Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Pink printed commitment form marked ORIGINAL, signed by U.S. Commissioner Mark A. Foote on 1 June 1915, committing Paul Mennite to the Cook County jail.
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The United States vs. Pietro Mecca and Paul Mennite: threatening-letter case, Chicago, 1915 (case file)

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.

Date
1915-06/1915-08
Kind
case-file
Source
National Archives Catalog
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
49550600
Rights
A record of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern 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 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); 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).

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.

itemCommitment of Paul Mennite by U.S. Commissioner Mark A. Foote, Chicago, 1 June 1915Printed commitment form from the Mecca and Mennite case file: U.S. Commissioner Mark A. Foote commits Paul Mennite to the Cook County jail in default of a $10,000 recognizance, on a complaint that he mailed three letters in a scheme to defraud Antonio Petrone.itemPost Office album (1916), volume 2: Chicago black-hand letter sentences, 1912 to 1915Entries in the 1916 Post Office album record federal sentences at Chicago for mailing black-hand letters: two men in January 1912, one in February 1914, and Paul Mennite and Pietro Mecca on 16 August 1915, each to five years at Leavenworth.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.itemU.S. vs. Gianni Alongi: threatening-letter case, Chicago, 1911 (case file)National Archives case file from the federal court at Chicago: the catalog note says Gianni Alongi was accused in February 1911 of mailing three letters demanding $500 under threat of murder, in which he claimed to be a member of the Black Hand, and was found guilty and sentenced to five years and a $1,000 fine.