THE BLACK HAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2502, 15 May 1909, Page 2

THE BLACK HAND.

ITALIAN CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES.

(By L. P. Crippen in the “Daily Mail.”)

Giuseppe Petrosino, the detective Avho was shot in Palermo, knew quite well that, sooner or later, the “Black Hand” would, to use his own expression, “got” him, and he spoke of his own inevitable end with a quiet courage and cheerfulness that can only be described as heroic. That he escaped for so long was regarded as marvellous; it was due only to Ins wonderful ability in disguising himself. On many occasions he talked and drank with men who. in liis. presence, declared their intention to kill him at sight. The death of this celebrated detective is probably the severest blow that the cause of law and order in New York could suffer. It is just possible, though it is unlikely, that he was able to train one or more of the assistants who had latterly been given to him. These men are Italians, and it was necessary to choose them with the greatest care: the power of the “Black Hand” is so widespread that treachery was to bo feared at every turn. There is no doubt that, until a very short time ago, Petrosino was absolutely the only police official in New York who was able to make any headway against the “Mano Nera,” and even he failed a dozen times to every conviction he obtained. Nobody knows how the “Black Hand” originated. It was supposed for some years that it was not an organisation,, but that one or two Italian blackmailers used a representation of a black hand on letters to their victims, and that the custom spread. This theory has now been abandoned in most quarters, and it is. believed that the “Black Hand” is not only well organised in. America, but that it is also affiliated with the “Mafia,” or the “Camorra,” or both. HOW THE “BLACK HAND” CAME INTO BEING. The “Black Hand” has grown like some monstrous mushroom because of defective immigration laws, lax police methods, a judicial system which is all in favor of the criminal, and corruption in municipal politics. Italian and Sicilian criminals, fleeing from tlieir own country to the United -States, found that they were able to engage in their old trade of blackmail and murder as easily as at home, and with less risk of punishment. It is hardly necessary to give any description of conditions as they were some years ago in the New York Police Department—the Lexow investigation opened the eyes not only of America but of the world to a state of affairs that was appalling.

The New Y'ork Police force is a far different, far superior body nowadays, the credit being due to Police Commissioner Bingham, who began being reviled, ridiculed and universally disliked, and is now respected and admired to such an extent that all parties seem anxious to renominate him at the next municipal election. He has succeeded where every other Commissioner, even Mr Roosevelt, failed, and under him the New York police are at length becoming o n-efficient and honest organisation. In justice to Mr Roosevelt, - however, it- -shoutd be mentioned that General Bingham exercises far greater powers than his predecessors. But if General Bingham has succeeded, to a remarkable extent, in “cleaning up” the Police Department, tho personnel of the force necessarily remains much as it was before. Several thousand men cannot he replaced in one year, or in ten years, and the C» mmissioner has to work with the old too’s—cleaned and sharpened, it is true, but old tools all the same. As a matter of fact, he has found excellent materia], for, after all, it was comparatively only a few rascals who made the name of the New York-police a byword. ' » . , Long after its activities began the “Black Hand” was practically immune. Even when, by some accident, the police managed to find one of the criminals, he usually escaped conviction. Some ten years ago there was a particularly atrocious murder of an Italian, whose body was found in a barrel. The police believed that they had caught the murderers red-handed, but no conviction was obtained. Indeed, it was the facility with which Italians accused of murder and other grave offences secured witnesses whose testimony resulted in verdicts of not guilty that first convinced .the authorities that there must exist a large organisation of Italian criminals.

ITALIAN DETECTIVES EMPLOYED. As time went by and the murders, bomb outrages, kidnappings, and other crimes in the Italian quarters became more and more frequent, it was realised that-the only possible means of dealing with this state of affairs' was the employment of Italian detectives. Petrosino went to America a little over thirty years ago. He was'a native of Salerno, where lie was born in 1801. Soon after arriving in New York the youth obtained work in the Street Cleaning Department, and later joined the police. It was not until he had been a policeman for a good many years that he was given ah opportunity of distinguishing himself. Wheh ‘ Italian crimes became so frequent as to cause serious alarm the authorities ordered an investigation as to the number of Italians on the police force, which number was found to be very small, and Petrosino was chosen as the officer likely to he the most 1 useful. In a very short time lie began to justify the hopes placed in him. The first achievement which brought him to public notice was in the Brogno murder case of 1898. The man arrested refused to say a word, and it was alleged that Brogno. had before liis death identified tlio prisoner as his assailant. - Nevertheless, Petrosino became convinced that the police had arrested the. wrong man, and ultimately caught the real assassin, who was sentenced to imprisonment for life. SPECIAL BUREAU FOR ITALIAN CRIME. Quietly, but very surely, Petrosino obtained tho knowledge which at length gave him a unique place among the great detectives of the world. Sometimes lie would again take up his old work, as a street-cleaner, and, in the white duck suit which the late Colonel Waring introduced among the employees of the Street Cleaning Department, would, mingle among the Italian laborers who form a large proportion of those employees. At other times- he; would, in the dress of ah _ Italian “sport,” frequent low cafes m Mulberry Street, where, lisd his identity been known, his life would not have been worth a moment’s purchase. More than once he was able to -.earn of the doings of foreign criminals otherrthan Italians, and it has been sa d that h warned ’ President M’Kinley that the i anarchists intended an attempt on his 1 rtiid President’®) life. . However :• thus inay bo, it is certain, that before lo» 0 ; ■ ... . . . ■

Petrosino was in correspondence with the State Department, and that a large amount Of his work was done “underground.” But he Avas terribly handicapped. It was not until about four years ago that a special bureau to deal with Italian crimes Avas established in connection with the Ncav York. Police Department, and that Petrosino was given anything approaching the necessary amount of assistance. When this measure Avas decided upon, .the authorities Avere in a condition of fright—as Avell they might be. There is' absolutely no exaggeration in saying that the “Black Hand” has become an appalling evil in the United States. Its operations are not confined to New York, but have extended to every city in which there is an Italian colony of -considerable size. It is believed to carry out orders sent by post and telegraph from the “Mafia” and the “Camorra.” Cases have occurred of men fleeing from the vengeance of one o r other of these horrible societies, and being assassinated almost immediately on arriving in America. It is said that the “Black Hand” has been blackmailing Americans as well as Italians, but’ this is hardly credible. Indeed, one of the principal reasons lor the immunity which it so long enjoyed was the fact that its operations were confined to Italians. This is a reason, but not an excuse, of course; yet it is only human nature. The same thing is to he observed in San Francisco, where the Chinese confine their crimes to their oavii peop’e, and never attack an American or European; the result being that the police take very little notice of them. ....

But at any rate the Americans are noAV fully alive to the evil that lias grown up in their midst. Condition.' have become almost as bad as in Russia during a Terrorist outbreak. How many hundreds, lioav many thousands, of well-to-do Italians have been successfully blackmailed will never be knoAvn. It is said, with what truth cannot be told, that there are 5000 members of the “Black Hand” and affiliated societies in New York alone. Since 1905 Petrosino sent 500 members of tho League to prison and caused many others to leave America.