Black Hand (extortion)

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Black Hand ransom note from 1909

The Black Hand ( English , Black Hand '), also known as La Mano Negra , signed (and classified) a special method of blackmail .

history

In the 18th and 19th centuries there were secret organizations called "Black Hand", particularly in Andalusia ( La Mano Negra ) and Italy ( La Mano Nera ). They established a special practice of extortion : in Italy, anonymous extortion letters were sent to people who were signed with a black hand. The letters were not just threatening letters, but also regularly contained assurances of the letter writer's poverty. In southern Italy, the letters were therefore less known as criminal extortion, but more often as lettere di scrocco ' scorching letters ' .

The Italian Mano Nera was already engaged in extortion and kidnapping in the 1750s . The focus was on Sicily and Naples in what was then the Kingdom of Naples . The term Blackmail , i.e. sending a black hand signed ransom note, has become a synonym for blackmail in the USA and is also used as a regular verb : to blackmail 'blackmail' . One extortionist was referred to as a Blackhander when the method came to the US with the waves of Italian immigration . In addition, the corruption of the Italian word for blackmail ( ricatto ) to "racket (eering)" developed into a synonym for professional crime in general.

The Sicilian Ignazio Saietta in particular professionalized the method and organized the Black Hand Gang . Ignazio Saietta, who had already been a member of the Cosa Nostra in his hometown of Corleone in Sicily, emigrated to New York City in 1890 . The gang's typical approach was to send threatening letters threatening kidnapping, murder , arson, etc. if a certain amount was not deposited or handed over at a handover location. The letters were signed with a black hand. Saitta thus created one of the foundations of the American La Cosa Nostra .

Since not all Blackhanders were organized in the Black Hand Gang , the term Black Hand stands for the criminal method itself and not just for a specific, executing organization. In fact, in the early 20th century in the USA in particular, there were very many free riders who were not related to Saietta or the Cosa Nostra and who signed extortion letters with the black hand, making this a “criminal fashion”.

The Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was the target of the black hand method in 1913 and later narrowly escaped a bomb attack in Cuba .

Adaptations

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Remarks

  1. ^ A b John Dickie: Cosa Nostra. The history of the mafia. 2nd edition, Frankfurt am Main 2006, p. 258.