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Source: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/image/7338762-3x2-700x467.jpg (from an unidentified magazine) |
When I conducted a tour of the
Mercer Lane Mosaic installation I was asked what the little black hand high up
on a panel was about. The little black hand is a reference to a little known
yet frightening episode in the district’s history that gave plenty of
scandalous material for the press to feed on: criminal meetings in the Ingham
cemetery, brutal stabbings, gunshots in the night, homemade bombs, hired hitmen
from the South, a knife wielding mother-in-law, lovers’ trysts in the cane, it
had it all! The events occurred over a relatively brief period of time between
Ayr and Mossman in the 1930s. They shone an unwelcome national spotlight on the
district’s Italian immigrants and served to reinforce prejudice and negative
stereotyping of the worst kind.
Beginning in 1932 Italians, and
occasionally others, began to receive extortion letters and threats. Bombings,
kidnappings and homicides followed. It was suggested that the crimes were being
perpetrated by an Italian criminal organization, known as ‘The Black Hand Gang’,
La Mano Nera, with supposed links to the ‘Mafioso’. La Mano Nera came from the
emblem of a black hand that was imprinted on the extortion letters. Before this
strange drama fizzled out in 1938 with the death of Vincenzo D’Agostino who was
the supposed Herbert River ring-leader, three other Herbert River Italians were
murdered: Giuseppina Bacchiella, Domenico Scarcella and Francesco Femio. Since its flowering in 1932 scholars, and
scandal mongers alike, have pondered whether The Black Hand was a disorganized small
gang of ignorant, opportunistic thugs or a group with legitimate street
credentials that was part of a wider international web of crime.
The drama that played out in the
Herbert River district was a strange and perplexing one. It most likely, had no
relationship to a national or international criminal conspiracy though there
were those at the time, and those even in more recent times, who have tried to
concoct that link. More realistically, it appears that the events were
perpetrated within a narrow circle. The perpetrators were opportunistically
attempting to extort money from those immigrant farmers who were beginning to
establish themselves. Their bumbling, amateurish attempts indicated a lack of
education and organization. Their activities also seemed to have roots in home
grown feuds and vendettas, the intricacies of which remain unclear and
unexplained to this day. The activities originated as one contemporary put it
in all probability when “These gentry here form a small select band who started
to terrorise some of the more susceptible Sicilians…They formed a colourable
imitation of the Black-hand of their native land and proceeded to carry out
extortion on some of the more timid fry.”
At the time however, it provided ample fuel for journalistic
sensationalism and the anti-Italian movement.
As Adam Grossetti in his 2016 ABC
Radio podcast ‘The Black Hand Gang’ reveals, the episode still reverberates to
this day. While many people were happy
to speak openly to him, several sought anonymity. Adam has conducted extensive
research and produced a fascinating account in which he attempts to explain the
Black Hang Gang event and hazards some suggestions as to who may have killed
Vincenzo D’Agostino. Though there is suggestion that D'Agostino knew who is killer was, even on his deathbed he refused to incriminate anyone. His murder went unsolved. Go to the following
website to listen the two part radio series (May 9 and 10 2016): http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/my-very-good-friend/7337670
Sources:
Vidonja Balanzategui, Bianka. The Herbert River Story. Ingham: Hinchinbrook
Shire Council, 2011.
Douglass,
William. From Italy to Ingham. Italians
in North Queensland. St. Lucia: University of Queensland, 1995.
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| La Mano Nera - The Black Hand (Mercer Lane Mosaic) |
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| La Mano Nera - The Black Hand (Mercer Lane Mosaic) |
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