he consequences of his crime.
Headed with a cross drawn in blood it ran as follows:

I swear upon this cross, which is the blood of my veins, Strollo is
innocent. I swear upon the cross the revengeful Black Hand could
save me. New York, Oct. 12, 1905. Sir Strollo, knowing you only by
name, eight days after that I leave this letter will be sent to
you. I leave at seven o'clock with the Steamer Britain the Harbor.
Therefore I leave betraying my oath that I have held for the last
three years belonging to the Black Hand. I will leave three
letters, one to you, one to the Police Officer Capri, and the other
to the law, 300 Mulberry Street. All what I am saying I have sworn
to before God. Therefore your innocence will be given you, first by
God and then by the law, capturing the true murders. I am sure that
they already captured the murderer of Torsielli. Who lured you to
come to New York was Giuseppi Rosa, who knew you for nearly two
years, and who comes from Lambertville, came among us and played
you a trick. He is a Calabrise and has a mighty grudge. He and four
others are averse to them. Announce the name of the man who stabbed
you with the knife was Antonio Villa. He had to kill _you_, but
_you_ was fortunate. He is in jail for the present time and I don't
know for how long, but I know that he was arrested. Nothing else to
say. I have done my duty in giving you all the information. 407 2nd
St., Jersey.

[Illustration: First page of the "Black Hand" letter written by Strollo,
and put in evidence at his trial, placing the murder of Torsielli upon
members of that imaginary secret organization. This letter convicted
him.]

It is clear from the letter that Strollo had formed a vague plan for his
defence, which should, in part, consist of the claim that he, as well
as Torsielli, had been marked for death by the Black Hand, and that
while both had been induced to come to New York, the plans of the
assassins had in his case miscarried.

The reader has already observed that purely for the purpose of securing
his continued interest in the present narrative the writer has, as it
were, told his story backward, reserving as long as possible the fact
that the finding of the beloved Vito was a pure fiction invented by the
murderer. At the trial, however, the jury listened breathlessly while
bit by bit the whole pathetic story wa