Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

The Black Hand : the epic war between a brilliant detective and the deadliest secret society in American history / Stephan Talty.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2017]Description: xix, 298 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780544633384 (hardcover)
  • 0544633385 (hardcover)
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Prologue: "a great and consuming terror" -- "This capital of half a world" -- Hunter of men -- "In mortal dread" -- The mysterious six -- A general rebellion -- Explosion -- Wave -- The General -- "The terror of hurtful people" -- "Once to be born, once to die" -- War without quarter -- The city of living death -- Backlash -- A secret service -- The gentleman -- In Sicily -- Black horses -- Goatville -- A return.
Summary: Beginning in the summer of 1903 the children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators' only calling card: the symbol of a black hand. The tabloid press heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Joseph Petrosino, a dogged and ingenious detective, and the all-Italian police squad he assembled, raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 364.106 T152 Available 33111008759678
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio, this gripping true story of the origins of the Mafia in America follows the brilliant Italian-born detective who gave his life to stop it.



Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear.



The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand.



The crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press and heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public and the Black Hand's lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the "Italian Sherlock Holmes," he was a famously dogged and ingenious detective, and a master of disguise.



As the crimes grew ever more bizarre and the Black Hand's activities spread far beyond New York's borders, Petrosino and the all-Italian police squad he assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe. Petrosino's quest to root out the source of the Black Hand's power would take him all the way to Sicily--but at a terrible cost.



Unfolding a story rich with resonance in our own era, The Black Hand is fast-paced narrative history at its very best.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-280) and index.

Prologue: "a great and consuming terror" -- "This capital of half a world" -- Hunter of men -- "In mortal dread" -- The mysterious six -- A general rebellion -- Explosion -- Wave -- The General -- "The terror of hurtful people" -- "Once to be born, once to die" -- War without quarter -- The city of living death -- Backlash -- A secret service -- The gentleman -- In Sicily -- Black horses -- Goatville -- A return.

Beginning in the summer of 1903 the children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators' only calling card: the symbol of a black hand. The tabloid press heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Joseph Petrosino, a dogged and ingenious detective, and the all-Italian police squad he assembled, raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe.

Powered by Koha