Q. Did they threaten your mother?
A. No.
For making this statement, which shows up the methods whereby the "Black-Handers" operated and tried to escape the punishment of the court for the offenses with which they were charged, Dr. Romano was allowed to go free after sentence was suspended.
Dr. Brancato, the other physician, was tried twice, once the jury disagreeing and the second time he was found not guilty.
I have no criticism of the action of the jury in Dr. Brancato's case. It is simply in line with the "fortunes of war" that the government was unable to land Dr. Brancato.
CHAPTER XX
THE "BLACK-HAND" TESTAMENT
On the person of one Rudolpho Palermo—one of the henchmen of the Morello-Lupo band—we discovered a small black book closely written in the nebulous dialect of Sicily. This man was under arrest on the charge of dealing in spurious money of the United States and Canada. We felt sure we had in our grasp an important document. After some little coaxing Palermo finally confessed that the ominous looking little book contained the rules governing the actions of the "Black-Hand" Society.
Palermo is now serving a second sentence of six years in the Federal Penitentiary of Atlanta, Georgia.