# The Day Book (Chicago), 3 September 1912, page 29: Black Hand letters to the Rockefeller household

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/clippings/clip-day-book-1912-09-03-p29/

A wire item in the Day Book of 3 September 1912, datelined Tarrytown, says John D. Rockefeller's secretaries had received Black Hand letters and that armed guards were posted at Pocantico Hills. The paper's own correspondent disputed the story eight days later.

Page 29 of the Day Book, Tuesday, 3 September 1912. A wire item datelined Tarrytown, N.Y., says that John D. Rockefeller's secretaries had received Black Hand letters demanding a large sum and threatening the family, and that armed guards had been posted at Pocantico Hills. It says some of the letters were mailed from Palermo, which it calls "the real home of the Black Hand," and refers to "Lieut. Joe Petrisino" (the paper's spelling) as having been murdered there.

This is a press report only. On 11 September the Day Book printed its own correspondent's account that he found no guards on the estate and that the story had been stretched ([The Day Book, 11 September 1912](/clippings/clip-day-book-1912-09-11-p9/)). No record filed here confirms the letters. The phrase about Palermo is the paper's.

No scan of this page is stored: the Library of Congress image service was unavailable when the page was filed.

## Sources

- Library of Congress, Chronicling America: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045487/1912-09-03/ed-1/?sp=29