The Washington times., 1905-01-08


living. If you do not send 5000 TO this
relative, Igotz Wenzler, by the 1st OF
December you viii be assassinareG; so
take your choice between money or
DEATH
Undecipherable Signatures.
The letter directed that the money pe
sent direct to Wenzler at Lebanon. Pa.
There were three different signatures TO
the letter none of which were decipher-
able, and might have been any old
thing. Underneath the names in large
letters was written brotherhood OF the
Biackhand.''
Count ven Tirza was not frightened
in The least by the letter He has dealt
with criminals and anarchists all his
life, and the terrible signatures of the
members OF the brotherhood did not
shake his iron nerves. He merely placed
the letter in an envelope and sent it TO
Baron Hengelmuller. the Austrian
minister in Washington. The baron
transmitted the letter TO Secretary Hay.
who turned il over 70 Chef tTilkie
Unfortunately the original envelope in
which the letter was sent to Budapest
was not with ii. That would have been
absolutely necessary in the prosecution
of the guilty party or parties.
Wenzler Is Suspected.
The Secret Service agents had no
sooner taken hold of the case than they
suspected that Wenzler himself was the
writer of The letter.
The Government detectives adopted a
very clever plan to get d specimen of
Wenzler's handwriting One OF them
approached WenzIer In the guise OF a
poor German -Who-could not write He
told the Hungarian that he wanted to
write letter to his sweetheart in Bre-
men, but could not write a line and
begged him to indict the letter
Wenz.er fell into the trap without the
slightest trouble, and immediately wrote
the letter for the humble Dutchman
The letter was then compared with the
one received by Count Won Tirza, and
seemed to show that the two letters
were written by the same hand.
Gets Second Letter.
While the Secret Service officers were
| wondering how they could prove the
charge OF senGing threatening letters
through the mails without the original
| envelope to show that it had gone
| through .postoffiee channels, and with
out going to the necessity of sending
some one in Count Won Tirza's house
hold to prove that the letter was re-
ceived. the prime minister forwarded a
letter which had been written him by
the alleged brotherhood os tne Black
hand" This time he was thoughtful
enough to send the original envelope
The second communication from Leba-
non called the counts attention to the
fact that the money had not been re-
ceived by December I, the day set for
the payment Of the $1,000 demanded.
The letter said:
The Brotherhood of the Blackhand
has held a meeting, and one of our
| number has drawn the black ball. which
| means that he has been selected to do
the killing. He has already left for
Budapest, but will await there for fur
ther orders from our brotherhood, and II
| the money is not received by Christmas
Eve Day, you will never see the light
of Christmas morning You will die as
sure the sun rises"
Detectives Try a Ruse.
This communication was signed -'The
Brotherhood of the Blackhand." and be-
low was an indecipherable name Count
Won TirZa Immediately expressed the let
ter to the Hungarian minister, and It
was Transmitted to the State Depart
ment
Chief Wilkie received it Thursday, and
this evidence was placed In the hands
of agents at Lebanon Yesterday morn
ing the Secret Service detectives, in CO.
operation with the postoffice officials
there prepared q list OF questions. writ
ten In German, and sent them 10 Wenz-
Ter. The questions asked whether he ex-
pected any money from Budapest. who
from, and how much
Wenzfer also swallowed this bait, and
replied that he expected 200 from Bud
apest from a relative OF his. When he
had written these replies he was arrest
ed. He then confessed, and said that
there was no '-blackhand" in 1t at all;
that he was not related y Count Won
Tirza in any way, and that he hit upon
the '1blackrInd" idea in the hopes of
being able to pry 5000 out OF Count Won
Ti-za by '-just soaring him
Wenzler Sent to Jail.
Wenzler was charged with sending
threatening letters through the malls,
and. being unable to furnish the s., 600
bail demanded pending the action of the
grand jury. he was placed In Jail at
Harrisburg, Pa.
There are many s-hiackl1and'' socie-
80 ~ eiiS CiiisSo ot@teS. ~ idf &c Hid
JHr1ty OF them are similar TO WenZler' s
'hla ckhand, but there are several real
true brotherhcods which terrorize the
communities where they exist. They are
principally made up of Italians Greeks,
Turks. ard other types OF desperate
Europeans, "Rlaekhand brotherhoods''
flourish especially in big cities. and New
York and Chicago are the homes of two
three such orders The police in those
cities never hesitate when they have an
opportunity 10 wipe out these societies,
and the United States Secret Service al
ways LENDS what aid ii can in this di-
rection.