CHAMPIONS IN BLACKMAIL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 141, 12 June 1909, Page 3

CHAMPIONS IN BLACKMAIL.

STORIES OF THE BLACK HAND GANG.

(By Gray Quill, in the Liverpool Post.)

The murder of Lieutenant Pretosini, which America has imported from E S Uo r°f??'it has gained immunity partly because its outrages have been committed only, on Italiansj and the robusf Americanism of the lush,, uer San French and native breeds has a Kg contempt for the ''mere Daeo^' This is a feeling only to be understood by those who have come in close contact with the yaried races who are on Uncle Sam's visiting list. Ine second and equally convincing reason is the terrorism created- by the mysterious power of the society. In the police museum of New York you may : lee a^rim collection of Black Hand j relies and weapons. The coltello, the, common knife made by a village ■ blacksmith, with a downward curve to the handle, is the most numerous; but you will also see the grosso coltello, with a wide blade curling to a vicious point; Neapolitan springback knives, and la pugnale daggers, with their white handles, the suggestive phrase, "Memento Mori" being engraved on the blade. With these are fragments of bombs, infernal machines which, fortunately, have j missed fire; and bundles of threaten-; ing letters, each of which has a frightful but fascinating history, each a j page in a ghaslty volume of crime. I was all the more interested in these sinister exhibits because on two occasions I was an eye-witness of the Black Hand's work. One November day, in 1906, I was walking through the maze of mean streets off the Bowery, where the Ghetto, Chinatown, and Little Italy rub shoulders -with one another. The quaint openair restaurants, the curious booths, the crowded life of the streets, made a wonderful picture. From the costers' barrows - any would-be purchaser had his choice between an old master at lOdols. to a plate of polenta for Be. Men walked by looking like brigands in a comic opera; young lads sauntered by who could have posed as youthful Apollos or John the Baptists; while the women represented every type of beauty and ugliness in two hemispheres. I noticed one young man, who would have been handsome were it not for the sinister fleam in his eyes, walking towards hree men Suddenly a shot rang out, the man dropped, and the three murderers were lost in the crowd, most of whom were too busy making the sign of the cross, or the jettatore sign against the evil eye, to attempt to stay the assassins. I asked a brawny loafer, who was surveying the scene with tranquil indifference, what j was the cause of the outrage. He took his evil-smelling Toscani from his mouth, and said languidly: "Ch.nsti, I know not, signor; aska de coppa! ; Two policemen were now kneeling by thfe side of the wounded man, one vainly endeavouring, to staunch the wound, the other asking if the victim knew the names of his assailants. Mis only reply was: "I know the men, and when I get better I will kill them.'' He died that night, and his last words were: "My friends will see to them all right, do notta fear." Police investigation showed that there had been a quarrel between some members of the Black Hand over the division of the spoils of a blackmailing coup. In the same district, four days before, a Black Hand chief met his death under remarkable circumstances. A certain Italian manager of a wine bar received a letter warning him that he must pay five hundred dollars to a Sicilian who Jived only a few yards away—a man who never worked, but who was never short of money, and was known for his extravagance. The victim went to this man and explained he had no money. The blackmailer calmly gave the other a fortnight to pay up, or- . The pause was ominous. In a moment the other man. made up his mind. A fortnight later he went to the "rendezvous.,: & loaded revolver in his pocket. ''Have you got it?" demanded the blackmailer. "No," said the bar tender; "and what is more, I wouldn't give it if I had." "Very well/ returned the Black Hand chief, "Brooklyn for yours." Then he drew his revolver. The next moment the other man fired through his coat pocket, and the blackmailer threw up his arms, turned, and then fell under the wheels of a heavy cart, which crushed what little life was left in him. The bar tender promptly gave himself up to the police. "He would hay« murdered me," he said, "so' I killed him first." Inspection showed that the revolver in the dead man's

possession held seven bull«tu, and that there were two coltellos in his pockets. "The Brooklyn for yours" was an allusion to the Italian cemetery on that side of the river. I have fully described these outrages because they are, typical of the innumerable murders committed by the Black Hand in most of the large cities of the United States. None of these assasinations has any political significance, unlike the outrages committed by the Mafia and the Qamorra. The Society is a blackmailing one pure and simple. Its methods are varied, but they always tend to one aim—blackmail. An Italian shopkeeper receives a letter informing him that he must place a sum of money in an envelope at a certain outlined spot between midnight and one in the morning. The spot is described so minutely that no mistake is possible. As a rule, the victim complies, sometimes explaining in a note which he leaves with the money that he cannot- raise the full sum. A month's grace is then given him. Others refuse. A good many of these are now lying in the Italian cemetery in Brooklyn. If Lieutenant Petrosini's death results in the stamping out of the Black Hand Society he will not have died in vain.

[A cablegram in yesterday's ExI'BESS stated that what are regarded as the headquarters of the Black Hand have been discovered. The police at Marson, Ohio, discovered in the premises of an Italian fruiterer named Lima thousands of documents, showing that over 100 Italian business men were being blackmailed in order to escape assassination. Lima and seven others were arrested.]