BOGGO S2 E10 – The Black Hand

Boggo S2 E10 – The Black Hand

Mafia activity has been known to exist in Australia’s southern states for decades. Many however would not know that in the 1920s and 1930s Queensland had its very own Mafia.  Known as the Black Hand they were every bit as dangerous as their southern counterparts.  This group of migrant Italian cane field workers was full of extortionists, thieves, pimps, rapists and cold-blooded murderers.  Four of these men would end up in Boggo Road Gaol.

 

Mafia activity has been known to exist in Australia’s southern states for decades. Many however would not know that in the 1920s and 1930s Queensland had its very own Mafia.  Known as the Black Hand they were every bit as dangerous as their southern counterparts.  This group of migrant Italian cane field workers was full of extortionists, thieves, pimps, rapists and cold-blooded murderers.  Four of these men would end up in Boggo Road Gaol.

Black Hand in Queensland

During the 1920’s, Australia’s sugar cane plantations attracted a steady supply of labourers, many willing to work for lower scale wages. As such, the northeast Australian state of Queensland attracted large numbers of migrant workers. Alongside numerous other ethnic groups, Italian families settled in the coastal towns of Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane, and in particular, the inland towns such as Ayr, Ingham and Innisfail where the work was plentiful.

The Black Hand operated on a simple method of extortion.  It would loan a person money… usually the poorest people…. And when they couldn’t pay the unreasonable percentage… threats were made and when they still couldn’t pay violent retribution would take place.  It was a terrible business but one that the Black Hand utilised very well.  Making the members very wealthy, but also making them targets for retribution by other members of the hand as well.

 

Known Members of the Black Hand

BOSS – Vincenzo D’Agostino

SOTTO CAPO ( Right Hand)  Francesco Femio  alias Antonio Arena

LIEUTENANTS – Domenico Belle, Domenico Strano and Giuseppe Mammone

 

Known Crew or suspected crew.

Giovanni Delfino

Domenico Scarcella

Saverio Militano

Antonio Spiallia

Antonio Cavallo

Ferdinand Legazzo

Vincenzo Speranzo

Mario Strano

Lorenzo Zucco

Giuseppe Parisi

Giuseppe Buetti

Giovanni Iacona.

 

Todays podcast story is a tale of retribution with a horribly bloody result.  The last four members of the list,  Zucco, Parisi, Buetti and Iacona are four men who through their involvement in the Black Hand would spend time in Boggo Road Gaol.

Here is the interesting case of Innisfail farmer Giuseppe Iacona. Following arguments regarding Black Hand letters delivered by Iacona to Patane and another farmer named Orario Denaro, on behalf of Lorenzo Zucco: – a notorious extortionist, blackmail artist and standover man in Cairns.  Zucco was trying to make a name for himself, attempting to rise through the ranks into the leadership of the Hand.

Iacona was visited by three members of the gang, who arrived at his property on the 11th of February 1934. Following an altercation and subsequent scuffle, Giuseppe Parisi and Giuseppe Buetti held Iacona down while Giuseppe Mammone cut off the man’s ears. Recuperating in hospital over the next three weeks, Iacona refused numerous requests to name his attackers, and the reasoning behind his non-cooperation would soon become clear.

Upon his release from the hospital, Iacona returned to his home and retrieved his shotgun. He confronted Mammone in the main street of Innisfail, and shot dead Mammone – the man who had mutilated him. Duly arrested for the revenge-murder, Iacona came clean on everything and named Parisi and Buetti as having also been involved, as he described the attack and his mutilation in court. Iacona received a life sentence for the murder of Mammone.

In the same court on the same day as the murder trial against Iacona was presented four men – Patane, Denaro, Parisi and Buete were brought to court with having done grievous bodily harm to Giovanni Iacona.

Patane and Denaro were found not to have a case to answer… how… we don’t know – while Parisi and Buetti received seven years each for the unlawful wounding of Iacona. All three men – Iacona, Parisi and Buetti would be locked up in Boggo Road Gaol for the duration of their sentence.  All of them – Likely in number 2 division due to the seriousness of their crimes.

