Summary of Stephan Talty's The Black Hand

By IRB Media

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#1 On September 21, 1906, a five-year-old boy named Willie Labarbera was playing in front of his family’s fruit store in New York City. He was kidnapped and never seen again. His family and friends suddenly realized that he had been taken by La Mano Nera, or the Black Hand Society.

#2 The Black Hand was an infamous crime organization that engaged in extortion, assassination, child kidnapping, and bombings. It had become nationally famous two years before with a letter dropped into a mailbox in Brooklyn, at the home of a contractor who’d struck it rich in America.

#3 The Society of the Black Hand was a secret society that targeted the Italian-American community, and they were extremely cruel. They had already taken the family’s only asset in America, their home, and they were demanding that the family sell it to raise the ransom.

#4 In the third week, a tip from an nfame led Petrosino to a man who had heard a curious story from Kenilworth, New Jersey. A woman had been out strolling in a working-class neighborhood when she passed a man carrying a large bundle. Something inside the bundle had emitted a piercing cry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669394860

IRB Media

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Insights on Stephan Talty's The Black Hand

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

On September 21, 1906, a five-year-old boy named Willie Labarbera was playing in front of his family’s fruit store in New York City. He was kidnapped and never seen again. His family and friends suddenly realized that he had been taken by La Mano Nera, or the Black Hand Society.

#2

The Black Hand was an infamous crime organization that engaged in extortion, assassination, child kidnapping, and bombings. It had become nationally famous two years before with a letter dropped into a mailbox in Brooklyn, at the home of a contractor who’d struck it rich in America.

#3

The Society of the Black Hand was a secret society that targeted the Italian-American community, and they were extremely cruel. They had already taken the family’s only asset in America, their home, and they were demanding that the family sell it to raise the ransom.

#4

In the third week, a tip from an nfame led Petrosino to a man who had heard a curious story from Kenilworth, New Jersey. A woman had been out strolling in a working-class neighborhood when she passed a man carrying a large bundle. Something inside the bundle had emitted a piercing cry.

#5

The Black Hand had spread from city to city, and the fear of it had even reached the halls of Congress.

#6

Petrosino was well aware of his fame, and he used it to help the Italian American community. He was also well aware of the hostility many Americans had toward the immigrants from southern Italy.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Joseph Petrosino was the first known victim of the Black Hand in America. He was from the province of Salerno in the Campania region, near the front of the ankle in Italy. He was born in 1860. His father, Giuseppe Michael Pasquale Petrosino, wanted to emigrate to America in 1873, when