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First typed page of a 1909 federal indictment from the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, naming sixteen defendants and a conspiracy at Marion, Ohio.
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United States v. Salvatore Lima et al.: the Marion, Ohio, Black Hand indictment, December 1909 (case file)

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'.

Date
1909-12-11
Kind
case-file
Source
National Archives Catalog
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
219793790
Rights
A record of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, held by the National Archives at Chicago in Record Group 21. 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 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 and the “Black-Hand” averment. The verdict is in a companion file (NAID 219793791).

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).

itemUnited States v. Salvatore Lima et al.: trial file with the verdict of 29 January 1910Companion National Archives file to the Marion, Ohio, Black Hand indictment: the catalog note says it holds the indictment, the threatening letters in Italian with translations, other filings, and the verdict of 29 January 1910 finding the defendants guilty.itemIndictment, United States v. Salvatore Lima et al., first page of text (Northern District of Ohio, December Term 1909)Typed first page of the federal grand-jury indictment naming sixteen defendants and charging that on 3 November 1908, at Marion, Ohio, they conspired to violate section 5480 of the Revised Statutes, the mail-fraud statute.itemIndictment, United States v. Salvatore Lima et al.: the 'Black-Hand' averment (file page 5)A page of the 1909 Marion, Ohio, indictment charging that the defendants were members of an organisation 'known and designated as "The Black-Hand"' and would send anonymous letters 'written in a Sicilian dialect of the Italian language' demanding money under threat. The government's charge, quoted as the record's words.itemPost Office album (1916), volume 2: the Marion, Ohio, black-hand letter conspiracy, sentences of 29 January 1910 at ToledoEntries in the 1916 Post Office album record sentences passed at Toledo on 29 January 1910, from two to ten years, for 'conspiring, with others, to obtain $10,000 by means of black-hand letter mailed at Marion, Ohio, June 7, 1909'.item'Black Hand Gang', U.S. Postal Inspection Service history page (cite and link only)The U.S. Postal Inspection Service's modern history page on Black Hand letters, describing the 1909 Ohio case it calls the 'Society of the Banana' and the 1915 Chicago case of Mennite and Mecca. The page carries a copyright notice; it is cited and linked, not reproduced.