The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-05-02
AMERICAN GIRLS
BLACKHAND
SLAVES
Forced to Lead Immoral Lives.
Slain If They Disobey. !
Letters Bare Facts.
BY international News Service.

BY international News Service.
CLARKSBURG, w. Va, May 2.
IA tragic modern parallel to Shy
locks famous pound Of flesh" was
shown today in revelations of q
barbaric white slave traffic main
tanned by the Black Hand organiza-
ton Of West Virginia, which had its
outposts in Indiana and New York.
Scores of American girls were
captured and held captive by the
italian Camorrists later to be
traded, bartered and sometimes sold
outright as human chattels. In this
fiendish outrage against the law
the Black Handlers were even known
to have brutality slain a woman
when she disobeyed their mandates.
In the masses Of documents bear
ing on Black Hand activities, West
Virginia State authorities have OBJ
tanned confessions from within the
ranks showing the traffic in women
was constant business. A letter
written from one member to an
other, both Of whom are now under
arrest, which reveals the trade in
all it sinister aspects, is in part as
follows:
'.Now, spent 5000 and I got
this woman but you have not give
me 5000 for this woman. You had
Grace and she left you, but you
have got to give me 5000 for this
woman. She is a pretty cookbook
ing Italian girl and she will make
you lots Of money.
'"They sold the other italian
woman to -. Now every Satur-
day night you go to this woman
and you take the money and send
1t down to me because I'm not
| going to let get any money
from her. II you don't go -
would go each Saturday night and
get the money"
American Girl Victims.
Affidavits from two American
girls, held as white slaves by the
Camorrists, are also in the hands
| of the authorities. One OF these
girls, Mary Norman, told her story
to international News Service.
II was in a hospital here in
February, 1922, when I first met
Jimmy -" she said. when Il
got out he took me to a roonine
house and forced me to submit. He
| told me he would kill me If I tried
to escape.
after a while he took me to-
! New York and there. he made me
work on the streets for him. From
New York he took me to Union
town, Pa, and put me in an evil
house. He took all my money from
me.
II begged him to let me go home,
but he refused, and he would beat me
until / was black and blue all over
my body. One time tried to get
away and he took his knife and said
he was going to cut me to pieces.
He began to cut UP my clothing
he cut my coat suit until it was
ruined, and then he tried to cut up
my shoes.
He broke his. knife blade on my
/ shoes, and / think that saved my
life. He said he was going to cut
off my head and send it to my mo-
/ Their in suitcase. A few days after
that some men came to the house
and persuaded him to let me go
home for visit.
II went home and then I met
Tony. I didn't know then he was
also a member of the Black Hand.
Tony said If went with him he
would save me from Jimmy and
wouldn't let him kill me. I didn't
know what to dol was so scared,
and at last went with Tony.
Worked in Hotels.
''T1e took me to Cumberland, Md,
and then he changed and told me
| had. to go to work for him in a
house. Later he brought me back
here to Clarksburg and made me
work for him in another place. In
December Of last year he took me to
Wheeling, w. Va, and then to York
vile, Ohio, then back to Cumber-
land and out to Cincinnati. He
finally stopped in Indianapolis.
where he rented house.
"In Indianapolis he made me work
in hotels. There was another girl
| and another Black Handler with us.
| We two girls paid bellboys in hotels
to get men for us, and together we
made about $500 month. We spent
some on clothes, but the men got
| the rest Of it.
"One time we heard the two fell
lows talking. One of them said he
had once sold girl four or five
times to different men. He had this
girl under his control. and he would
sell her in one town, move on to
the next, and the girl would follow
him. He was just cheating the men
who bought the girl for big money.
She couldn't break away because he
had threatened to kill her.
II finally got away when the 20.
lice arrested all four Of u.s."
The Norman girl is now held by
authorities as a witness against the
Black Handlers.
One other instance shows the
type Of men within the Camorra. A
woman known as Bella Lemons had
long been a tool of the vicious
circle. Her known lover, big
Rosie" Rosario, was a power in |
the underworld. In July. 1922, she
left Clarksburg for Baltimore, Nd, |
on a mysterious trip with three |
men, but Rosario did not accom-
pany her.
Early the next morning her nude |
and lifeless body was found on a
country club golf course outside
Baltimore. She had been beaten
about the head with a blackjack,
her throat cut, a number Of shots
fired into her body and her clothes
stripped.
Companion Also Murdered.
Detectives developed later her as
sassins had taken her out to the
country club and struck her with a
blackjack. Retaining her senses
after the blow, she leaped from the
car and started to flee. One of her
assassins overlook her and dragged
her back to the car. Inside the
road, several Sshots fired into 1t
al