Esposito: The First Mafioso

JOE ESPOSITO, his origins, his life, even his death, have long been shrouded in mystery and folklore. In the late 1880s, the FBI dubbed him The First Mafioso while Italian, British, New York, Chicago and New Orleans newspapers depicted him as the first international serial killer. Orphaned at birth, he adopted multiple identities, trying on new ones as one would try on new clothes. The author brings him to life against vivid backdrops of post-Civil War Sicily and New Orleans, people, politics and places including plantations, brothels, docks, a New York courtroom and the infamous escape proof island prison known as Italy’s Alcatraz. But to discover the real Joe Esposito, we meet Serafina, the petite, bodacious and strikingly beautiful Sicilian woman who had almost as many aliases as Esposito and for whom Joe endeavored to walk the line. The truth as to whether Panama Joe and Serafina were an Italian Bonnie and Clyde makes their story all the more compelling.