Thomas Hunt, coauthor of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia and publisher of The American Mafia website ( http://www.onewal.com/ ) was interviewed recently by reporter Keiko Morris for a New York Newsday story.
Giovanni Zarcone, resident of Brooklyn and owner of a Manhattan butcher shop, was among those arrested in connection with 1903's infamous Barrel Murder. Secret Service agents keeping an eye on the activities of the Morello Mob, a band of counterfeiters and extortionists, noticed Barrel Murder victim Benedetto Madonia in the company of the Morello group within Zarcone's butcher shop the night before Madonia's lifeless body was found on a New York streetcorner crammed into a barrel. They surmised that a wagon belonging to Zarcone had been used to move the remains. They couldn't make the charges stick, however. Zarcone and the rest of the accused were let go.
Over the next few years, several of the suspects died violent deaths. Investigators decided that the Morello Mob was eliminating witnesses to the Madonia murder. Though Zarcone moved himself and his family to a farm in Danbury, CT, the Morello Mob appears to have caught up with him there. He was shot to death outside of his home in the summer of 1909, his body dropped at the front doorstep.
Thomas is a longtime researcher into the activities and personalities of the Morello Mob. Some of his work can be found at the still under construction Caged Wolves website ( http://www.cagedwolves.com/ ).