Biography
Calogero Greco, born in Sicily around 1893–1894 (a 1927 report gives his age as 33), was a Sicilian-born veteran of the First World War who immigrated to the United States in 1920 and worked as a tailor in New York, a member of Amalgamated Clothing Workers Local 63. An anti-fascist, he was arrested in Brooklyn on July 11, 1927 and held with fellow anti-fascist Donato Carrillo in the Bronx County Jail as a material witness in the investigation of the May 30, 1927 Memorial Day killing of two Italian Fascists, Giuseppe Carisi and Michele Amoroso, in the Bronx. On July 26, 1927 the two were formally indicted for premeditated murder, with bail set at fifty thousand dollars each; unable to furnish it, they remained jailed throughout the pretrial period. Their trial — the celebrated Greco–Carrillo case — opened in Bronx County Court on December 9, 1927, with Clarence Darrow leading the defense in a celebrated International Labor Defense campaign that showed the prosecution to be a frame-up built on fascist testimony. After nearly eight hours of deliberation the jury acquitted both men on December 23, 1927, ending about five and a half months of detention, and a victory celebration was held that same day.
