Biography
Vincent Ferrero, also known as Vincenzo Ferrero and John the Cook, was an Italian anarchist, cook and newspaper editor born in Piedmont in 1885. He edited L'Emancipazione and helped establish the anarchist journal MAN! Immigration officials arrested Ferrero and fellow restaurant worker Domenico Sallitto in Oakland on April 11, 1934, and sought to deport them for their anarchist activities. They were released on bail and repeatedly summoned and detained during the proceedings. When ordered to surrender for deportation to Fascist Italy in late 1938, Ferrero went underground and continued living and working in California as John the Cook. Historian Paul Avrich interviewed him in Los Gatos in June 1974. Ferrero died on February 8, 1985.
The Daily Worker of February 19, 1936 names Ferrero, printed as Ferrerro, among Ellis Island political detainees visited by writers on Lincoln's Birthday.
The Daily Worker of November13,1936,page2 reports that a federal district court dismissed Ferrero’s habeas corpus petition in March1936 and that the federal circuit court of appeals upheld that decision in October. Attorneys Isaac Shorr and Carol King, retained by the Ferrero-Sallitto Defense Conference, were preparing a petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. This describes an appeal against deportation to Fascist Italy, and does not establish a new arrest, actual deportation or release date.
The report individually names this labor deportee among those then held while Mannisto was removed. Threatened deportation and predicted fascist persecution are not recorded as completed removal or death; earlier and later bail evidence remains separate. Daily Worker, December 30, 1935, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n314-NY-dec-30-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937, page 9: A defense advertisement announces a January 15 concert and dance at Stuyvesant Casino, 140 Second Avenue, New York, opposing the deportations of Ferrero and Sallitto. This establishes an ongoing public defense campaign, not a completed deportation, a new arrest or a physical custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%202-96.pdf
Page 8's editorial reports Judge Francis G. Caffey upheld the decision to deport the anti-fascist on March 26, 1936, to Italy. It discusses these rulings in opposition to proposed deportation legislation. This is a report of judicial approval of removal, not a completed departure or individual physical release; no existing actual custody endpoint is changed. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n079-Late-Morning-Ed-apr-01-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Paolo Finzi recalls visiting Ferrero, known as John the Cook, near San Francisco in summer 1979 with Aurora, Attilio Bortolotti and Domenico Sallitto. He describes Ferrero gardening, reading the anarchist press, defending Emma Goldman against criticism of her sexual memoirs and donating his pension to anarchist initiatives. The article explicitly connects John the Cook with Vincenzo Ferrero and reproduces the April 11, 1934 Oakland arrest and later bail/rearrest/deportation proceedings from a1953 anarchist history. Its late 1938 surrender order is not evidence of accomplished deportation. The identified elder portrait is retained as an alternate; the existing database photo remains. Source: https://centrostudilibertari.it/sites/default/files/materiali/bollettino_32.pdf#page=38; https://centrostudilibertari.it/sites/default/files/materiali/bollettino_32.pdf#page=39
Renewed surrender on December 27, 1935; scheduled departure not confirmed
The December 28, 1935 Daily Worker, page 2, reports that Ferrero surrendered yesterday to the Ellis Island authorities: December 27, 1935. It says deportation aboard S.S. Conte di Savoia was scheduled for today, December 28, while the defense was still trying to stop it. The article does not confirm that sailing or an actual release. This renewed surrender must not be treated as continuous confinement from the separate April 11, 1934 arrest, nor substituted for that initial arrest. No precise release date or additional duration is inferred.
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 3 contrasts the recent cancellation of Sallitto’s warrant with Ferrero’s own case: the co-defendant was then at liberty on $1,000 bond. This confirms bail liberty by February 5, 1938; it does not say Ferrero’s warrant was also canceled or give his physical bail-release day.
Page 5 prints the July 2 San Francisco Labor College protest resolution and a July 13 New York committee letter against deportation to Fascist Italy. The editor corrects the committee: actual arrests were April 11, 1934 in Oakland, not a new arrest several months before in San Francisco. Reported evidence included chairing a Marinus van der Lubbe debate and renting space or providing a mail address for MAN!; attorney Austin Lewis had twice stayed removal. The feared fifteen-year Italian penalty is prospective exposure, not actual imprisonment served or an accomplished deportation. Page 3 documents solidarity from Mooney’s committee.
Daily Worker, April 1, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page3’s anti-fascist deportation report identifies Vincent Ferrero as ordered to surrender Friday, December27, with removal to Italy threatened over rented desk space for an anarchist paper; no actual sailing is established. It attributes political grounds and danger of persecution to the AmericanCommitteeForProtectionOfForeignBorn. No new detention episode is created merely from this interim status.
The review of Charles Recht’s The Right of Asylum names Sallitto and Ferrero as California residents held for deportation to Italy over renting restaurant office space to anarchists. It separately lists Eric Becker, Carl Ohm, Otto Richter, Stella Petrosky and Walter Baer among radical or labor activists held for deportation. These are current detention and threatened removal references, not proof of actual deportation, a new admission or individually measured custody.
