.::SETTEMBRE 2004::.

Lisa Scottoline:

"Enemy Aliens"

in Her Family Inspired a New Thriller

Killer Smile

by LindAnn Lo Schiavo

Bestselling crime novelist Lisa Scottoline stumbled upon an intriguing clue to her Italian grandparents' past that fired up her imagination.  "The idea for Killer Smile came about when I learned that my paternal grandparents had been compelled to register as enemy aliens during World War II, just because they were born in Italy," said Scottoline, who was born in Philadelphia on July 1, 1955.  She added, "This was true even though they had lived in Philadelphia for 30 years and offered up their son Frank, my father, to the U.S. Air Force.  I was so fascinated by the connection between war and civil liberties that I decided to write this book." Killer Smile follows the [fictional] attorney Mary DiNunzio's investigation of a suspicious suicide that had taken place in an Italian-American internment camp 60 years ago.  This title seems poised for mega-watt attention, aided by a 13-city author tour and fueled by national radio and print ads.  Also, Sons of Italy added it to their Book Club, giving it their imprimatur.  Another sales boost came from Publishers Weekly, who applauded this new release: "Scottoline's previous thrillers (Dead Ringer; Courting Trouble; etc.) have featured the women of the all-female Philadelphia law firm Rosato and Associates, and have concerned the usual elements of murder, stalking, bribery, and corruption. This novel by the former trial lawyer and Edgar Award winner, while embracing the requisite ingredients, is especially engaging because of its personal angle: growing out of Scottoline's discovery of her own grandparents' alien registration cards, the book involves the case of an Italian-American who was interned during WWII.  Amadeo Brandolini emigrated from Italy to Philadelphia , where he started a family and worked as a fisherman. When the war broke out, the FBI arrested and imprisoned him (along with 10,000 other Italian-Americans). He lost everything and wound up committing suicide in the camp. . ." Even from this distance, the sweet smell of success is obvious.  What's troubling, however, is why Lisa Scottoline posted a factual error on her own web site -- a mistake about Italian natives that is now being repeated by many writers who review the book. Let's get the facts straight.  After the bombing of Pearl Harbor , the United States , worried about homeland security, launched a well-publicized mass evacuation and internment of West Coast Japanese aliens.  Meanwhile, the Justice Department launched into a quasi-secret internment program for men and women of "enemy nationality" who were not criminals.  Approximately 10,000 "potentially dangerous" individually arrested aliens were German AND Italian AND Japanese nationals.  That's how the figure of 10,000 originated:  the 10,000 represented a total from THREE groups of foreigners -- NOT Italians alone and certainly NOT the Italian-Americans [because Italian Americans are, after all, US citizens]! Moreover, during the early 1940s, the coverage of The New York Times and other major newspapers kept on emphasizing these facts:

* *       before World War II, about five million aliens were inside the United States ;

* *       before World War II, the LARGEST group of “enemy aliens” was the Italians -- 600,000 of whom emigrated here;

* *       Italians were also the SMALLEST group of immigrants to be put in internment camps -- fewer than 260 of them; author Lawrence DiStasi, formerly a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley, put this figure at 257; and Jerre Mangione, formerly a wartime Public Relations Director for the Immigration Service, stated that "only 250 of them were deemed dangerous enough to intern."  Of this number, 90 Italians had been living in California and 94 were residing in New York ;

* *       in addition to these Italian immigrants who were making their home in the USA, 984 Italian sailors were taken off ships docking in American ports and interned for up to two years;

* *       though curfews and other restrictions were placed on ALL "enemy alien" groups during the early 1940s, when this nation was most concerned about terrorism and national security, curfews on the Italians were lifted on Columbus Day 1942.

While this was happening, the Italian immigrants had eloquent spokespeople fighting for their rights.  Representative Vito Marcantonio of New York and Vincenzo Travaglini, an Italian alien living in Philadelphia , were both battling to have the Alien Registration Act of 1940 declared unconstitutional. It's irritating to see misleading information replicating itself like a computer virus and most especially if it’s part of a novel penned by a woman who cherishes her heritage.  "I wanted to see main characters named Rosato and DiNunzio, and have them be honest, hard-working professionals, not the mobsters so often portrayed," said Scottoline.  "Both of my parents are Italian-American and, like them, the Italians in my books are full of charm and tradition, so they make for interesting, and sometimes quirky characters.  My books tell stories about 'the overlooks' and mothers who protect their daughters with wooden spoons.  They are loving family types, with characteristics that Italian-Americans can relate to." All four of Scottoline's grandparents were born in Italy .  "My mother's family is from Abruzzi and my Father's from Teramo, in Marche ," explained Scottoline.  "Both settled in Philly: my mother's family in South Philly and my father's in West Philly."  Giuseppe Scottoline was born on August 31, 1881 in Ascoli-Piceno and emigrated in 1909 when he was 29.  He immediately got a job with the railroad, and sent for his widowed mother and his two younger brothers in 1911; Guido and Raffaelli Scottoline became carpenters for a local locomotive company. The four Scottolines continued to live together even after Giuseppe married his wife Maria, an Ascoli-Piceno native who emigrated in 1916 at the age of 19. The 1920 census lists the entire family of five, then residing at 4923 Thompson Street in Philadelphia . Unlike many Italian nationals, who became naturalized American citizens as soon as possible, the Scottolines maintained their "alien" status and, therefore, filed for alien registration cards on February 27, 1942 . Fiction writers are neither anthropologists nor historians.  We read them not because what they say is accurate, but because what they say is a reflection of the turbulence that inhabits us.  Scottoline's bestselling books have the potential of acquainting millions of readers with the tense era when it was a crime to be Italian. With this historical emphasis on "la storia segreta" threaded through a thriller, will any readers confuse the Italian "enemy aliens" of World War II with the likes of today’s insurgent Al Qaeda?  The Italians posed far less of a danger.  Jerre Mangione, who visited the major camps during a two-month tour in wartime, discovered that many interned Italians represented no threat to national security whatsoever.  "Some were arrested because they opposed America 's intervention in World War II," said Mangione (in a 1978 interview with The New York Times).  "Others were interned because they had not understood alien enemy regulations and had in their possession radios or weapons forbidden to them."  And then there is the unlucky Italian who had written to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1942, begging him not to war with Italy "since Italy is my mother and the United States is my father, and I don't want to see my parents fighting."  For his wit, he was arrested and shipped to Missoula , Montana for two years.  Doesn’t this sound like it could make a good novel?