Emilio Picariello (, ; also known as Emileo PicarielloGray 62 and Emil Picariello,Foster 83 November 23, 1879Brennan 51 – May 2, 1923) was an

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians or Italo-Canadians (; ) are Canadian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who migrated to Canada as part of the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Canada. Accordi ...

bootlegger and convicted murderer, who was hanged at

Fort Saskatchewan Fort Saskatchewan is a city along the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Edmonton, the provincial capital. It is part of the Edmonton Capital Region#Edmonton CMA, Edmonton census metropolitan area and one of 24 muni ...

in 1923 for killing an

Alberta Provincial Police The Alberta Provincial Police (APP) was the state police, provincial police service for the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Alberta, Canada, from 1917 to 1932. The APP was formed as a result of the Royal North-West Mounted Police ...

constable the previous year.

Early life

Picariello was born in

Capriglia Irpina Capriglia Irpina is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. People * Gian Pietro Carafa, Pope Paul IV Pope Paul IV (; ; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559), born Gian Pietro Carafa, was head of the Catholic Ch ...

and immigrated to the United States in 1899.Anderson 43Brennan 52 He moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada in 1902, where he worked as an electrician and labourer until he had earned enough money to buy an Italian grocery. In 1900 he married Maria Marucci, who he had met at a boarding house where she worked as a housekeeper; the couple went on to have seven children, the eldest of whom was Stefano "Steve" Picariello. In 1911 he moved to

Fernie, British Columbia Fernie is a city in the Elk Valley (British Columbia), Elk Valley area of the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada, located on British Columbia provincial highway 3, BC Highway 3 on the western approaches to the Crows ...

, where he worked in G. Maraniro's

macaroni Macaroni (), known in Italian as ''maccheroni'', is a pasta shaped like narrow tubes.Oxford DictionaryMacaroni/ref> Made with durum wheat, macaroni is commonly cut in short lengths; curved macaroni may be referred to as "elbow macaroni". Some ...

factory. When Maraniro moved to

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 106,550 in the 2023 Alberta municipal censuses, 2023 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

to open a factory there, Picariello rented the Fernie factory and hired women to roll

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...

s in it. In 1916 he began to manufacture

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

at a rate of per day.Anderson 44 He sold this from a wagon during the summer of 1916 and shortly thereafter established ice cream parlours in

Trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Ho ...

and Blairmore. He sometimes accepted payment in the form of bottles, which he then sold to bottlers; by 1916 he had achieved a local

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

.Anderson 45 This gained him a reputation as the "Bottle King", which he embraced with newspaper ads reading "E. Picariello, the Bottle King, requests that all persons selling bottles hold them until they see E. Picariello, who pays top prices."Anderson 46

Bootlegger

In 1914, he became the local representative for the Pillock Wine Company. Two years later,

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

was enacted in Alberta. It was initially still legal to import alcohol from outside the province, and Picarellio profited by transporting alcohol through the

Crowsnest Pass Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, ) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border. Geography The pass is located in southeast British Columbia an ...

.Brennan 54 In 1917, British Columbia also introduced prohibition, and Picariello decided to move to Alberta to be closer to

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, which allowed the sale of alcohol, while remaining close to the British Columbia distilleries from which he purchased. He bought Blairmore's Alberta Hotel as a base of operations. In 1918 Alberta outlawed the importation of alcohol and Picariello was forced to operate covertly. He excavated a room under the hotel and dug a tunnel from it out to the road, so that alcohol could be smuggled directly into this cellar.Anderson 48 He had a

player piano A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home ...

in the hotel lounge, whose noise drowned out these activities. The

(APP) set up checkpoints in the Crowsnest Pass, but Picariello adopted a number of tactics to foil them. Sometimes he would load his cars—

Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by the Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. Th ...

s, initially,Anderson 47 replaced in 1918 by three McLaughlins, a number which grew to six by 1922—with sacks of what appeared to be flour. The sacks on the outside of the car, most susceptible to being searched, actually contained flour, but buried beneath them would be sacks containing bottles of alcohol. Another tactic was to send two cars at once, the first empty and the second transporting alcohol; if a checkpoint stopped the first car, the second would quietly retreat.Brennan 55 His automobiles came to be known as the "Whiskey Special" cars. Picariello became a wealthy and respected citizen. He was known locally as the "Emperor Pic" while the Alberta Hotel in Blairmore was known as his "castle". He was elected alderman of Blairmore, and was praised for his philanthropy (among other things, the sacks of decoy flour were distributed to needy families). During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he bought $5,000 worth of

victory bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are a ...

s. While coal miners in the area were on strike in 1918, he contributed money to their families.Anderson 99 This respect came even though it was widely known that he was a bootlegger: in 1921 he was fined $20 after the APP found four barrels of alcohol in his warehouse. In January 1922, the APP recovered 70 barrels of beer from a railway car with a

bill of lading A bill of lading () (sometimes abbreviated as B/L or BOL) is a document issued by a common carrier, carrier (or their Law of agency, agent) to acknowledge receipt of cargo for shipment. Although the term is historically related only to Contract of ...

in Picariello's name; his claim that the beer had been erroneously sent in response to his order for carbonated water did not convince the judge, who fined him $500.Brennan 56 Carlo Sanfidele worked for Picariello as a chauffeur and hotel manager for Picariello. Sanfidele and his wife Florence Lassandro also worked with Picariello in his bootlegging operations. Lassandro was also Picariello's mistress.

Murder and hanging

Picariello's son, Steve Picariello, became involved in a police chase on September 21, 1922, during which he was shot in the hand by Constable Stephen O. Lawson of the

. Picariello had assumed that his son had been killed when he heard a rumour that he had been shot and went to confront Lawson. In

Coleman Coleman may refer to: Places Antarctica * Coleman Glacier (Antarctica) * Coleman Peak, Ross Island Canada * Coleman, Alberta * Coleman, Ontario * Coleman, Prince Edward Island United Kingdom * Coleman, Leicester, England United States * C ...

, Picariello and Lassandro confronted Constable Lawson, who was fatally shot in front of his home by the pair. Both Picariello and Lassandro were arrested the following day, and were convicted for Lawson's murder; however, the trial was a questionable affair of who actually shot Lawson. Nevertheless, both were sentenced to

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

on December 2, 1922; they unsuccessfully sought clemency from the courts, the Justice Minister, and the Prime Minister. Lassandro and Picariello were hanged on the

gallows A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sa ...

penitentiary on May 2, 1923. Picariello was popular in Alberta, and public opinion was on the side of Picariello and Lassandro on the day of their executions with many feeling that the death sentences handed down by the court to be excessively harsh in view of the mitigating circumstances. The executions of Picariello and Lassandro are credited with helping to turn public opinion against Prohibition in Alberta.Auger & Edwards 184

Early life

Bootlegger

Murder and hanging

References

Further reading