Corvo and the Connecticut Connection

Middletown, Connecticut, an unpretentious residential town of less than 50,000 inhabitants, would seem to be a highly implausible locus to serve as a springboard for important wartime spying activity, yet that actually was what it became because of a unique confluence of several factors, most weighty of which was that it was home to a sizeable population of Italian Americans, the majority of Sicilian heritage from the eastern part of the Mediterranean island. Melilli, Sicily, was the village where many Middletowners had been born or where their parents came from and where lived numerous close relatives. A traditional Mezzogiorno (southern Italy) village suffering from underdeveloped industrialization and limited job prospects in the late nineteenth century, these conditions prompted many Melillisi to emigrate in search of work first to northern Italy and later by the 1880s there began a trek to Middletown in search for opportunities in the railroad and textile industries. Many newcomer Italians became laborers; others worked as skilled craftsmen and middle-class merchants who found jobs in their respective fields while large numbers gained employment in Middletown’s machine parts, hardware, and textile industries. Earning a living working in the factories of the Russell Manufacturing Company, the Arawana Mills, and various quarries was the experience for more than a few Italian immigrants. By 1910 a perceptible number owned small businesses and had begun to acquire real estate, especially rental property.1