THE "BLACK HAND."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE "BLACK HAND."

SECRET SOCIETY THAT BAFFLES AMERICAN POLICE.

New York, August s.—The members pi! the "Black Hand," the American branch of the "Mafia," so powerful in Italy, are again busying themselves in their work of blackmail and outrage. So persistent have their activities become within the past few weeks that Italian residents throughout the country are terror-stricken. Every day brings its fresh outrage perpetrated on Italians who have refused to be blackmailed by the society. One of the most serious of these took place at Passaio, in New Jersey, this morning, the shop of a barber named Castello being blown in with dynamite. The entire front of the building was demolished, the walls fell in, and the place caught fire. Castello and his family, fortunately, escaped without injury, but he will be a heavy loser by the outrage. In this city last evening two Italians, one a wealthy citizen, who had refused to submit to the society's extortions, were waylaid and robbed of £100 in jewellery and money. On Wednesday a New York hotelkeeper named Capparelli, living in Elizabeth-street, refused a demand made upon him for £50 by a member of the society, and caused the man to be arrested. This morning he received a letter telling him to settle up his affairs, for he would be dead in three days. He is panic-stricken, and has asked for police protection. In another case a shop in the Bowery district was dynamited and partly demolished because the proprietor refused to pay £400 to the society's funds. The police are doing their utmost to trace the perpetrators of these outrages, but so far have been completely baffled, so secretly are the doings of the society carried out. » The " Mafia," the powerful Italian organisation from which the "Black Hand" has sprung, is a secret society of the worst type. It wields a power in Italy greater than tha,t of Nihilism in Russia. The oath which a new member has to take on his , initiation is significant of the dread character of the association. The candidate draws from his own body a quantity of blood, with which he smears the image of his favourite saint. The figure is then fired, and as it burns he takes the following oath: — ' . "I swear on my honour to be faithful to the brotherhood. As this saint and the drops of my blood are destroyed so will I shed all mv blood for the fraternity; and as these ashes and this blood can never be restored, so can I never become free from the brotherhood." He then shoots at a crucifix to sngnify his readiness to kill even his nearest relative if bidden by the society.