THE BLACK HAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 66, 18 March 1910, Page 6

THE BLACK HAND.

•convictions fob, xjqining. ';'-".. heavy SENTENCES. . ; ~. . ' " ~' ■ (Independent Cable Service.) '.:. ■ "-■-..■■ -VANCOUVH, March 6. •- Irtiipo, alias "The Wolf," the chief of the Black .Hand, and seven confederates, have been found guilty on a charge of joining at New York, and have been sentenced .to terms varying from 15 years . and a fine of a thousand dollars, to "30 years with line of five thousand dollars. - Recently eleven . Sicilians, members of the "Society of the Banana," a branch of the -"Black -Hand," were sentenced at ■Toledo, Ohio, to terms of - imprisonment ranging from, two to 1G years for conspiring to use the United States' mails to extort-money .from 4 Italians residing in O»iio and Indiana. The revelations in the extortion, plotting, and murder by ' the Black Hand .'.(says an...Ohio r ..paper.),. .show_ conclusively that the gang in Columbus; MarSon, Demrison, ' and Bellefontaine arid other Ohio towns was organised along .the same lines as the old Mafia, but with. a better system for concealing their movements. It is now known that the. Ohio Black Hand, or the Society of the Banana, as its members style themselves, had a branch in Pittsburg and one in Chicago, "and a line that extended to South Dakota. Regular meetings were held, and the money obtained by extortion was . distributed to various divisions in this 2ountry and sent to relatives in Italy tor safe keeping. ; Wo have found what I believe to bs certain proof that the Black Hand outrages, at least in the Middle West, including Pittsburg, Cinciimatti, Cleveland, Chicago, Columbus, and other .Western cities, were committed by a well-organised society, with grips and pass-words, and- that they are not simply Sporadic .. cases, of .individual extortion. \ .. We have letters of the same handwriting, . and on. the same watered -paper, with BlaekLHand. emblems made with the same .chirograph ie ."Jstyle that .were sent to victims in Cincinnatti and .Columbus from the : Black Hand members in Pittsburg, Chicago, and Cleveland... .For instance, if a victim were selected in Cincinnatti, as was the case in several instances, ■he would perhaps receive the first . threatening letter, demanding money on pain of death by dynamite bomb, from Marion, Ohio. The second letter would be written by the same person, but forwarded to the Black Hand in Pittsburg, which would in turn mail i* to. the victim. If there were no response in the way of money, then a third letter would come to the victim from the Chicago Black Hand. In this way the organisation concealed •us movements, and it has taken Inspector Oldfield an- four other men Tinder him six months to run down the leaders.