About this Event
About this tour
It’s 1903, and New York is on edge after a man’s mutilated body is found inside a barrel. Nobody knows who he is, but the newspapers are already calling it a Mafia M**der.
Joe Petrosino, the NYPD’s first Italian-American detective, takes up the case. In New York’s Italian neighborhoods, he could open doors that were closed to other detectives.
The trail leads to Giuseppe Morello, a rising criminal from Corleone whose counterfeiting network was already under surveillance by the United States Secret Service.
On this approximately 2-hour walking tour, Oscar-winning filmmaker Anthony Giacchino draws on two decades of research into Petrosino’s story to retrace the Barrel M**der investigation through Little Italy & the Lower East Side.
We’ll follow the clues, tracing the suspects, the surveillance and the evidence that slowly revealed who the man in the barrel was.
Along the way, we’ll get to know Petrosino himself: an Italian immigrant investigating crime in a city deeply suspicious of Italians.
More than a whodunit, the tour also explores what it meant to be an Italian immigrant in New York, on both sides of the law.
The case closes at Petrosino’s home, with the story of his own unsolved M**der in 1909. The tour itself ends back at Petrosino Square.
About your tour guide
Many years ago, Anthony imagined he would become a university history professor, but a few detours along the way (all rooted in his love of history) led him to documentary film instead. He has been awarded the Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy, and has been nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award. Anthony continues to make history-based documentaries and is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Anthony’s connection to the story of Joe Petrosino began in 2005, when a small marker in Petrosino Square sent him to the library to learn who this detective was. It has not let go since. Petrosino’s granddaughter entrusted him with the family archive. In 2009 he guest-curated the centennial exhibit on Petrosino’s death at the New York City Police Museum, built around those family documents.
Join this tour with Anthony Giacchino, a licensed NYC Tour Guide!
Event venue & nearby stays
Lt. Petrosino Square, Cleveland Place, New York, United States
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