Mob Handed Publicity

Percival Stein’s archive, now in the hands of his great great grandson, Nicholas Leonard, tells the story of Stein’s involvement with the New York Mafia.

The mob had decided to help Stein, and so his fears of being bumped off were soon forgotten aided by one Ignazio Lupo. The mob was interested in entertainment as a way of generating money through racketeering, and they thought they could use strong arm tactics to make Stein’s clients famous, thus bringing them a healthy revenue.

Stein was so naive that he thought the men he’d been introduced to by Lupo were talent searchers who wanted to know who was who in the entertainment world, and who they should hire for weddings and christenings. He was unaware that he regularly dine and went to parties with racketeers and murderers. Thus his naivety protected him; unaware who he was dealing with, he showed absolutely no fear when in the presence of these men, and they in turn respected his self-assured countenance and left him to get on with things.

It was only some years later when Ignazio Lupo, or Lupo the Wolf as he was known, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, that Stein realised just who he had been dealing with. Along with Lupo, Stein had regularly partied with Guiseppe Morello who was the leader of the Morello Mob and also jailed for 25 years.

Nichold Leonard quoted from his great great grandfather’s diary, that on the day Lupo and Morello were sent down ” I shook so much, that I fell down paralysed with fear”.