JUVENILE “BLACK HAND."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 106, 26 June 1911, Page 8

JUVENILE “BLACK HAND. "

ADSPRD YOUTH ATTEMPTS BLACKMAIL. Monsieur 13., a retired stockbroker, received on March 22 last a 1' ttci, written entirely in capitals, which requested him, hy order of the “Black Hand,” to pay a sum of £2400 to the person wearing a yellow mask, who would stand from (3.00 to 7 at the gate of the Tuilleries Gardens on the Place do la Concorde. The cash must he in gold coin, contained in a box hearing no name, . ml if the police'were warned the “Black aland” would kidnap the addressee’s grandchildren, for whom £20,000 ransom would he demanded, and would burn his mansion in the Avenue Hochc and his country mansion in the Oise. “Don’t come if you prefer death,” the letter continued. “The person who will take the money will say one word, ‘Hope,’ in every case. Silence or death. Signed, the Committee of the Black Hand.” The retired stockbroker may or may not have shivered in his shoos, hut, anyhow, did not keep the appointment. On March 24 he received a second letter, still written only in canitals:

“Association of the Mauo Ncgra: Second Warning.—lt has seemed to us that wo saw your messenger yesterday, but accompanied by a suspicious person. Kindly send the sum named to the kiosk at the corner of the Avenue Hochc and tne Hue do Courcellos between 6.30 and 7 next Sunday. No suspicions persons may come. This is our last warning, after which we will deal with you. The password will be ‘Hope.’—(Signed) The Committee of the Black Hand. “P.S.—The Black Hand is not lightly to bo trilled with.”. Taking courage, the retired- stockbroker wont to the police and showed the two letters. The inspector bade him he of good cheer, and sent a plain clothes man to keep the dread tryst hy the kiosk. The detective, who carried a box, saw a lanky boy come up. The boy looked at him, and said in a whisper, “Hope.” “Hope!” answered the policeman, at the top of his voice, and collared the boy, who at once said ho was Pant Riviere, aged 17, employed in a cho-colate-cream factory. The bloodthirsty Paul was indicted on the cumulative and dreadful charges of attempting to extort money hy threat, of addressing menaces of death in writing, and of carrying an illegal weapon—to wit, a clasp-knife. After five weeks’ preventive imprisonment, he was brought up for trial, and pleaded guilty. “I was trying to carry out things I had rend in detective stories.”

“My client,” said counsel, “is a victim-of the novelette,” and several witnesses said the same thing. He was a good hoy, working liard, and earning his 17s or 18s a week, hut his passion for detective stories was his undoing. The manuscript of one, written hy himself, was found in his room, “Adventures of a young man of 1(5 and his comrade.” The preface runs: Dear readers, male and female. Tliis is a true story. It can lie lived over again hy whoever has the will and who loves danger. The children of France, the greatest country m the world, do not travel enough, In this story our two young heroes will set the example of courage and loyalty.” The Court, in consideration of the pi evontivo imprisonment the lad had undergone, discharged the now crestfallen young Paul, hut expressly “committed him to the care of his parents,” who may have something to say to him.