Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1907)
. 1 ' 1 :;V PORTLAND OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER &V 1907 V.' 99 TS C MIMA I f ft x If v l le'5LACI ODTiP.TN A KM AIM U AND IT APID SPREAD ilackmail, Lxtortion ind Murder, Agents afthisTrustTerror LACK as any that ever darkened th; pages of history is a crime-cloud that --now casts its lengthening shadow lover the United States. Despite boasted civilization and millions spent yearly for police protection, more murders go unpun ished under the Stars and Stripes than in I England, France, Germany, Austria, Hol land, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Xor- Yway combined. This rampant lawlessness is the work of foreign criminals, banded together, who Wequite the hospitality of America with bloodshed and nameless evil. Most power- ful and dangerous of these alien associa tions is that commonly known as the Blark $and Society, or Italian Mono Nera. Sn deep is the terror it inspires that all classes of Americans are demanding but vainly its abolition. Vainly, for although city police and Secret Service men have time and again fathomed its methods and or ganization, they have failed to shatter the marvelous bulwarks reared against the law by the Black Hand machine. Victims, shuddering in the bltpht of Black Hand intimidation, always refuse to make charges in open court. The very name of the Black Hand causes them 'o shake; and so deep-rooted is this feeling that recently, when one of the band had turned state's evidence, the prisoner gave the death sign in open court, and not an other word could be drawn from the wit ness. mm .rrv-:y.-r.-"3 'V' j t m 7 41 V (:.4Z''-.. .M i Vli V --4-- 1 w ' u" 'hi.' v r C if. i it- ''V : if, . . ' r i vv.; .... 'v . r ,; 'V w i t f fc'i" Af r a II III II III k 111 h mm . 'i n i , hi h ii f hi i f i , . , , 1 . v .-nr f T.vi m r am 1 Vi If f 1 '. -'I ' : ;r' , ; - v?ir: ft if taW-i r imm;v A so increased the J, . W' AVW'! '.f ;7 I: if 'A federal authorities is , , ViAVAvlV,, , 7: ' Mil . immigrants jwm other countries f ' f 1 Ml VV i "'J '"-'- fll'IV o societies-two I . 1VA A CM; L l vo Ymmmm It 'liililvA l- 1 v o H 'H'J S Black Hand s audacity that drastic action by the federal authorities is being urged. Immigrants fwm other countries than Italy also maintain societies two such have recently come to light almost as deadly as the Black Hand. In the following article the fester, ing sore is exposed fully, and in a man ner that invokes the speedy applica tion of the surgeon's knife. By Henry N. Hall THE Black Hand, or Mano Nera, Is the most odious association that can be imagined. It is a well-or-ganited and powerful trust, whose sole object is the extortion of money un der threats of murder, kidnapping and other kindred crimes. This viperous brood, which the United States harbors iu its bosom, has ramifi cations throughout the Italian colonies in large American cities, from the consular service and financial circles down to the lowest class of day laborers. It is strong est in New York and Pennsylvania., but is steadily growing in power, and is already lirmly rooted in Chicago. Crimes of tho Black Hand are often credited to the Mafia and sometimes to the "Reds." with neither of which the Mano l?era has anything in common. HI' v.,; The "Keds" are anarchists terronsis pure and simple international in character, and nearly always striking high at the heads or rep resentatives of authority. 21afia murders are rarely political or mer cenary. The members of this &kUaa sect be lieve that all wrongs should be personally avenged, and almost invariably the reckoning takes the form of a single stiletto thrust given without warning. Far different are the aims and methods of the Black Hand, which seeks money auu money alone. It warns its victims, and usually plays upon their terror by a series of letters; but oc . casioualiy a traitor receives but one notification of his Joom. For Oi.o crime committed by the "jReds" t :. a score o." real Mafia vengeances, there are V thousand outrages planned and executed by the Black Hand. Some idea of how (Teat t menace ; this criminal trust is to the community may be gath ered from the fact that there are more than 10,000 active members of the society in New York and Pennsylvania; that in these two states alone more than 300 recent murders among Italians havo gone unpui ished, and that the total amount of money extorted by means of threats amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars everv month. So powerfully organised is the Black Hand, and so deep the fear that it strikee into the hearts oi Italian witnesses, that out of 600 cases, brought against its members by Giuseppe Petrosini, tho head of the New York police for eign detective department, only two convictions were obtained. No Italian buvs real estate, or other prop erty, acquires a business, or makes a haul on the Stock Exchange, that he does not almost im mediately receive a letter, ordinarily couched in polite language, saying that the association is in dire need of funds and asking for money. The sum Is always fixed, and the victim is told either to place it in a given spot, or to himself take it to a lonely highway, anl hand it to a man whose description is given, and who at a speci fied place will ask him for a cigarette. A wise recipient of such a letter usually pays about half the sum demanded, explaining in a short note that he can afford no more. This generally satisfies the Mano Nera. Should no attention be paid to the first de mand, three and cometimes even five or six more Jotters are sent, each containing threats. Should the victim have a wife or daughter, letters are also sent to them, explaining the danger the family runs from a refusal to share their world ly riches with their less fortunate brethren. VARIOUS THREATS USED y"The threats vary according to the family circumstances of the victim. If he Las a little child, kidnapping will be threatened, and the mother's feeling so wrought upon that for hei sake alone the father will pay up. Threats of the murdei of those near andl dear are often used in the case of tt wealthy banker or prosperous merchant. Other methods, equally cowardly and heart less, are used to exact tribute from the honest laborer. No contract is given out for publio works of any importance ; no railroad employs a large gang of men for track work, but that some Black Hander, generally a "garzone de mala vita," applies for and gets employment. Soon a whispered report is spread amongst the Italian laborers that the Mano Nera wants 50 cents or $1 a week from each man. On pay day a collector comes around, and in some dis tricts almost opculv receives the tribute. Woe betide the man who refuses to pay. Often his resistance is punished by death, so as to completely overawe the others. The workmen pay tribute as a matter of course, and do not realize the enormity of the injustice. The Black Hand has not been called into existence by any special conditions in America; it is simply an offshoot of the famous Camorra di Napoli. Of the million or more Italians who bars flocked to the United States within the last ten or twelve years, at least half came from those regions where the Camorra is most strongly in trenched. The majority of this vast influx of aliens is representative of the very classes from which the dreaded criminal association recruits its most dangerous adherents. Furthermore, the United States has been the Mecca whereto Camorrists driven from their native land by the police invariably turn their footsteps. The -Italian, government has determined to crush the Camorra, and little mercy is shown to " members, real or suspected. ' In Italy the authorities know-how dan gerous aa enemy they have to deal with, and vhen a Camor r is t falls into their' hands they conveniently forget such minor matters .as "corf , stitutional safeguards! of the ' liberties ths Citizen,' wr-... t..-..yii! t V " (CONTINUED ON INSID8 h t K ' J J' 4.