Interestingly,  Lorenzo Zucco would also be arrested.  Earlier in that day again in the same court,  Patane and Denaro appeared as witnesses against Lorenzo Zucco, the extortionist and stand over man from Cairns  who had written the letters that started this whole mess in the first place! Zucco – found guilty – would be sentenced to seven years with Hard Labour in April of 1934 for crimes involving blackmail and threatening with violence.  He too would arrive in Boggo Road Gaol for his sentence…. Also in number 2 division.    One can only imagine how tense in could have been for the prison officers at the time.

Iacona denied being a part of the Black Hand and sending threats to other Italians, that he was a hard working battler. However research has proven otherwise. Mammone had been asked by Di’Agistino to intervene in the situation… Perhaps it was a message to Iacona to tow the line.. or perhaps it was a message to Zucco to keep off their turf.   Either way, it was ineffective and Mammone would be the ultimate victim.


The “Victim”

Mug shot #1916 Giuseppe Mammone, 15 February 1930. Possibly at Darlinghurst Police Station.

This photograph was one of a collection exhibited at City of Shadows an exhibition by the Justice and Police Museum in Sydney between 2005 and 2007.

Curator Peter Doyle suggests that, compared with the subjects of prison mug shots, “the subjects of the Special Photographs seem to have been allowed – perhaps invited – to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked. Their photographic identity thus seems constructed out of a potent alchemy of inborn disposition, personal history, learned habits and idiosyncrasies, chosen personal style (haircut, clothing, accessories) and physical characteristics.”

Special Photograph no. 1916. Although labelled ‘G Mammona’, the mug shot shows Giuseppe Mammone, who was presumably interviewed and photographed in connection with the stabbing murder of Domenico Belle on Newtown Station, on the morning of 11 February 1930.

Earlier that day Belle had attempted to collect a debt of 15 pounds from Mammone, who ran a barbershop in Leichhardt. It was revealed at the coronial enquiry that Mammone had previously served time in Buffalo, New York, for manslaughter. Newspaper stories of the time repeatedly refer to Mammone as the main suspect in the case, although he was not charged.

This picture is one of a series of around 2500 “special photographs” taken by New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930. These “special photographs” were mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station, Sydney and are, as curator Peter Doyle explains, of “men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their apprehension.

31217 / 1930 New South Wales. Police Dept.

Somehow.  Mammone never served any time in prison….  However he was interviewed in relation to a murder in Sydney in 1930.   The above photograph was taken at that interview.

In the reports pertaining to his murder, the following can be gleaned of his life.

Mammone was a storekeeper at Mourilyan.  He had been in Innisfail for the day. Shortly before 10am he was seen talking in the street where he was approached.  Four shots (some say five) were fired.  One in the head and the rest in the body. His brains were scattered about.   He was rushed to hospital however it was easily seen that he was already dead.

Mammone had made a name for himself all over the eastern seaboard of Australia, he was well connected and one of the most well known and travelled members of the Hand.  He was connected with at least twenty murders in the Innisfail, Ingham, Cairns and Ayr regions as well as numerous in other states of Australia.

Other than that detail biographical information on Mammone is scarce. As one would expect with an underworld figure of his note I suppose.

 

On the other hand.  Plenty is known about the other figures in this story.


Giovanni Iacona –  The “Murderer”

Name:  Giovanni Iacona

Native Place:  Italy

Year of Birth: 1902

Arrival per ship:  Palermo 1925 from Italy

Trade: Labourer

Religion:  Roman Catholic

Education:  Read and Write

Height:  5ft 1 inch

Weight: 9st 4lbs

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Complexion: Dark

Build: Short

Marks or Features: Part of each ear missing;  Operation scar right of navel; minus left little finger; scar back of left leg.

 

Tried at the Cairns  Circuit Court 9/4/1934  for the Wilful Murder –  Giuseppe Mammone alias Niccolo Mammone alias Mammona Sentence –  Imprisonment for Life

Deported per ship Viminale  1934  (no date) for Penal Island Lipari off Sicily  (known as Devils Island)

Fate – Unknown presumed dead.


Giuseppe Parisi

Name: Giuseppe Parisi

Native Place: – Italy

Year of Birth: 1905

Arrival: per ship Palermo in 1926

Trade:  Labourer

Religion:  Roman Catholic

Education:  Read and Write

Height:  5ft 7½ inches

Weight: 13st 10lbs

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Complexion: Dark

Build: Stout

Marks or Features: Several scars on right hip.

