Secret Societies: New book about the 1890s-1920s

[blackhander]

There is a new book out this week from gangrule.com about the 1900-1920 era.

Includes sections on the Black Hand as well as the rise & fall of Ignazio Lupo & Giuseppe Morello >>
AVAILABLE HERE

Much is popularised of the Mafia in film, literature, music and urban legend. Some stories are inspired by and respectful of the facts, but many are presented through a creative lens distorting how organized crime began. References are often made to criminal activity in the infamous Prohibition Era, but few stories cover the preceding years, until now. This new book presents a graphic history of true crime. It examines the origins story of the American Mafia through the rise and fall of the first boss of bosses Giuseppe Morello and his powerful brother-in-law Ignazio Lupo.


This is a time before the Castellammarese War – a period of bloody power struggles for control of the Italian-American Mafia that took place in New York City. The important period preceding the war is considered murky and lacking historic documentation. This meticulously illustrated volume of Secret Societies shines a light on this fascinating time of American history and organized crime. It does so through research from primary sources, richly illuminating the period of the 1890s–1920s using photos, documents, contemporary articles and illustrations. Starting with a look at the “Black Hand” phenomenon and its relationship to organized crime.

Black Hand letters became synonymous with crime in Italian communities across the US. Recipients were threatened with bombs, arson, or murder unless a demand was satisfied. At the height of the crime wave New York City recorded 110 Black Hand bombings in just eight months.The book also examines the story of the “Barrel Murder” in which Giuseppe Morello, the first boss-of-boss- es of the US Mafia, was arrested following a brutal murder in the heart of New York’s “Little Italy.” Soon followed by the tragic story of NYPD officer Joseph Petrosino who became a pioneer in the fight against black handers and Mafiosi alike. In 1909, while a secret mission, Petrosino became the only NYPD officer to be killed while on foreign soil after he was assassinated in Palermo. Petrosino was so influential he is portrayed in three biographical films and was remembered by President Theodore Roosevelt “as a great man and a good man who did not know the name of fear.”

In this important stage of history, the hierarchies of crime families were established and reinforced; Mafia organizations found new recruits and new resources by spreading across the US; national structure and conflict-resolution mechanisms were put in place; and the criminal society's most serious rivals were defeated and absorbed. Through a combination of period photographs, government records, news clippings, graphic design and fully annotated text, Secret Societies permits the reader to witness the important moments and trends in the development of Sicilian-American organized crime in the United States.

CONTENTS:

ARRIVAL IN AMERICA

THE BLACK HAND (1903–1915)
- Kidnapping Gangs
- Fighting the Black Hand

ORGANIZED CRIME
- The Organized Criminals of New York
- The Barrel Murder
- Giuseppe Morello
- Ignazio Lupo

JOE PETROSINO (1909)

THE CAPTURE OF LUPO & MORELLO (1909)
- William J. Flynn

GANG RULE IN NEW YORK (1910+)
- Giosue Gallucci
- Across the Brooklyn Bridge
- Giuseppe Masseria & Frankie Yale
- The End of Lupo & Morello

CONCLUSION

Store: www.same-old.com/secret-societies
Edition number: 1 (1000 copies)
Retail price: £35.00
ISBN: 978-1-5272-6807-4
Covers: 8 pages (300gsm)
Text pages: 176 pages (120gsm)
Size: 210mm x 297mm (A4)
Paper: Environmentally friendly - ECF pulp, FSC® certified, and EU Eco label.
Binding: Exposed smyth sewn

[blackhander]

1photo.jpg

2photo.jpg

3photo.jpg

[sdeitche]

looks really nice aesthetically

[Antiliar]

Looks nice, but 35 pounds seems a little pricey.

[blackhander]

This is a quick flick through the book to show the content >

https://youtu.be/aCQwQCOEKsA

[TwoPiece]

might need this for the coffee table, the book itself looks great.

[Villain]

I agree, the book looks great.

[Antiliar]

This is a quick flick through the book to show the content >

https://youtu.be/aCQwQCOEKsA

Now my question is why is this book being advertised on a YouTube channel about a skateboarder?

[motorfab]

Looks good. I have one of the pages, "L'oeil de la Police", if I remember correctly it is about the Camorra and Alfano trial in the 10s.

[motorfab]

Ok so actually the L'oeil de la police cover is actually about the murder of Petrosino but the magazine also wrote about Alfano's trial between 1911-1912 (no illustrations, but I can share the articles and translate them though if you want).
It looks like the book doesn't include the original article that goes with the image, so here it is:

The secret society the "Black Hand" of which the number of victims no longer counts, has yet to exercise its terrible reprisals on a police officer in particularly dramatic circumstances. We know that the black hand is an organization organized on the model of the Neapolitan Camorra and the Sicilian Mafia. Its purpose is to extort large sums from Italians who made their fortune in the United States. If the designated vitcimtes refuse to give in to the demands of the association, we throw bombs on their house, they kidnap their children or they kill them themselves.
Usually his executions are preceded by a mysterious warning. The unfortunate people who must die on his order, one day find that a hand impregnated with black ink has been applied to the wall of their house. This sinister image is for them the fatal stop.
Now a detective, Italian by birth, but naturalized American, Mr. Petrosino had been sentenced to death by the Black Hand in secret court.
Mr. Petrosino had long served the United States. He had been tasked with tracking down members of the Black Hand, and he had organized a special brigade against them. Finally, faced with the multiplicity of crimes committed by the Society, he himself came to Naples, then to Palermo. It was in this last city that he was to be killed.
He was in fact crossing Marina Square when several individuals surrounded him and fired at him, in the midst of panicked passers-by, several revolver shots. Although fatally struck, the policeman took his revolver in turn and fired without hitting them. Taking advantage of the fear of the assistants, they flee.
A few arrests have been made but will we ever know if we have accomplices of the Black Hand? Members of the secret society generally know how to keep a secret.
In New York, however, an investigation was launched which led to the arrest of 11 individuals suspected of being part of the terrible association.
The attacks she committed in the United States on the Italians is incalculable. Affiliates squeeze those of their compatriots who disembark, take their money, force them to join their bands; if they refuse their death warrant is pronounced.
The American police say they are powerless to get rid of the country of this bandit company.
(L'oeil de la police Volume 12, 1909)

[The Greek]

Great book worth the $55

[aleksandrored]

The book looks great, but this one I go through because it's too expensive for me.