BLACKMAILERS SHOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13781, 20 June 1908, Page 5

BLACKMAILERS SHOT.

THE " BLACK HAND" SOCIETY. By Telegraph. Association Copyright.

New York, Juno 18. Mr. Gractha, a rich wine merchant of New Orleans, shot ' and killed with a revolver three Italian desperadoes, members of the i: Black Hand" Society, who attempted to blackmail him with threats of death if he did not comply with their demands. -The 'Black Hand' Myth" is the subject of an article in the North American Review.' The writer says every newspaper reader is familiar with the outrages in. New York that, in the name of the " Black Hand." have been perpetrated among the. Italians, beginning some 10 years ago and increasing coincident ly with I lie Italian immigration, but reaching a limit two or three years ago: — Murder lias been a common crime, and the dynamiting of houses and shops, the kidnapping of children, with every species of blackmail and extortion, were of so frequent occurrence that the mind became dulled to trie enormity of these offences. In New York conditions have been worse than anywhere else; and yet. with half a million of Italians in the population, there are to-day only 40 Italians in the Police Department. Along miles of streets in New York there are no guardians of the people who understand the language of Die residents. As Marion Crawford say,-, the employment of Irish, policemen in Rome would he an analogous circumstance, since there are more Italians in New York than in the capital of Italy. How little the police have understood the situation may be gathered from the fact that during the height' of the wave of Italian crime three years ago, respectable members of that, race were not allowed permits to carry weapons of defence, even when their lives were threatened"