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Black Hand (Blackmail)Black Hand was a type of extortion racket. It was a method of blackmail, not a criminal organization as such, though gangsters of Camorra and Mafia practiced it. The first rackets began in Sicily in the 1750's. When criminals moved to the USA alongside other Italian immigrants, they continued the practice. They concentrated on Italian immigrants in cities like New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and San Francisco. Possibly as many as 90% of Italian immigrants in New York were threatened. Typical Black Hand tactics were to send a letter to a victim threatening bodily harm, kidnapping, arson, or murder. The letter demanded a specified amount of money to be delivered to a specific place. It was "decorated" with threatening symbols like a smoking gun or hangman's noose and signed with a hand imprinted in black ink; hence the name La Mano Nera (The Black Hand). Gangsters would carry out the threat if the victim did not pay. Ignazio Saietta, gangster in New York's Little Italy, strangled his victims and burned the bodies. One of the threatened victims was the tenor Enrico Caruso. On occasion, Black Handers threatened other gangsters and usually faced retaliation. If the law enforcement closed in, gangster answered with their usual style: assassination. Victims include New Orleans police chief Daniel Hennessy and NYPD lieutenant Joseph Petrosino. They intimidated potential witnesses even in the court room. The Black Hand practice practically disappeared when gangsters found the more profitable enterprise of bootlegging during the US Prohibition.
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