"BLACK HAND" MASSACRE.

North Otago Times, 6 December 1910, Page 2

"BLACK HAND" MASSACRE.

■"•■t ■ - ■ HORRIBLE MUTILATIONS AND .TATTOO MARKS.

Pew crimes of recent years have aroused so much public interest! In Italy, which 'holds the unenviolblfl primacy in Wood crimes, aa the mysterious murder <)( family o( tight at Pollaro, near Reggio uli Calabria. S.Qrr\e. thirty, arrests have ■been ma(Je l tjie prisoners lieing hous-i cd in a couple Ot railway carriages at Pellaro station, but it is ?t\l\ doubtful whether the real flaaastina have been caught. ■ The police are i\ow qiuite satwET" that the massacre was a deed venge on the part of the '''Bl'fc Hand" band in the United The father of the Ruling family had lived for, some jfjifli'Jn Canada, whence he to, Philadelphia, and 'later tfl New York. In the last nainejl. city" nearly two years* agA Ruvoltno, implicated \y% others of his countrymen in a big bank burglary, but finally was giv«<( free? dom'onl consideration of ;his 'having revealed the identity of the pal culprits. Soon after an uusuts cessful attempt was made tq ps9on him. He received the ritual warning of the Black Hand, doom wag sealed. ■ ' \

One day, to the amazement -of his ■ ■ family and \ kinsfolk, he turned up at Pellajo, Tj&er'e'a ghastly fate has so swiftly overtaken himself and fe household. The police state thiw- is. reason to believe tnat tho erflec.fop the massacre was!•despatched fromN&v? York-to a group of Galabrian ciates of the Black Hand, and ■ that the. assitssins were fewer 'than half a 'dozen, judging from the 'different weapons wherewith wounda must havei been inflicted: ./ Not. only were-the heads- of all the- eight vic-> tirna practically severed from ths s lißWPiiPiipiiii

■■■■ trunks with scythes and axes : of*.v> • varying shages and sizss, but ' the bodies were'stabbed all over, > v sides, having' undergone horrible mutilations and tattooing with black crosses, characteristic of the secret' . society's ■ outrages; ■ Among the arrested suspects are three brothers named Latclla, aIV ex-convicts,' who formerly sojourned in 'America, The villagers refuse the least as- • \ sistance to the police through .fear of- vengeance. Even undertakers had to be coerced with loaded rifles, by carabinieri before they would consent to coffin the remains of the • murdered family, and tlie eight biers had to be accompanied to the ceme : tery under a strong, escort of troops, » ,