# The United States vs. Pietro Mecca and Paul Mennite: threatening-letter case, Chicago, 1915 (case file)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-49550600-us-v-mecca-mennite-1915/

National Archives case file from the federal court at Chicago: the catalog note says Mecca and Mennite were accused of mailing letters threatening to kill a man and his family and to bomb his home unless he paid $300; both were sentenced to five years at Leavenworth.

The National Archives catalogs this file as "The United States vs. Pietro Mecca and Paul Mennite," a criminal case file of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, with 55 digital pages. The catalog note says the two men were accused of mailing letters threatening to kill Antonio Petrone unless he paid $300, and threatening to murder his family and blow up his home with a bomb. It says Mennite pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years at Leavenworth, and that Mecca pleaded not guilty, was found guilty, and was also sentenced to five years. Letters in Italian with translations are in the file.

The first page of the file is the commissioner's commitment of Mennite on 1 June 1915, filed separately ([commitment](/items/nara-49550600-mennite-commitment-1915-06-01/)); its image is shown here. The Post Office Department's 1916 album records both men as sentenced on 16 August 1915 at Chicago to five years at Leavenworth for mailing black-hand letters in April and May 1915 ([album entries](/items/podept-1916-chicago-1912-1915/)).

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service's history page calls the two men brothers; the catalog record does not, and no relationship is stated here. The file prints the victim's street address, which is not reproduced in this text.

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/49550600