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then, the newspapers had written about the criminal activities of La Società Cammorristi , the Mala Vita and the Mafia. But after 1903 the New York Herald and the Italian-language Bollettino della Sera began to use ‘Black Hand’ as a catch-all term for Italian criminal gangs. Respectable Italian-Americans preferred it that way. For some time, they had petitioned the newspapers not to bandy the name ‘Mafia’ around because it applied only to a small band of Sicilian thugs.
    From then on, letters demanding money were regularly adorned with a crudely drawn Black Hand symbol. On 24 May 1911, Tano Sferrazzo of 307 East 45th Street in New York City received a letter that read:
‘Various men of my society as you know well will demand some money because we need it in our urgent business and you finally have never consented to satisfy us to fulfil your duty… Money or death. If you want to save your life, tomorrow 25 May at 10 pm take the Third Avenue train, go to 129th Street, walk towards Second Avenue. Walk as far as the First Avenue Bridge that leads you to the Bronx, walk up and down the bridge for a while; two men will then present themselves and will ask you, where are you going? To them you will give not less than $200. Signed Black Hand.’
    Sometimes the extortionists were apprehended. This letter appeared as an exhibit in the trial of Salvatore Romano, who had been indicted, along with Antonio Lecchi and Pasquale Lopipero, at the Court of General Sessions in New York on 22 September 1911. Another letter was equally threatening:
‘This is the second time that I have warned you. Sunday at ten o’clock in the morning at the corner of Second Street and Third Avenue, bring three hundred dollars without fail. Otherwise we will set fire to you and blow you up with a bomb. Consider this matter well, for this is the last warning I will give you. I sign the Black Hand.’
    Black Hand gangs also appeared in Pittsburgh. On 27 May 1908, Mr G. Satarano received a menacing letter:
‘You please you know the company of the Black Hands. I want you to send $2,000, all gold money. You will find some friend to tell you about it. Send it to head man, Johnstown. We don’t want you to tell no person that talks too much. If you report about this letter we will kill you. We will kill you with a steel knife. You and your family. Give me money right away, for I want to use it. And remember, keep it quiet – Black Hand.’
    That same year, an Italian-American in Philadelphia also received a threatening letter, which read:
‘You will never see Italy again if you do not give $1,000 to the person that pinches you after he salutes you. (I say one thousand.) Carry it with you always and remember I am more powerful than the police and your God – Black Hand.’
    In St Louis, another immigrant received a letter that addressed him as ‘Dear Friend’. It read:
‘This is your second letter. You did not answer or come. What have you in your head? You know what you did in Brooklyn and that you went to Italy and then returned to Dago Hill [the Italian quarter] to hide yourself. You can go to hell to hide but we will find you. It will be very bad for you and your family if you do not come to an understanding. So come Thursday night at ten o’clock. If you do not come we will cut you up in pieces. How will that be, you dirty false face. So we will wait for you. Best regards, good bye.’
    Under these words were two pictures – one of a man in a coffin; the other of a skull and crossbones. There was also a postscript:
‘So this will be your appearance if you do not do as we tell you. The way the blood flows in my veins is the way the blood will flow from your veins.’
    In Chicago ‘Most Gentle Mr Silvani’ received an anonymous letter from the Black Hand that read:
‘Hoping that the present will not impress you too much, you will be so good as to send me $2,000 if your life is dear to you. So I beg you warmly to put them on the door within