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Joseph Raynor – The Black Hand Gang

Black Hand must be blotted out

Above:  Front page News – Brisbane Newspaper – Truth (Sun 1 Apr 1934) Page 1

According to my grandmother (one of Joseph’s daughters), there were times when the children would be ‘shooed’ out the door, by the adults, when discussing ‘adult’ topics of concern.  Children were not allowed to hear ‘adult’ discussion.  This was during the 1920s, based on my Grandmother’s age at the time.  One such topic that would have the children ‘expelled’ immediately from the living room was any mention of the ‘Black Hand Gang’.

The black hand gang was allegedly a ‘mafia’ organisation operating out of Ingham.

According to the oral history I have heard, Joseph would ‘tremble’ at the mention of the black hand gang.

So I went looking and found some background on the ‘Black Hand Gang’.   I don’t think Joseph had personal contact, but his reaction to the mention of them was the main reason one (light-hearted) theory of the Raynor family on why Joseph changed his name.  The theory is that  Joseph was on the run from the Mafia in Messina Sicily, which was why he jumped ship in Australia, and changed his name.

No-one in the family seriously believes this is the case, it is simply yet another story (in jest) on why Joseph  changed his name, and ended up in Townsville.  

I found the following articles on the black hand gang:

ABC Radio National – Black Hand Gang Ingham – Part 1 (9 May 2016)

and

ABC Radio National – Black Hand Gang – Ingham – Part 2 (10 May 2016)

The following is another  newspaper article about the black hand gang operating out of Ingham (about 100 kilometres north of Townsville):
The Barrier Miner – Sat 3 Dec 1932 page 1

Black hand gang

“BLACK HAND”

LEADER.

Alleged Threat To
Cane Farmer
 
DEMANDED £500
 
BRISBANE, Saturday.
 
A remarkable story was told at the Ingham Police Court yesterday when Giuseppe Saffioti and Antonio Spisilla appeared on a charge of demanding £500 from Salvatore
Donato.
 
Donato stated that an unknown man who accompanied Spisilla to his home said, he was the leader of the “Black Hand,” and if Donato did not pay him £500 his cane would be burnt down. The unknown man, accompanied by Saffioti, came to the farm on the following day, and after some argument, Donato gave the man a cheque for £100.
 
Saffioti was discharged, but Spisilla  was remanded for trial.
Brisbane Courier 5 May 1916 Page 7 - The Alleged Black Hand Gang
 The Black Hand gang were active in the Southern states as well, as this report (above) on some Black Hand members in Sydney (an internment camp during World War I), where some apparent members were trying to extort money from other wealthier inmates.
Evening Telegraph (Charters) 26 Jun 1907
The Black Hand gang was operating in the USA as well, as covered in the above newspaper article.
So was Joseph on the run from the Mafia in Sicily?  Probably fiction, but there was possibly an element of the mafia operating in North Queensland at the time.  He grew up in an area dominated by the Mafia, and probably would not have been happy to find an Italian organisation calling themselves the Black Hand Gang who were operating not too far from where he had settled.

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