The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-10-29
Victim Of Black Hand
Asks Newark Police
for Protection.
SAYS THEY ARE STILL
SEEKING VENGEANCE
ViIIardo Dipitti Was Accused of
Betraying Secrets of
Marie Nero.
JOINED THE SOCIETY
IN WEST VIRGINIA
Physician Member OF Gang AM
putates Limbs i'm Deserted
Coal Mine.

With both arms cut off and the
stumps unhealed. Villardo Dipitti,
former member of the Black Hand, APP
a police guard to protect him from the
still venseful members of the band
which he deserted and betrayed.
Dipitti, tvho was strangely shipped
TO this cits rom Jol nstown, Pa. where
he had lain unconscious for many days
in hospital, is now living at 143 JEFF
ferson street, under the name of Tony
Petit, but he told Plainclotheslnen
BrcX and Adubato, of the Third pre-
cinct, today that the Black Hand was
still after him, and he feared they{had
planned some further means of tortur-
ing and manning him.
Cut Both Arms on.
Dpitti says he joined the Black Hand
in Morothorn, w Va, taking the oath
III an abandoned coal rhine with a
score of members heavily armed Last
spring he was Suspected sef betraT ing
one Of The members to the police and
he was lured to St AIicllaels, Pa where
on September last he WAS attacked
by four men. whom he recognized as
members of The Black, Hand.
They drai.ged him into n switcbman's
shanty Mt the side of raiir0ad track,
he says, and there one of their number.
who WAS physician. cut OF both of
his hands and arms just below the
elbow while the others held him. He
WIS fhrn, after suffering all the pain
of the double amputation. dragged out
to the railroad track and chloroformed.
When he awoke he was in the fospi-
tai there and remained for twenty
eight days. A man who claimed to be
a relation then took him from the hos
pital, assuring the doctors he would
care for him. This man, with three
others, brought him to Newark, he de-
clares, and here he has been living with
man who, he says. was also a former
member OF the Black Hand and who
left the organization.
sun Hounding Him.
For five or six days Dipitti states that
strange men have been seen in the
ieiglborhood of where he is Lying. He
has recognized one of them as one of
the men who administered the Black
Hand oath to him in West Virginia and
he believes that they are still seeking
him. Al the time his arms were cut
off, he says, his captors informed him
that with that operation they would not
be through with him, but that they
ySeuld follow him and cut off his legs
next They told him they intended to
make him living example Of the ven-
geance of the Black Hand on a traitor
When he joined the Black Hand
Dipitti declares he did not know what
kind of an organization it was. AS the
oath was administered to him he says
the other members sat about the aban-
doned mine and ohanted the oath over
and over. All were heavily armed.
Dipitti is apparently greatly fright
ened. The least noise startles him, he
is exceptionally nervous and is weak
and pallid from the loss of sleep and
the inability to eat.
. The stumps of. his arms had started
to heal in the hospital, but since being
taken from there they have broken
open. and lthe police say he is in need
of additional medical care.