Cosa Nostra News

The Black Hand and the Mafia (the pre-1931 organization) were distinct crime rings. The men on the left and right were caught with Black Hand letters. Man in the middle was an interpreter. The Mafia was much larger in size and power -- and was generally a lot more secretive than members of the so-called La Mano Nera. Huge waves of Italian immigrants crashed along the shores of America from around 1890 to 1900. During this period, one of several massive influxes of Europeans, some 655,888 Italian immigrants arrived in the United States; two-thirds were men. Many Italians arrived in the United States from the poorer rural villages in Southern Italy, including Sicily and Campania. They tended to have little cash and less education. Most had been peasant farmers in Italy, so they generally were forced into manual labor, lacking the skills to earn higher salaries in better-paying professions.

Domenico Palazzotto, 29, was caught on a wiretap telling friends that his father’s uncle, Paolo Palazzotto, was responsible for the murder, La Repubblica reported. “He murdered the first police officer to be killed in Palermo,” Palazzotto was heard saying. “He killed   Joe Petrosino ,"  The Local  reported. Petrosino was short and heavy, but it was all solid muscle. He said his father's uncle killed Petrosino on behalf of Vito Cascio Ferro, a boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra who also had dealings in America.