Los Angeles herald., 1905-06-25


| methods Petrosino has struck terror
| into the hearts of the lower Manhat-
tan Italians. Every day and night he
passes among hundreds of men who
would take his life in an instant If
( they dared. His Incompatible courage
awes them.
Pursuing this method of getting be-
hind the bands of crooks in lower
Manhattan, Petrosino and his men
made a remarkable number of arrests
before the first of this year, and there
was grand scatterment of the crooks.
| Scores went over to Brooklyn and up
town to the Harlem Italian colonies,
while hundreds left the city alto
.gether, and now the men who were
active in the vile work which went
on almost uninterruptedly for years in
New York city proper are scattered
wherever there are Italians. The men
( who constituted the Black Hand bands
in lower Manhattan have taken it's
methods of blackmail, murder intimi-
!. dation and perjury where the prey is
easier and where there is no Joe Pet
rosino to fall upon them unawares.
The effect has been that the separate
bands throughout the country have
been united in freemasonry of crime
by the accession to their ranks of the
organized villains from New York.
Thus the condition which I prophesied
might come about some day has come
speedily. The Black Hand is now an
organized criminal society in the
United States.
The Rejuvenated Malta
In other times and places L have ex-
planned the difference between the Alta
Malta and the Bassa-Mafia, showing
how one is the intelligent, educated
crook, often engaged in respectable
business pursuits, who uses the low
Malta, or ignorant, brutal, heavy
handed criminals, to work his ends.
Malta is and always has been class
term like Hooligans, Ku-Klux, White
Caps, Yeggmen, ETC., and Black Hand
or La Mano Nera has come to be a
dreaded name which is used by all
the different societies, which, how
any such designation as Black Hand.
The Old Forge gang. which Judge Ed
wards and other Pennsylvania Of
ficials have so thoroughly crushed,
was known as the Especial Home So
ciety." The gang trapped in Brooklyn
was the RED Cross Financial Soci-
ety." and the one that escaped punish
ment so mysteriously in Jersey City
last winter, the Society for Getting
Money From the Rich" Thus the
name Black Hand is an empty thing,
but may suffice to designate the large.
loosely organized criminal society just
as we'll as any other.
In the intimate investigations which
1 have pursued both in Italy and in
the United States L have become more
than familiar with the distinct proc
esses used by these bands. Their pri-
mary object is the obtaining of money
to eke out what they may earn hon
estly. All of them endeavor to keep
up some pretext of employment Their
secondary aim is TO protect each other.
When the opportunity arises to show
their power politically to work to the
advantage of their leaders of the Alta
Malta they will go TO any ends The
politics of the province of Palermo are
almost entirely in the hands of the
Mafiusi followers of Palizzolo as are
the politics OF New York city con-
trolled by Tammany Some OF the
operations are not unlike.
Methods of the Gang
The "scrocco" letter is the first proc
ess. 1t is a threatening. blaekmailing
missive. written and signed in any
way that will terrorize the recipient
The "omerta" spirit is second
method. This is a spreading Of the
doctrine that all wrongs should be per-
sonally avenged and not by the courts.
and teaches people TO fee from the
scene of crime and TO refuse to offer
any testimony that will convict the I
criminals.
The 'coltello" process is the colo
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