In murder, assault with intent to kill, blackmail, and extortion they head the list, as well as in certain other offences unnecessary to describe more fully but prevalent in Naples and the South.
Joseph Petrosino, the able and fearless officer of New York police who was murdered in Palermo while in the service of the country of his adoption, was, while he lived, our greatest guaranty of protection against the Italian criminal.

But Petrosino is gone.

The fear of him no longer will deter Italian ex-convicts from seeking asylum in the United States.

He once told the writer that there were five thousand Italian ex-convicts in New York City alone, of whom he knew a large proportion by sight and name.* Signor Ferrero, the noted historian, is reported to have stated, on his recent visit to America, that there were thirty thousand Italian criminals in New York City.

Whatever their actual number, there are quite enough at all events.
*Petrosino is a national hero in Italy, where he was known as "Il Sherlock Holmes d'Italia"-- "the Italian Sherlock Holmes." Many novels in which he figures as the central character have a wide circulation there.
By far the greater portion of these criminals, whether ex-convicts or novices, are the products or byproducts of the influence of the two great secret societies of southern Italy.