Detective First Grade Joseph Lionel Pucciano was born April 21, 1879, in Calabria, Italy. Because he was raised in the ethnically diverse neighborhoods of the lower east side of Manhattan, he taught himself to converse in four languages: English, Italian, Chinese, and Albanian, all of which helped him greatly during his prominent law enforcement career. He was also fluent in various Italian dialects which made him a natural when it came to his work on organized crime cases.

Pucciano joined the New York Police Department on October 16, 1905. During his career, he was assigned to a variety of Squads and Units, including the 44th Precinct, Brooklyn Headquarters Squad, the Brooklyn (and briefly the Manhattan) Italian Squad, the Sixth Detective District, the Brooklyn Homicide Squad, the 14th Detective District , the 11th Detective District, and the 17th Detective Division.

Pucciano was a hard-hitting, smart, innovative, and savvy Investigator who earned his Detective shield within five years. He earned second grade on December 4, 1914, and Det. Sgt. First Grade on February 17, 1917. (During the early part of Roaring 1920s, Detectives were given the dual-rank of “Detective-Sergeant,” but Sergeant was removed from the rank in 1925.)

Pucciano worked on a wide array of cases that ranged from huge, organized crime takedowns of shakedown artists like the notorious Navy Street Gang, to abduction and kidnapping for ransom, as well as Prohibition-era alcohol poisoning cases, and narcotics. Many of the perpetrators he collared wound up on death row, such was Pucciano’s ability to build airtight cases against the most ruthless of gangsters. He handled more than 40 murder investigations and was dubbed by the press “The Master Detective” and “The Italian Sherlock Holmes.”

Among the fellow Law Enforcement Officers Pucciano worked alongside were Lieutenants Anthony Vachris, Charles Corrao, and Michael Fiaschetti, Commanding Officers of the Italian Squad, Det. Bernardino Grottano, who was killed in the line of duty in 1924 and who is buried alongside Pucciano, and the famous prohibition-era federal agents Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith.

Pucciano passed away at his residence at 381-7th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York at age 49 on July 13, 1928, of pulmonary tuberculosis. His funeral and burial were on July 16, 1928. Pucciano’s wife, Cecilia Soutar, predeceased him by eight years. He and Cecilia left three children: Josephine Eleanor, age 16 (whose surname became Gulmi); Frank Thomas Pucciano, age 13; and George Vincent Pucciano, age 10. Eleanor (as Josephine preferred to be called) took in her brothers until they became of age. Pucciano’s son George also eventually joined the NYPD.

In celebration of Det. First Grade Joseph Lionel Pucciano’s life and his illustrious career,

the Detectives’ Endowment Association, Inc. is proud to gift his family with a new headstone befitting our hero Detective. May he rest in peace.