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The year was 1914. The month was December. Miss Mabel Wilbur of Depot Street received two Black-Hand letters prior to the Christmas holidays. Miss Wilbur was the daughter of one of Easton’s wealthiest citizens, Lemuel K. Wilbur, now deceased. Miss Wilbur lived in the family home and on December 16 received a hand-delivered letter in a plain white envelope instructing her to leave $1000 at Cemetery Gate on Wednesday night. Otherwise, she would “be murdered in cold blood.” It was signed with a skull and crossbones. This was to be done that very night. She tore up the letter.   The next morning her galvanized metal post box and wooden post had been torn from the soil in front of her home, never to be seen again. On December 22 the second letter arrived; it had been mailed from South Boston. This time Miss Wilbur shared the contents with the police. The money was to be left that evening by the Cemetery Gate before 8 o’clock if she valued her life. A letter was placed by the Cemetery Gate by the police but there was a mix-up. One of the policemen arrived late. He was looking about for the others when he saw two ‘women’ run into the woods. He did not chase them. “The policeman, thinking that he had no grounds for detention, did not pursue them.” Unfortunate.   The police though, had suspects in mind. Who they were we don’t know. The Globe writer closed their article with the observation that, “There is a large foreign population in Easton, including Portuguese, Swedes, and other nationalities…..”, though the writer acknowledged they did not know exactly who the authorities had in mind. The policemen were Thomas Downey, Elisha Ellis, and Ellsworth Simpson. Simpson oversaw the case. The Cemetery Gate would have been the gate of the cemetery on South Street. The Black Hand Society or Mafia originally referred to urban organized crime gangs, usually of Italian descent. More than one citizen of Easton attempted a crime in the name of the Black-Hand.  In this case, no one was hurt, no money was lost, and no one was caught. For a short time, the case caused a great deal of excitement in Easton.
Anne Wooster Drury Source: Boston Evening Globe - January 1, 1915 Comments are closed.
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