 

Criminal History 

Tried at the Criminal Court Cairns  9th April 1934 –  Unlawfully wounding with intent to disfigure  – sentenced to 7 years Hard Labour

Deported per ship Esqualina  1934  (no date) for Penal Island Lipari off Sicily  (known as Devils Island)

Parisi survived and returned to Adelaide in the late 1940s


Giuseppe Buete

Name:  Giuseppe Buete  or Giuseppe Bueti or Giuseppe Bueto

Native Place:  America

Year of Birth: 1905

Arrival per ship:  Pere De Italia 1923 from Italy

Trade: Hairdresser

Religion:  Roman Catholic

Education:  Read and Write

Height:  5ft 2½ inches

Weight: 10st 1lbs

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Complexion: Dark

Build: Stout

Marks or Features: Scar across right wrist

 

Criminal History 

Tried at Innisfail Police Court  3/10/1933    For having an Unlicensed pistol in possession    Sentence- £50  or 3 months

Tried at the Cairns Circuit Court 9/4/1934  for Unlawfully wounding with intent to disfigure   Sentence-  7 years Hard Labour.

Deported per ship Esqualina  1934  (no date) for Penal Island Lipari off Sicily  (known as Devils Island)

Executed for being a British spy during World War 2


At this point in history, Italy was being governed by notorious dictator Benito Mussolini.  Mussolini was a passionate believer in the prevention of embarrassment and disrepute of the mother land Italy.  Anyone who did so would feel his wrath. Prisoners at home and abroad were sentenced to the notorious Devils Island  a penal establishment located on the island of Lipari off Sicily.  This island was a death sentence,  prisoners rarely survived.  It was a sentence for life… or until Mussolini saw fit to release you… which was never.    However at the time the Italian army were waging a bitter war in Ethiopia, East Africa in the Abyssinian desert.  Prisoners from Devils Island were used as cannon fodder in this war.

At the same time, prisoners in the Commonwealth of Australia that were foreigners and that were sentenced to serious crimes were deported from our shores.  This particularly was the case in Queensland where the death penalty had been repealed just a decade earlier.   The four Italian men locked up in Boggo Road Gaol would be no different.  However, when the decision was made to deport these men, a problem arose.   The government did not want to be held responsible for any ill will held between Iacona, Zucco, Parisi and Buete.  Obviously there was ill – will given their situation. The authorities were worried there would be another murder on the way home to Italy.   The men were sent home on separate ships.  Iacona and Zucco on the Viminale and Parisi and Buete on the Esqualina.

So it was,  Iacona, Parisi, Buete and Zucco were all deported back home to Italy.  Back home to Devils Island.  Back home to war in the Ethiopian Desert.

The fate of Iacona and Zucco is not known.  It is presumed that they perished in the battle for the Abyssinian Desert.  Parisi and Buete however would share very different fates.  Parisi would survive the war in the desert, he would make it back home and see the death of Mussolini himself, eventually Parisi would return to Australia settling in Adelaide in the late 1940s.   Buete  was not so lucky.  He was executed for being a British Spy and espionage during World War Two he was shot in the head and buried in an unmarked grave.

The Black Hand in Queensland is still known to this day,  in fact, people in the area that these events took place still will not discuss it to this day.  It is likely that there are still descendants of some of the families involved in the horrible crimes of the Black Hand.

We will have to discuss the Black Hand more in future episodes of Boggo.  There are so many fascinating stories of murder and mayhem in the cane farms of North Queensland.   But for now, be sure to listen to S2 Episode 10 of BOGGO – The Black Hand and hear all about these notorious figures.

Join Gaol Director Jack Sim and Research Co-ordinator Sue Olsen as they dig into the secrets of The Black Hand in Queensland, uncovering its connection to the notorious Boggo Road Gaol. Listen to the episode on the Black Hand  S2 E10 of BOGGO – the official podcast of Boggo Road Gaol recorded live inside its walls.   You can see for yourself where these underworld figures were locked up,  tours operate of number 2 division daily at 11am for tour times and prices visit our website 

 

 

 

 

 

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