One such occurrence happened in 1905, and the appalling casualty

history channel documentary One such occurrence happened in 1905, and the appalling casualty was a butcher named Gaetano Costa who got a Black Hand letter requesting $1,000. The letter trained Costa to put the cash into a chunk of bread, then hand the piece of bread to a man who came into his butcher shop the following day, and waved a red tissue. Costa declined to offer into the blackmail, and after two days two men walked into his butcher shop and shot Costa dead.

To guarantee his accumulations, Joe Morello added an advanced new wrinkle to the Black Hand blackmail plan. Morello would mail a coercion letter to his casualty, and afterward hold up close to the casualty's store as the postman conveyed the letter the next day. While the casualty was perusing the letter, Morello would strangely show up in the casualty's store. Seeing the alarm on his casualty's face, Morello would ask with regards to the reason for the casualty's trouble. The casualty, knowing Morello's high status in the nearby Mafia, would hand Morello the letter and beseech him to mediate with whomever had sent the letter; and perhaps lessen the cost, if not dispose of the installment totally. Morello would take the letter, and tell the casualty he would discover who had sent the letter and what should be possible about it.Of course, since Morello had sent the letter himself, there was no possibility of the interest being pulled back totally. Furthermore, since Morello was presently possessing the letter, the casualty did not have any confirmation to provide for the police about the blackmail endeavor.