crime and law enforcement in Las Vegas Nevada Bugs Moran was unable to control his gang after The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre and the north side gang never fully recovered eventually he sank back into petty crime and was arrested multiple times ended up dying in prison in Fort Leavenworth Kansas in 1957. Dr goddard's work on The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre helped to establish The credibility of the field of forensic ballistics which is critical to the investigation of crime today he remained in charge of the Northwestern lab where they made several advancements not just in Firearms identification but also the analysis of fibers and hair and serology the study of blood evidence when World War II came he was called back to active duty and ended up in occupy Japan where he established the criminal investigation laboratory for the Far East command under general Douglas MacArthur he died of heart disease in 1955.

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

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Length: 54min 35sec (3275 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2023