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Among the most notorious of Black Handers was Ignazio Saietta, known to residents of Manhattan’s “Little Italy” as Lupo (the “Wolf”); in 1920 he was finally apprehended by federal authorities for counterfeiting and was sent to prison for 30 years.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 19, 2024 · The Black Hand Mafia, also known as “La Mano Nera,” terrorized Italian-American communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through extortion and violence. Originating in Southern Italy, this criminal organization used fear to control and exploit immigrants.
- David Schmit
Founded in the 1900s, the Lupo Mano Nera gang was one of the first Italian criminal groups in New York. [15][16] Lupo was partner in many ventures with Morello, who was the original capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses), a title that would later be coveted by D'Aquila.
Black Hand (Italian: Mano Nera) was a type of Italian extortion racket. Originally developed in the eighteenth century, Black Hand extortion was exported to the United States in the later nineteenth century with Italian immigrants.
- Coming to America
- Nicola Cappiello
- Spread of The Black Hand
- Mafia and The Black Hand
- The Italian Vigilance Protective Association
During the last decade of the nineteenth century more than 650,000 Italians migrated to America, with a further two million following over the next ten years. The majority came from Italy’s impoverished southern regions, where half the adult population labored in unrewarding agricultural jobs. They were drawn by America’s...
On August 3, 1903, wealthy Brooklyn contractor Nicola Cappiello received a letter demanding $1,000 or “your house will be dynamited and your family killed” signed Mano Nera (Black Hand). The letter resulted in the first Black Hand case to make the headlines and marked the beginning of a new term applied to extortion and violent cr...
Reports of Black Hand cases spread rapidly, with newspapers giving conflicting explanations of the outbreak. Some reporters believed it was a “secret organization more dreaded than the Mafia” or that it was an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia spreading through American cities. Others disputed the existence of any society at all...
Due to a similarity in extortion methods and the reluctance of victims to give evidence, the police believed that Black Handers were closely aligned with the Mafia and quickly started to refer to them as a “Society.”15St Joseph News Press Gazette (Dec 9, 1903) Brooklyn Times Union (Nov 30, 1903) 4 Over time, the terms Black Hand and ...
In 1907, a society called the “White Hand” was formed in Chicago. Backed by the Unione Siciliana, the Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Italian consul, it was the first systematized effort by Italians to defeat the Black Hand threats. However, the society eventually faded away after its leadership faced extortion and death thr...
Salvatrice Terranova married a wicked man named Ignazio Lupo, The Wolf” Saietta, who later in America, along with Joe Morello, Nick, and Vincent Terranova, formed the hated and much-feared Black Hand. Saietta and Morello had equal power in the organization for all practical purposes.
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Oct 31, 2017 · The Mafia was much larger in size and power -- and was generally a lot more secretive than members of the so-called La Mano Nera. Huge waves of Italian immigrants crashed along the shores of America from around 1890 to 1900.