The Black Hand

Do any of you know anything about The Black Hand? (I had an uncle involved...)

Lisa

"The Black Hand" was a generic name that was applied to all criminal gangs--big, small, even individual, and not just Italian--in America in the early years of the 20th century. The origin was that, in many urban ethnic neighborhoods, individuals and gangs extorted money from better-off residents by sending their demands in anoymous letters that ended with the imprint of a hand made in black ink, or a drawing of a black hand. These extorionists seldom were members of the Mafia or other large criminal organizations--they were individuals or small groups who invoked the dreaded "black hand" to terrorize victims into thinking that they were larger, more powerful and better-connected than they really were.
Don Fanucci in GFII is a perfect example: he's really a small-time individual operator who shakes down local merchants (like Genco's father) by invoking "La Mano Nera." But, as we saw, Fanucci wasn't so "powerful"--two kids nearly killed him, and at least two neighborhood operators didn't pay him off. What's more, young Vito killed him without the police or anyone in the Mob coming after him, and simply took over Fanucci's position as a "man of respect" in the neighborhood.

Wow - very interesting...thanks

Turnbull, I may be wrong on this, but wasn't the Black Hand before the actual Mafia (as we know it--a la the Commission) had flourished? I thought the Black Hand simlpy meant the Italian Americans who fought against the White Hand (Irish Mob, who had already been in the States for quite some time) over the Waterfront rackets along the East coast of America. Frankie Yale, Giuesseppe Balsamo and co., I'm talking about. When they secured control over the rackets they began to flourish into what we now know as the Mafia. Am I wrong?

Mick

Neither of us is wrong, Mick. Some Neapolitan gangs and individuals in NYC may have used the "black hand" symbol before the Sicilian Mafia put down roots in NYC (the US Mafia started in New Orleans). The "White Hand" was a nickname some anti-Italian Irish gangs used in response to the news media characterizing every Italian criminal as a "black-hander." It was a form of bigotry: "Hey, look, our hands are clean [sic]." Frankie Yale arranged for Al Capone to leave Brooklyn for Chicago around 1919 one step ahead of some Irish "white handers" who were after his blood in retaliation for a beating or killing he put on one of their members.

Turnbull I started reading about New Orleans and the Mafia on the excellent CrimeLibrary.com website. It was quite interesting and I was wondering if there's any good books to read up on the subject? Especially the Hennessy Assassination and also Carlos Marcello. Whilst that site is a great source it is much easier on the eyes reading from a book.

You said it, Turi!
For one-stop shopping, try John Davis' "Mafia Kingfish," which covers Marcello and his predecessors.

Nice of Capone to take this into consideration when he ordered Mr. Ioele's whacking, eh!? :rolleyes:

Mick

Just shows you that there's no honor among thieves, Mick.
Francesco Uole (aka Frankie Yale) was Capone's mentor and "godfather in crime" (though Capone never was in the Mafia as we know it). Lawrence Bergreen, Capone's most recent biographer, claims that Yale was the one who whacked Torrio's uncle, Big Jim Colosimo, and later was in charge of whacking Dion O'Banion, the North Side gang leader who double-crossed Johnny Torrio. Yale ahnd Capone became partners in booze, with Yale running a trucking pipeline that brought bootleg booze from Brooklyn to Chicago. But when Yale crossed Capone by diverting his shipments and claiming that they were "hijacked," no history or gratitude applied--he got the tommygun from his former protege.

Turnbull, when you say Tommy Gun, wasn't that one of the first assassinations to be done using the new machine gun, which had recently been invented? I could be wrong on that one, though.

Oh, and Turnbull, do you know ANY sites where I oculd find more information about Willie "Two Knife" Altierri, the guy resonsible for killing sleeping Wild Bill Lovett with a meat cleaver? I'd love to read more on him, but unfortunately can't find anything.

Mick

Yale's might have been one of the first assassinations via Tommygun, but they had been used in Chicago prior to Yale's demise. Since Thompson submachine guns fired the same .45 ACP rounds as the common Colt Model 1911 pistol, police investigators collecting evidence couldn't always tell which weapon was used unless they had witnesses. And Thompsons were relatively new and unfamiliar to most people at the time. They were designed to be "trench brooms" in WWI, but the armistice was declared before any were shipped overseas. The US War Department and law enforcement agencies weren't interested in them, so relatively few of them were in circulation.
You can find something about Lovett and Yale at this site:
http://members.fortunecity.com/moran9/id35.htm
The writing is piss-poor, but he does have a few facts (mostly gleaned from Bergreen's Capone biography).

Turnbull or anyone else for that matter, have you ever read The Bootleggers by Kenneth Allsop. It was written in the 60's but republushed just a few years ago. It really backs up what you said that Lawrence Bergreen wrote about Yale and Capone. On an informative level it's a pretty good book. But it reads really badly, I struggled to get into it, it's written as more of an Univesity students resource. I didn't know if this was because it was written a few decades ago though.

Just wondered if anyone else felt that way about it.

I've never seen it, Turi. It's out of print here.

I know a bit about the Ye Olde Aussie Black Hand.

All I knew of La Mano Nera other than what has already been mentioned was that they were the gangs after the 5 point gangs and before the 5 Families started up.