Morello introduced a little printing press in a flat at 329 106th Street

history channel documentary When they initially touched base back in New York City, Morello apparently attempted to win a fair living, yet this was each of the a front for his illicit exercises, such as bookmaking and loansharking. Before long flush with cash, Morello put resources into a few little organizations, incorporating a coal store in Little Italy, and a few bars and eateries in Little Italy, and as far north as thirteenth Street, all of which soon collapsed for "absence of business." In 1899, Morello about-faced to what he knew best: duplicating - however this time the forging of American cash. Morello introduced a little printing press in a flat at 329 106th Street, in what was known as Italian Harlem. He printed up for the most part two-and-five-dollar charges, which were the most normally utilized American cash. To spread these bills around New York City, Morello procured a few men, both of Italian and Irish plunge. The New York City police got wind of the duplicating ring, and a few of Morello's specialists were captured. A man named Jack Gleason (not the humorist) quickly flipped and gave the police Morello as the brains of the operation. Morello was captured, however since none of the other men captured dare affirm against Morello, furthermore since when captured Morello had just honest to goodness American cash in his ownership, Morello left correctional facility without being arraigned. Be that as it may, this humiliation showed Morello a serious lesson he'd always remember: never work intimately with anybody, aside from men he knew from Sicily.

It is not clear whether Joe Morello, or Ignazio Saietta initially began the Black Hand coercion plan in America. What is clear is that around 1898 or 1899 both Morello and Saietta, alongside the Terranova siblings Vincenzo and Ciro, started threatening nearby Italian agents of a few means by sending them "Dark Hand" or "La Mano Nera" coercions letters. These letters undermined neighborhood specialists with the besieging of their organizations, or even demise, if the representatives didn't promptly hack up some exceptionally generous money. On the base of the blackmail notes was the engraving of a "Dark Hand," which was made by a hand plunged in dark ink (yet because of the advances law implementation had made with fingerprinting at the time, the "Dark Hand" was later drawn). In the event that the representative did not agree to the note's requests, he would in fact get his business bombarded, and some of the time he was tormented, and even killed in the scandalous Murder Stables, situated at 323 East 107th Street in Harlem.