BY TEQUILA MINSKY and LINCOLN ANDERSON | On Wed. Nov. 5, at Petrosino Square — at the intersection of Kenmare, Spring and Lafayette Sts. and Cleveland Place — members of the New York Police Department and Parks Department unveiled two bronze markers honoring Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino, the only N.Y.P.D. officer to die on foreign soil in the line of duty.
The strains of bagpipes filled the air as representatives from local Little Italy civic and cultural organizations were joined by family members of the heroic officer, including his grandnephew Joseph Petrosino, a Brooklyn prosecutor for 36 years, whose son, also named Joseph Petrosino, is also a police detective.
Joseph (Giuseppe) Petrosino (1860-1909) was born in Padula, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1873. He joined the Police Department in 1883. Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt promoted him to sergeant of detectives in 1895, then to lieutenant.
Petrosino was put in command of the Italian Squad, a special unit to combat organized crime, the forerunner of today’s mafia, known as the Black Hand. Bombings and child kidnappings were among the crimes the unit grappled with. Under his leadership, several thousand arrests were made and more than 500 offenders sent to prison.
In 1909 Petrosino was sent on a special assignment to Palermo, Italy. Dr. Joseph Scelsa, president of the nearby Italian American Museum, explained that the detective’s mission was supposed to be secret, and that even though his cover was blown, he went anyway, and wound up shot dead on the street by the Sicilian Mafia.
The New York Times reported that, for Petrosino’s funeral procession, 200,000 spectators lined the streets from Old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
Speaking at the Nov. 5 dedication ceremony, Jonathan Kuhn, Parks’ director of Art & Antiquities, said the Petrosino plaques were a long time coming.
“About a decade after Kenmare Square was renamed for Petrosino, the Parks Department began an initiative to compose historical narratives — signs — that would remind New Yorkers of the biographies and achievements of those individuals for whom public parks are named,” Kuhn said. “All too often, we found that while the names had remained, the person and their deeds had been forgotten.
“In my neighborhood, on Charles St.,” Kuhn noted, “there is a historic building, now an apartment building known as the Gendarme, which from 1897 to 1971 served as the local precinct station for the West Village.
“Surviving in the lobby is the original building dedication marker, with the name Theodore Roosevelt, President of the Board of Police Commissioners,” Kuhn recounted. “Petrosino would serve under Roosevelt, and later, upon his the officer’s tragic death, Roosevelt said, ‘He was a great man, a good man…and did not know the name of fear.’ We have in our parks three monuments to Roosevelt, and I’m pleased to report that today Petrosino joins Roosevelt in our pantheon of lasting monuments.”
Petrosino Square, bridging Little Italy and Soho, only a block from the original Police Department central headquarters, was named for Petrosino in 1987. The city completed an expansion and renovation of the park in 2009.
The bronze markers commemorating Petrosino’s life and legacy were designed by Noho artist Carter Jones — selected through a limited design competition — and are installed in the park’s south entry piers. The western plaque provides a concise biography within a decorative border, while the eastern plaque features a relief portrait of Petrosino and includes the insignias of the N.Y.P.D., as well as of his native city.
The project was sponsored by the Columbia Association of the N.Y.P.D. and the Lt. Det. Joseph Petrosino Association of America, in collaboration with the Italian American Museum, and the Parks Department’s division of Art & Antiquities.
In 1938, the triangle was officially designated parkland. Until the Koch administration, it was known as Kenmare Square, named for the Irish birthplace of Tammany Hall leader “Big Tim” Sullivan’s mother.
The local group Friends of Petrosino Square has been active in advocating for the square’s upkeep and as a display place for public art. Several years ago, the square was expanded by taking away a bordering lane of traffic. The Friends group is currently battling in court to make the city remove the CitiBike docking station from the square’s northern paved apex.
Other attendees at the Nov. 5 event included James Lisa, president of the Lt. Det. Joseph Petrosino Association in America; George Grasso, a Brooklyn Criminal Court judge and former first deputy Police commissioner; John Walsh, a retired Supreme Court judge; Jerry D’Amato, of the International Petrosino Association (from Petrosino’s hometown of Padula); Joseph Fratta, of the Lt. Joseph Petrosino Lodge No. 285, Order of the Sons of Italy; Georgette Fleischer, founder of Friends of Petrosino Square; and Gwen Pier, executive director of the National Sculpture Society.
