Antonio Mirabito

Antonio Mirabito (alias Frederico Baryndo; June 11, 1884 - August 18, 1977) was a notorious Italian immigrant who was believed to be the boss of a network of Black Hand gangs located in the Northeastern Region of the United States in the early 20th century. He was the first person in New England to be arrested for crimes associated with Black Hand. His arrest was widely publicized and he was punished heavily in hopes of demoralizing others who were participating in the growing practice, which was a predecessor to the Mafia. He left his career in crime after he married and had 9 children.

Early life Mirabito was born on July 1, 1886, in Malfa, Province of Messina in the region of Sicily, in Southern Italy. He spent his childhood there, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 16. He arrived in New York, and swiftly moved into the Greater Boston area. His life would not be well documented until his early twenties, when his Black Hand activity was discovered. However, earlier accounts of his interactions with the law can help provide some information.

Early crime As a teenager, Antonio Mirabito was known for committing various forms of petty theft. He was “well known” for this in his communities within both Boston and Watertown, and received his first criminal sentencing on May 10, 1905, for the larceny of a bicycle.

Black hand conviction In 1908, at age 22, Mirabito's leading role in the Northeast's Black Hand operations became exposed through police intervention into one of his attempted extortions.

Tracked mail Stamp used by Mirabito while signing letters as "Frederico Baryndo" The first letter in the series of correspondence that resulted in Antonio Mirabito's arrest was sent around December 1907 to Benjamin Piscopo, a hotel owner in the Italian neighborhood of Boston's North End. It was part of a group of three letters, sent and received over the course of three months, demanding that $1000 (nearly $30,000 in today's money) be forfeited in the form of a certified check. This method of payment was chosen to allow Mirabito to cash the check anywhere, with little ties to the banking process. An investigation was made into Mirabito's business and home, during which police found the stamp press and the same style of paper used in the Black Hand letters.

Concetto Rizzo Rizzo was a 27 year old Italian immigrant who lived at the fruit store Antonio owned. Working against Mirabito were both the Massachusetts assistant district attorney and police chief Watts. After a little over a week of proceedings, Mirabito was indicted by a jury on April 3 for the charge of attempted extortion as a result of the letters sent to Piscopo. The court refused a retrial of the case, stating they had seen enough evidence to know Mirabito had committed the crime. Mirabito was assigned a sentence of 6 to 10 years in prison, and was recommended to receive a harsher sentence due to severity of his Black Hand organization's impact on the region. Together, they had nine children. They were killed in what was determined by police to be a murder-suicide, with Felisco being the aggressor. However, police could not at all determine why it was committed, so other forms of crime could not be ruled out.