Talk:Black Hand (extortion)

Blackmail
Changed "blackmail" to "extortion", as no actual blackmail is described in the article. I don't know how to change the title. thx1138 11:07, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Organization
The black hand was an organization, not a crime! It originated from the Neapolitan Camorra. I have many italian books about this topic. Jackblues 21:58, 31 january 2008 (UTC)
 * Please cite those sources. According to the article or its sources, "Black Hand" was a term that could be applied to a society, threatening letters demanding money, or a criminal behaviour. The crime committed is one of extortion. However, it is unclear that "The Black Hand Society" was formally an organized or corporate society with office-holders, members and rules that people could join or merely an informal social construct that people believe existed as a secret society, but without concrete evidence of membership beyond the activities of individual criminals who co-operated and organized the operation of local extortion rackets. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 06:42, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

"Murder Stable" & "Shotgun man" are Urban Legend

 * Apparently "Shotgun man" is a Urban Legend-a check of the Northwestern University website on "Homicide in Chicago" shows shotgun killings in Chicago-but none in Jan-March 1911-and only one killing at Oak and one at Milton Streets between 1900 and 1920 (Reference only). {Another example of organized crime Urban Legend is that in the turn of the century New York City there was a "Murder Stable" where Gangsters killed one another. However see [] and [] which debunk this legend. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.53.145.147 (talk) 14:48, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Noteable?
The promo on the back of the XBox Godfather game mentions weilding the 'power' of the Black Hand. Indeed, much of the game focues on extortion.Lots42 (talk) 04:06, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Nash
It's been said before, but we absolutely cannot use Jay Robert Nash as the sole source for an article. Any statement which can only be sourced to Nash must be removed immediately. I'm giving you-who-watchlist-this-article a head's-up rather than deleting it outright, but get things done fast - like, 'next couple of days' fast. Got it? DS (talk) 02:37, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Several statements only have Nash as a reference as of October 2015.98.67.184.209 (talk) 09:12, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Blah. Well, I'll strip 'em all out, right now. (...) Done. DS (talk) 11:52, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

A photograph
This book: http://www.archive.org/stream/throttledthedete00tunnmiss has a photograph of an actual "black hand" letter sent to a police detective. Not really an extortion, but an original source. 76.117.247.55 (talk) 02:25, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

US centric view
As too often, sadly, this is an exclusively US centric view of a global topic. At least in the imaginations of the journalists who worked for the popular press, the Black Hand did not exist only in the USA. It existed all over the world, indeed, wherever there were immigrants from the Mezzogiorno. Supposedly, the Black Hand Gang (Mano Negra) was particularly strong in parts of Australia, especially in the sugar cane towns of Ingham, Queensland up to Mossman, where it flourished up until the end of the 1930s, ending only when the alleged ringleader in Ingham, Vincenzo D'Agostino, was murdered in 1939. In Australia, the Black Hand Gang (Mano Negra) supposedly also operated in the NSW town of Griffith. The NLA Trove has scanned images from newspaper articles from the period when the Black Hand Gang in Australia supposedly operated. 121.223.51.164 (talk) 05:35, 25 January 2014 (UTC)
 * If you have sources, improve the article by editing it. 98.67.184.209 (talk) 09:06, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

Black hand gamblers
The black hand is not a Mafia nor tied overseas they are Sicilian and Italian kids born in America who could not speak their ansecstry language and were black balled to work jobs at a young age fighting aka boxing gambling and shinning shoes whose hands were always black .the Mafia thought they were better the these, they are the orphans of the street called gamblers before gangsters and mobsters ran things and grew up fighting on the side and against the Mafia .mano Nero is not black hand Button man bit bet (talk) 02:58, 15 November 2016 (UTC)


 * User:Button man bit bet That may be one type of person involved with Black Hand, but it is very well documented that Black Hand was a practice that started overseas in Italy, spread in that area, and came to the United States with some immigrants from those areas. It was committed originally by immigrants, but may have spread to disadvantaged young people like you're talking about. Or what you're talking about may be something separate. However, this article is definitely correct.


 * "Mano Nera" is just italian for "Black Hand", but "Mano Negra" IS something a bit different. This article gets it right in redirecting people from "La Mano Nera".


 * If you have access to sources that document the youth, street fighting, and gambling that you're talking about, you should create a page for it! Or add it as a section to this page if you think it's relevant to this Black Hand. --American Mafia History (talk) 15:13, 11 December 2021 (UTC)