Secret Service daily report, New York District, 15 November 1909: search warrants on 'Morrello et al.' with the Italian Squad (T915 roll 116, pages 162-173)
The New York District's report of the day Secret Service agents, helped by ten members of the New York police Italian Squad, executed search warrants against 'Morrello et al.' in a counterfeiting case. An agent wrote that he was 'satisfied' Morrello held 'very damaging "Black Hand" letters'; that is the agent's belief, not a finding.
- Date
- 1909-11-15
- Kind
- case-file
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 151194549
- Rights
- A record of the U.S. Secret Service (Record Group 87), reproduced on National Archives microfilm publication T915, Daily Reports of the U.S. Secret Service Agents, 1875-1936. A United States government work, public domain in the United States under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The National Archives catalog lists access and use as unrestricted; the images are marked "Best Available Image / Original Textual Records No Longer Exist."
These pages, numbered 162 to 173, are in the volume the National Archives catalogs as “William Flynn: Volumes 27-29 - August 1, 1909-May 31, 1910 (1 of 2)” (1,999 pages on microfilm T915, roll 116). A charges entry on page 181 reads “Spl.Opr. Schroeder’s charges for Nov. 15 (continued),” which dates the report. Page 162 narrates the morning: “At 8.45 A.M. Agents Henry and Burke arrived with Cecala,” and “I telephoned to the Italian Branch of the New York Detective Bureau and arranged to have ten of the Italian Squad assist our Agents in executing the search warrants which we had secured for Morrello et al.” A hearing was set for Friday, 19 November 1909.
Page 165, shown here, lists money taken from several of the men “for the purpose of examining the same to ascertain if any of it was part of the money I gave to Inft. Lockin,” and then says: “I am satisfied that in Morrello’s possession there were quite a few damaging letters, some of which relate to the counterfeit notes as well as some very damaging ‘Black Hand’ letters, which he had evidently sent to different Italians and upon receiving them, they paid the demand of Morrello and also returned the letter they received, to him.” Pages 169 to 171 describe letters found concealed in the clothing of an infant carried by Mrs. Morrello, and six letters in a handkerchief, “two of which were already opened and four were letters ready to mail to Palermo, Italy, Chicago, and New Orleans.”
What this page does not establish. The “Black Hand” sentence is an agent’s belief recorded in an internal report. No letter is quoted, no victim is named, and no charge of extortion followed in any record filed here: the 1910 conviction was for counterfeiting, and the Second Circuit’s 1911 opinion does not mention Black Hand letters (189 F. 305). The spelling “Morrello” is the report’s. The page also gives home addresses and personal details of other men named; they are not reproduced here.
