Black Hand (extortion)
The Black Hand (English: " Black Hand " ) signed ( and thus classified ) a special method of extortion.
History
In the 18th and 19th centuries, there were some secret organizations, the " Black Hand " called themselves; particularly in the sense to be described are the La Mano Negra in Andalusia, but especially the La Mano Nera in Italy to call. Unabgängig from the political assessment of these groups, they established a particular practice of extortion. In Italy, anonymous ransom letters were sent to people who had signed with a black hand.
The Italian Mano Nera employed already in the 1750s with extortion and kidnappings. The focus was on Sicily and Naples in the former kingdom of Naples. The term Blackmail, so to get an autographed with black hand ransom note, it was generally in the U.S. has become synonymous with extortion and is also used as a regular verb: eg ( " Blackmailed " ) "to be black mailed ". A blackmailer was referred to as Black Hander, because the method had been exported to the USA by the Italian immigration waves. In addition, the corruption of the Italian word for extortion developed " ricatto " to " racket ( eering ) " became a synonym for the exercise illegal Berufsverbrechertums in general.
In particular, the Sicilian Ignazio Saietta professionalized the way and organized a band which was called canal due to the method described Blackhand. Ignazio Saietta, who was already in his home town of Corleone was a member of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, emigrated in 1890 to New York City. Typical Procedure of the gang was sending threatening letters in which kidnapping, murder, arson, etc., were threatened if a certain sum would not have been deposited or transferred to a handover. The letters were also signed with a black hand. Saitta thus created one of the foundations of the U.S. La Cosa Nostra.
Since not all Black Hander in the Black Hand gang were organized, the term Black Hand is also described for the criminal method and not only for performing organizations.
The Italian tenor Enrico Caruso in 1913 The aim of the Black- hand method and later escaped barely a bomb attack on Cuba.