1909 – Black Hand
Early in the month of September, 1909, Salvatore Sanzona, a fruit dealer on James Street North, received the following letter :
“We pray bring $1,000 when go to Dundas or you will be in peril of your life. No money on your person we wreck your house. Think, bring money when go to Dundas. We find you no money we take your life.”
The letter, badly written, was unsigned but drawn all over it were several crosses and black hands, which were supposed to indicate death.
Sanzone, a large good-natured Italian, immediately went to the police with the letter. At first, thinking Sanzone was the victim of some kind of joke, the police refused to act.
Sanzone’s persistence and obvious fear soon changed their minds and a plan was devised to capture the extortioners.
Sanzone was told to make his normal trip to Dundas with the money. The police would meet Sanzone’s wagon at a dark spot on the way and hide in the back under a tarpaulin. Another Italian was to accompany Sanzone to write down any words spoken.
The next morning the plan was put into effect.
The three detectives, Inspectors Sayers, Coulter and Bleakley, managed to hide themselves beside the bananas and under the tarp but were most uncomfortable as the wagon rattled along King street towards Dundas.
When the wagon reached the point where the Hamilton and Dundas Electric Railway crossed the Dundas road, just beyond the Halfway House, a masked man rushed out from behind the bushes and stopped Sanzone’s horse.
Two other masked men then approached, revolvers in hand, and demanded in Italian that Sanzone turn over the $1,000.
As the roll of bills was handed over, the men dropped their guard for a moment while they were examining the money.
At this point, Sanzone pulled back the tarpaulin and the three detectives jumped out of the rig, revolvers drawn. He three extortionists ran away as several shots were fired.
Two of the criminals were almost immediately captured, but the third man almost managed to get away.
Detective Bleakley saw that he was heading towards the railway track. As luck would have it, a radial electric railway car happened along heading in the same direction.
Beakley sprinted alongside the car and then jumped on the front platform. When the train neared the fugitive, Bleakley ordered the engineer to stop, jumped off and with his revolver drawn captured his man.
The three men were identified as Ernest Speranzo, Camelo Columbo and Samuel Wolfe. The Spectator account of the incident labeled the men as “hardened criminals” and surmised that “the recent agitation against the Mafia in the States has driven them to try Canada for a field,” and predicted that “a crusade will begin against suspicious foreigners, especially Italians.”
A month after the incident, Salvatore Sanzone was in the news again. He had received another letter, again demanding money under the threat of death. This time, after the identity of the letter writer was established, a charge was laid. The Spectator identified the man charged and concluded that “all the Black Hand operations in this city have been engineered by John Tagierino, an Italian store keeper from Sherman Avenue North.
Tagierino caused quite a sensation at the police court when he made his appearance to answer the charge of uttering a threatening letter. When some evidence was given against him, he jumped up and down, shouting in his own language, and then retired to a corner of the prisoner’s dock, sobbing.
His case was remanded and Tagierino was kept in custody.
In late October, the three men captured on the Dundas Road were put on trial.
The strain of having to give evidence almost proved too much for Sanzone. He almost collapsed with a heart attack while waiting the court’s anteroom. Dr. Wallace had inject him with morphine so that the trial could proceed.
All three men were convicted with Judge Snider sentencing each to ten years in the Kingston penitentiary.
Tagierino’s trial came up just before Christmas 1909. The Spectator reporter at the trial commented on the proceedings as follows :
“The prisoner looked a mere shadow of his former self. He was weak and thin and a pathetic scene was enacted when his two year old son toddled to the dock and the father leaned over the rail and kissed him. The little boy was laughing and playing around the court and his father sat back in the dock and sobbed aloud. Tears streamed down his cheeks all morning.”
While Tagierino pleaded not guilty, Crown Attorney felt he had a strong case. Referring to the events leading to the charge as a “Black Hand outrage,” Washington stated that “if practices of that kind were allowed, such men could prey upon their countrymen, and if the business once got a foothold in this country, it would be a serious matter.”
When the jury retired, eleven of the twelve jurors opted immediately for a guilty verdict, but the twelfth juror insisted that he evidence that the evidence be gone over once more.
Feeling that there was a grave doubt as to the defendant’s guilt, this juror flatly refused to go along with the decision f his fellow jurors. Sitting back in his chair, he lit his pipe and declared that he would sit there all winter before he would change his mind.
After a two and a half four standoff, the others caved in and John Tagierino was found innocent and released.
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