New-York tribune., 1904-10-11
BLACK HAND TO AUTHOR.
Threatening Letter on Her Desk
after A partmeRt Had Been Robbed.

Detectives of the Mercer-st station have been at
work for several days on one of the stransest
BLACK Hand cases that have yet come to light
It involves demand for 500 from Miss Gertrude
Lynch the author Of THE Fighting Chance and
other stories and incidentally the robbery OF her
apartment IN the Regina. No So West ~Twelfth-st.
The letter which the robber left gives Miss Lynch
until midnight to-day to leave the money in front
OF the apartment
Last Thursday. when Miss Lynch returned 10 her
apartment, late in the afternoon. she found note
in strange hand upon her whiting table. 1t was.
written her own stationery and inclosed in
plain envelope. She opened it and read;
October 1904.
before midnight of October p in front of this
place. If you do this all will be well II you do
no harm will come to YOU BLACK HAND.
Miss Lynch treated the note as a poorly executed
practical joke until Saturday. when she giving
a tea at the Hotel Astor for Mrs. F. NJ. Vermilye
C'Ilats Jordan'C and Miss Helen Pftkin. of New
Orleans. She went TO a secret drawer in her
writing desk in which she sometimes kept bank
notes for current expenses She found that s6O all
the cash in the drawer. had been taken. The thief
left behind a check which, fortunately, had not
been indorsed. On the back OF the check. in the
same hand that wrote the threatening letter. was
this Endorsement
No good to us. You keep this"
1t was signed with the initials 'B H.
Police Headquarters informed at once, and
one of the detectives the new Italian bureau was
detailed the After an investigation ne
called in Detective Kenney Of the Mercer-st. sta
ton. They questioned the maid who was the only
person at the apartment the time of the rob-
berry. She is a coloIed girl. Rose Baker OF No.
Minetta Lane
According TO her story, man about thirty-flve
years old. slightly bald. we'll dressed called shortly
a1ter Miss Lynch departed on Thursday afternoon.
she told him Miss Lynch was out and he asked
leave to wait until her return. She showed him
INTO the parlor, and went about her work He
called her presently and asked for paper and pen
that he might leave a note. She showed hin TO
the writing desk. He wrote the note and departed.
AS he was going out he told her that he knew Miss
Lynch well. and asked who lived in the other
apartment on the second floor. She saws she
noticed that he waited until the elevator boy was
at the top OF the building before he walked down
the one flight OF stairs which leads to the main
entrance.
The Baker girl stuck TO her story through a long
cross-exanlinatiOn by the detectives They got a
Few more details TO the strangers personal ap-
pearance He wore light top overcOat and one
eye was somewhat inhamed. He talked smoothly
and seemed self-possessed. Tho Detectives were
not able 10 tangle her up in any % the details OF
the story. Her handwriting proved TO be different
from that OF the threatening letter
So far the detectives have not been able to ad-
vance step in the solution OF the robbery. The
time limit placed In the threatening letter is up
to-day and they awaiting developments. They
are inclined to believe that il Is a form OF
apartment house robbery, and that the threatening
letter was only the rfring OF the money
drawer.