# United States v. Salvatore Lima et al.: the Marion, Ohio, Black Hand indictment, December 1909 (case file)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-219793790-us-v-lima-et-al-indictment-1909/

National Archives case file for the federal indictment of sixteen men in the Northern District of Ohio, filed 11 December 1909, charging a conspiracy begun at Marion, Ohio, to use the mails to defraud by threatening letters as members of an organisation the indictment calls 'The Black-Hand'.

The National Archives catalogs this file under the names of the sixteen defendants as the indictment prints them: Salvatore Lima, Antonio Lima, Sebastiano Lima, Giuseppe Ignoffo, Saverio Ventola, Salvatore Rizzo, Salvatore Demma (alias Salvatore Demar), Giuseppe Nuzzo, Agostino Marfisi, Antonio Vicario, Cologero Vicario, Orazio Runfola, Pippino Galbo, Salvatore Arrigo, Francesco Spadara and Vincenzo Arrigo. It is in the Mixed Case Files series of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, held at the National Archives at Chicago, and has 98 digital pages. The cover bears the stamp "FILED DEC 11 1909."

The catalog note says the defendants were indicted for sending threatening letters through the mail to several people "as part of the Black Hand crime organization," charged under the postal laws with using the mails in a scheme to defraud, and that the file holds the indictment, copies and originals of the letters in Italian, and translations. The indictment's text is filed as two pages: [the opening](/items/nara-219793790-lima-indictment-p2/) and [the "Black-Hand" averment](/items/nara-219793790-lima-indictment-p5-black-hand/). The verdict is in a companion file ([NAID 219793791](/items/nara-219793791-us-v-lima-et-al-trial-file-1910/)).

The organisation named in the indictment is the grand jury's charge, and the people named are defendants as charged; this archive does not treat the indictment as a finding about any person beyond the verdict. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service's history page calls this the "Society of the Banana" case; that name does not appear on the pages opened ([USPIS](/items/uspis-black-hand-gang/)).

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/219793790