“THE BLACK HAND.”

Dunstan Times, Issue 2483, 31 May 1909, Page 8

“THE BLACK HAND.”

(By L. W. Crippen.)

Giuseppe Petrosino, the detective who was shot in Palermo, knew quite well that, sooner or later, the “Black Hand’ would, to use his own expression, “get’ him, and he spoke of his own inevitable end with a quiet courage and cheerfulness that can only be described as heroic. That he escaped for so long was regarded as marvellous; it was due only to his wonderful ability in disguising himself. On many occasions he talked and drank with men who, in his presence, declared their intention to kill him at sight. ' The death of this celebrated detective is probably the severest blow that the cause of law and order in New York could suffer. It is just possible, though it is unlikely, that he was able to train one or more of the assistants who had latteny been given to him. These men are Italians, and it was necessary to chose them with the greatest care: the power of the “Blade Hand” is so widespread that treachery was to be feared at every . *** * K,nviclio ” how s ;^“ r H «mo organised in America, but that it sal affiliated with the Mafia, monstrous mushroom because of defective immigration laws lax police » £?itkT Italian and Sicilian criminate from their own country to the United States, found that they were able to encage in their old trade of “ackmail and murder as easily as at home, and .with less risk of necessary to give any description of co fUtlons as they were some years ago in the New York Police Department the Lexow investigation opened the eyes not only of America but of the world o state of affairs that was appalling. The New York police force is a far < ferent far superior body nowadays, the credit being due to Police Commissioner Bingham, who began by being ridiculed, and universally disliked, and s now respected and admired to such an extent that all parties seem anxious to re rmminate him at the next municipal dection. Ho has succeeded where every othei Commissioner, even Mr Roosevelt faded, and under him the New I«l» c are at length becoming an effluent ami honest organisation. In jus ice to-Mr Roosevelt, however, it should be m tioned that General Bingham exercises fai greater powers than his predecessors. • g But if general Bingham has succeeded, to a remarkable extent, in ‘ cleaning up the Police Department, the personnel of the force necessarily remains much as t was before. Several thousand men cannot be replaced in one year, or in ten y and tho Commissioner has to woik wdl the old tools—cleaned and sharpened, it is true, but old tools all the same As a matter of fact, he has found excellent material for, after all, it was cornparatndy onTy a few rascals who made the name or the New York police a byword. Long after its activities began the “Black ft and” was practically Even when, by some accident, the polite managed to find one of th* enmmais, oo usually escaped conviction. Some ten years ago there was a particularly atroSs murder of an Italian, whose body rind in a barrel The police believed that they had caught the murdeic red-handed, but no conviction was obtained. Indeed, it was the facility which Italians accused of murder and other grave offences secured 'vitnesses whose testimony resulted m veKll . Lts ° “Not Guilty” that first convinced the authorities that there must exist a largo organisation of Italian criminals. time went by and the murders, bomb outrages, kidnappings, and other crimes in the Italian quarters became more ami more frequent, it was realised that the onlv possible means of dealing with this state of affairs was the employment of Italian detectives. Petrosino went to America a little over thirty years ago. He was a native of Salerno, where ho was born in 1861. Soon after arriving m New York the youth obtained work m the Street Cleaning Department, and lawn joined the police. It was not until ho had been a policeman for a good many yea l that he was given an opportunity ot distinguishing himself. When Italian crimes became so frequent as to came senorn alarm the authorities ordered an invest! gation as to the number of Italians on the police force, which number was found to bevery small, and Petrosino was chosen aJ the officer likely to be the most useful. ' In a very short time he began to justiti the hopes placed in him. The firet achievement which brought him to public notice was in the Brogno murder case ot 1898 The man arrested refused to saj a word, and it was alleged that Brogno had before his death identified the prisoner as his assailant. eithe l£ Petrosino became convinced that tn police had arrested the wrong man, and, ultimately caught the real assassin who was sentenced! to imprisonment for Hie. Quietly, but very surely, Petrosino obtained the knowledge which at lengto gave him a unique place among the grea • detect’ves of tho world. Sometimes he would again take up his old work as a street-cleaner, and, in the white duck suit which the late Colonel Waring introduce* among the employees of the btrect Cleaning Department, would nung among the Italian labourers who form a large proportion of those employees. Another times he would, in the dress of ar Italian “sport,” frequent low cafes in Mulberry street where, had his identity been known, hi. life would not have be worth a moments purchase. More tnaii once he was able to learn of i w of foreign criminals other than Italian., and it has been said that he warned Ires:dent M’Kinley that tho tended an attempt on hls ’ life However this may be, R » that before long Petrosim was m correpondence with the State Department and Sat a large amount of his work was done ~lß utr h eo was terribly handicapped. it was not until about four years ag ‘ T snecial bureau to deal with Italian crimes was established in connection with the New York Police Department an that Petrosino was given anything .p----nroaching the necessary amount of assist ance When this measure, was decided upon the authorities were, m a condition of fright—as well they might be. inert is absolutely no exaggeration in say that the “Black Hand’ has become en appalling evil in the United States. Its operations are not confined to New York, E have extended to every city in which there is an Italian colony of considerable size It is believed to carry out orders sent by post and telegraph from the “Mafia” and the “Camorra. . Cases have occurred of men fleeing from the vengeance of one or other of these horrible societies, and: being assassinated almost immediately on arrival m America. It is said that very recently the Black Hand” has been blackmailing Americans as well as Italians, but this . is. hardly credible. Indeed, one of the principal reasons for the immunity which it so long enjoyed was tho fact that its operations were confined to Italians. 1 his is a reason, but not an excuse, of course; yet it is only human nature. The same thm D

is to be observed in San Francisco, where the Chinese confine their crimes to their own people, and newer attack an American or European; the result being that the police take very little notice of them.

But at any rate the Americans are now fully alive to the evil that has grown up in their midst. Conditions have become almost as bad as in Russia during a Terrorist outbreak. How t many hundreds, how many thousands, of well-to-do Italians have been successfully blackmailed will never be known. It is said, with what truth cannot be told, that there are 5000 members of the “Black Hand, and affiliated societies in New York alone. Since 1905 Petrosino sent 500 members ol the league to prison, and caused many others to leave America. It is not at all improbable that the death of this most valuable man was directly due to American journalistic methods. Tho reporter of a New York newspaper discovered that Perto&ino had been sent to Sicily, and the newspaper, oblivious of all sense of public duty, published the fact.