It is not clear whether Joe Morello

history channel documentary 2015 It is not clear whether Joe Morello, or Ignazio Saietta initially began the Black Hand blackmail plan in America. What is clear is that around 1898 or 1899 both Morello and Saietta, alongside the Terranova siblings Vincenzo and Ciro, started threatening neighborhood Italian agents of a few means by sending them "Dark Hand" or "La Mano Nera" coercions letters. These letters undermined nearby representatives with the besieging of their organizations, or even passing, if the agents didn't instantly hack up some exceptionally generous money. On the base of the coercion notes was the engraving of a "Dark Hand," which was made by a hand plunged in dark ink (yet because of the advances law requirement had made with fingerprinting at the time, the "Dark Hand" was later drawn). On the off chance that the representative did not follow the note's requests, he would in reality get his business shelled, and here and there he was tormented, and even slaughtered in the scandalous Murder Stables, situated at 323 East 107th Street in Harlem.

One such occurrence happened in 1905, and the disastrous casualty was a butcher named Gaetano Costa who got a Black Hand letter requesting $1,000. The letter taught Costa to put the cash into a chunk of bread, then hand the piece of bread to a man who came into his butcher shop the following day, and waved a red hanky. Costa declined to offer into the blackmail, and after two days two men walked into his butcher shop and shot Costa dead.

To guarantee his accumulations, Joe Morello added an enhanced new wrinkle to the Black Hand coercion plan. Morello would mail a blackmail letter to his casualty, and after that hold up close to the casualty's store as the postman conveyed the letter the next day. While the casualty was perusing the letter, Morello would strangely show up in the casualty's store. Seeing the alarm on his casualty's face, Morello would ask with regards to the reason for the casualty's trouble. The casualty, knowing Morello's high status in the neighborhood Mafia, would hand Morello the letter and implore him to intervene with whomever had sent the letter; and possibly diminish the cost, if not take out the installment totally. Morello would take the letter, and tell the casualty he would discover who had sent the letter and what should be possible about it.