Tomasso Petto

Known to law enforcement by the nickname "The Ox" for his massive head and powerful frame, Tomasso Petto was a formidable figure in New York's criminal underworld at the turn of the 20th century. Born in Sicily around 1879, the 26-year-old male officially worked as a suit presser after immigrating to America and settling in Brooklyn. In reality, he was a feared enforcer and top hitman for the Morello crime family, a powerful Sicilian clan based in Manhattan. His name became inextricably linked with one of the era's most infamous crimes, the "Barrel Murder" of Benedetto Madonia in April 1903. Petto was arrested as the prime suspect after a pawn ticket for the victim's watch was found in his possession, but he was never convicted.

Following his release from "the Tombs" jail in January 1904, Petto vanished from New York City. He resurfaced in northeastern Pennsylvania, seeking refuge from the authorities and his enemies. Under the alias Luciano Parrino or Perrino, he settled with his wife and two young children in the small village of Browntown, a community just south of Pittston, near Wilkes-Barre. There, he attempted to build a new life, opening a grocery and a butcher shop on South Main Street. Despite his efforts to maintain a low profile, his reputation preceded him, and he quickly became the leader of a local Black Hand extortion gang.

The violent life Petto tried to leave behind caught up with him on the night of Saturday, October 21, 1905. After working late at his butcher shop, he began the long walk home across town to his house on Lincoln Street. At around 10:30 p.m., just steps from his own front door, he sensed danger and drew the.38-caliber revolver he carried for protection. Before he could use it, the night exploded in gunfire. An assassin, or assassins, ambushed him from the darkness.

A blast from a shotgun fired at close range tore into Petto's right side, embedding pellets in his arm, side, and hip. Almost simultaneously, several more shots rang out. Large-caliber slugs ripped through his body. One projectile entered his chest, tore downward through his torso, and severed his spinal column. Another slug, described as being over a half-inch in diameter, lodged in his liver. A third shattered his handgun and the hand holding it, while a fourth pulverized the bones in his right elbow. Neighbors, accustomed to the sounds of hunting, initially dismissed the gunshots. But the blasts brought Petto's wife rushing out of their home to find her husband's body riddled with bullets on the ground.

The investigation that followed yielded few answers. Petto's wife told a coroner's inquest that she recalled seeing a single man dressed in white near the scene, but she could provide little else. The jury ultimately concluded that Tomasso Petto was killed by a "person or persons unknown." No arrests were ever made, and no one was ever prosecuted for the murder.

Speculation immediately centered on an act of revenge. Many newspapers and law enforcement officials believed the killer was Giuseppe De Primo, the brother-in-law of Benedetto Madonia, the victim in the 1903 Barrel Murder. De Primo had recently been released from Sing Sing Prison and had reportedly sworn to avenge Madonia's death. However, this theory was never proven. Some sources, including a U.S. Secret Service agent at the time, claimed that De Primo was still incarcerated when Petto was killed, making his direct involvement impossible. Petto had made many enemies, and the identity of his killer could have been one of many.

After the murder, Petto's household contents were sold off, and his widow took their two children back to New York City to live with her parents. Tomasso Petto was buried in St. John the Evangelist Cemetery on Market Street in Pittston. More than a century later, his murder remains officially unsolved, a violent end to a brutal life and a cold case file in the history of organized crime in America.