Review: The Man They Couldn't Escape
| Published date | 01 April 1931 |
| Date | 01 April 1931 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3100400221 |
REVIEWS
The
book is written in a style that should make it as acceptableto the
general reader as to those professionally interested in the study of remarkable
criminals.
THE
MAN THEY
COULDN'T
ESCAPE. By
PROSPER
BURANELLI.
Illustrated. 18s. net. (Selwyn &Blount.)
THIs is the story of the adventures of Detective Michael Fiaschetti of the
Italian Squad (New York Police) as related by himself to the writer.
His father, a bandmaster at Rome, migrated to America and settled in
North Adams, Massachusetts. Born in 1886 the boy was intended for a
musician, but showed all the instincts of a sleuth and at the age of fourteen
got a reward of 500 dollars for tracing a criminal.
The
family moved to
New York, where he tracked down a murder gang. This brought him into
touch with Petrosino, Chief of the Italian Squad, who induced him to join
the force. Mter six weeksas a uniformed constable he became a detective.
Four years later he was promoted leader of a Special Squad dealing with
Black Hand cases. After six years of this he succeeded Petrosino (who had
been murdered by the Mafia in Sicily) as Chief of the Italian Squad.
Six foot tall and weighing 200 lb., Fiaschetti is a forceful figure. A
specialist in murder cases, he carried his life in his hands, particularly on his
visit to Italy when he penetrated to the dens of the Camorra in Naples in the
hope of getting a clue to the slayer of his predecessor, Petrosino.
He jeers at Sherlock Holmesand makes it clearthat the alpha and omega
of a detective's outfit is the organization of a system of • stool pigeons' or
informers, minor criminals who get immunity in return for incriminating
their fellows.
Among other sensational affairs related here are those of The Bloody
Barber of Kenmare Street,
The
Lottery King, The Man with the Twisted
Eye, the Liberty Bond Robberies, and the Murder Gang who started out to
exterminate the police of Akron, Ohio.
While Fiaschetti does not err on the side of modesty, he makes no claim
to be a plaster saint. He tells frankly how he passed the examination for his
first appointment by cribbing from his neighbour, how he ' slipped
up'
in
the Varotta case, how on one occasion at least he resorted to mild ' third
degree' methods, and finally how his career ended abruptly when he was
reduced to the ranks for assaulting a lawyer.
The book is written in a boisterous, journalistic style full of American
slang. Those who are not deterred by this will find much of interest in it.
THE
TRAFFIC POSITION. By F. J.
CRAWLEY,
Chief Constable,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 1930. (Central Police Station Printing Press,
Newcastle.)
THIS
compendium of extracts regarding the traffic problem was compiled
from many sources by Mr. Crawley, the Chief Constable of Newcastle,
primarily for the use of the local Watch Committee; but the compilation
should prove of value to a much wider circle.
The
sources are British and
American; and include excerpts from proceedings of the ' Safety
First'
Associations, the Royal Commission on Transport, and the American Con-
ference on Street and Highway Safety, as well as from various articles written
by experts on different aspects of the traffic problem.
The
fourteen heads
into which the extracts are distributed deal with such subjects as Street
Accidents, Automatic Traffic Control, Line Marking on Roads, One Way
Streets, Safety Islands, and the like.
Mr. F. J. Crawley was one of the recipientsof the King's Police Medal
on the rst January, 1931.
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