Loyola University Chicago

     In this new book, forthcoming from University of Illinois Press, Dr. Robert Lombardo examines the history of Black Hand crime in the City of Chicago. The Black Hand was a crude method of extortion by which wealthy Italians and others were extorted for money. Victims were simply sent a letter stating that they would come to harm if the blackmailers’ demands were not met. The term “Black Hand” came into use because the extortion letters usually contained a drawing of a black hand and other evil symbols such as a dagger and skull and crossbones. Most Black Hand crimes occurred in the years between 1905 and 1920, although isolated incidents occurred as early as 1892 and as late as 1931.

     The dominant belief is that the Black Hand was a transitional stage in the development of organized crime in American society. In fact, the alien conspiracy theory argues that organized crime evolved in a linear fashion beginning with the Mafia in Sicily, emerging in the form of the Black Hand in America’s immigrant colonies, and culminating in the development of the Cosa Nostra in America’s urban centers. This book challenges the alien conspiracy theory and argues that the development of Black Hand extortion was not related to the emergence of the Sicilian Mafia, but was rooted in the social structure of American society.

     Addressing this topic is important for criminology. Black Hand crimes occurred at a period in history before social structural explanations of deviance were common. Early beliefs tied Black Hand crime to the criminal tendencies of Southern Italian and Sicilian immigrants. Such beliefs were consistent with the state of criminology at the time. Early positivist theorists, such as Cesare Lombroso, believed that criminals were “atavistic” or throw backs to an earlier stage of evolution. Lombroso’s racial doctrines provided a launching pad for theorizing about the Southern Italian. In fact Lombroso, himself, argued that an “inferior civilization” marked by a “criminality of blood” existed in the south of Italy. Although Lombroso’s “criminal anthropology” is no longer viewed as an acceptable theory of criminal causation, no alternative explanation has ever been provided for Black Hand crime until the social structural argument presented in this book.

     This book also studies how and why the societal definition of Black Hand crime emerged. The common belief is that Black Hand crime originated in Italy, that only Southern Italians and Sicilians committed Black Hand crime, and that only Southern Italians and Sicilians were Black Hand victims. It is argued that this belief is a media construction, resulting from a hegemonic narrative created by the news media and that this belief has contributed to the development of the alien conspiracy theory forever linking the Black Hand to the Sicilian Mafia.

            The key features of this book include:

• An analysis of the social structural causes of Black Hand crime.
• An analysis of the “news making criminology” that tied Black Hand crime to the Mafia and Camorra and the evolution of traditional organized crime in Chicago and elsewhere.
• A review of the alien conspiracy theory.
• A history of Black Hand crime in Chicago.
• A history of the White Hand Society.
• A history of the Chicago Police Black Hand Squad.
• A history of Chicago’s Little Sicily community