Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-14
BLACK. HAND" BOMB
BIackmaiIers Set Off One in a
Crowded Tenement.
LETTERS DEMANDING $1,000
Sicilian Groceryman Was Intended to
Be the Victim of Outrage.
CAREFUL ARRANGEMENTS MADE
Palermo Was to Put 81 900 in Fish
and Give It to Man Wear
ing Sombrero.
Sicilian Groceryman Was Intended to
Be the Victim of Outrage.
CAREFUL ARRANGEMENTS MADE
Spec ial Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December 14.-A dynamite
bomb with time fuse attached was set
off in the hallway of the double-decker ten
ernent at SOP LIST avenue early this morning
and the violence of the explosion caused ar
outpouring of the twelve families in the
building. No one was injured.
Policeman VanDelf was patrolling his
post on LIST avenue in the vicinity of 10Th
street and anticipating his relief, when just
as he reached the relieving point tie ex-
plosion Jared him. He ran to the place
and arrived just In time to meet the stream
of frightened families coming out.
The ground floor of the tenement has a
store on each side of the main hallway. One
of these stores is that of Giro Divano, a
groceryman who, with his wife and chill
dren. ranging in age from one year to
eight, occupies rooms in the rear Of his
place of business. Divano had been picked
out as a mark by the BLACK Hand" The
inevitable letters couched in the usual
Black Hand style had been received by the
groceryman. In them money had been de-
manded and the usual penalty threatened.
Suggestions of kidnapping or the blowing up
Of his place of business was mentioned.
Skull and Cross-Bones.
Divano prospered as a groceryman, and
he and his family were happy enough when
the blackmailers began to be heard from.
On November "a letter was received by
him which had been mailed at Station F,
and was embellished with a rough drawing
of skull and cross bones. The letter de-
mnaded that he take an elevated train
to Bronx Park the next day, where he
would be met by a man wearing large
sombrero, a red bandanna and dark cloth
ing, near the botanical gardens. He was
advised that he could not possibly mistake
the man, and he was to walk up to him
and say: II have a fish," whereupon the
agent of the blackmailers would respond:
II want that flsh."
$1,000 in a Fish.
At that Diyano was to hand to the man
who was SO fond CT fish nice one, which
would be found on examination to contain
the sum Of $1,000 The groceryman, who
is a Siciian, haiMng from Palermo, paid
no attention to that epistle, and a second
one followed close on the heels of the first.
That was practically replica of the first
one, and the date named when he was to
make his trip to Bronx Park was set as
December f.
Fail to carry out these instructions and
your place of business will be blown to
pieces" was the burden Of it. Still the
grocer did not go.
Divano's bed room is reached through a
door in the rear of the hallway, the same
door opening into the rear Of the store.
Some one slipped into the rear of the hall
way from the street in the early hours
and placing the bomb near the doorway put
a match to the time fuse The police came
to the conclusion that 1t was dynamite that
had been used, as dynamite follows the line
of greater resistance. and that was what
happened in this instance.
hnlo foot
cellar was ripped in the hallway and the
door was blown into splinters, many of
which fell on the bed where the grocer
slept with his wife.