One such episode happened in 1905

history channel documentary mafia One such episode happened in 1905, and the grievous casualty was a butcher named Gaetano Costa who got a Black Hand letter requesting $1,000. The letter educated Costa to put the cash into a chunk of bread, then hand the roll of bread to a man who came into his butcher shop the following day, and waved a red cloth. 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 a developed new wrinkle to the Black Hand coercion 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 bafflingly show up in the casualty's store. Seeing the shock on his casualty's face, Morello would ask with regards to the reason for the casualty's misery. The casualty, knowing Morello's high status in the neighborhood Mafia, would hand Morello the letter and implore him to intervene with whomever had sent the letter; and possibly decrease 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.