In the early 1900’s, the Black Hand was a type of extortion racket that involved sending a threatening letter to a victim and demanding a specified amount of money to prevent the threats from being carried out. According to an article published in the New York Times on March 26, 1910, famous tenor Enrico Caruso paid $1500 – $2000 to the Black Hand to “purchase peace for himself”. Despite the payment, Caruso continued to receive letters in which he was threatened with every conceivable kind of bodily harm unless he promptly paid more. That is the problem with acquiescing to the demands of an extortionist, you are identified as an “easy mark” and leave yourself susceptible to future acts of extortion.
The Criminal Code of Canada states in section 346(1): Every one commits extortion who, without reasonable justification or excuse and with intent to obtain anything, by threats, accusations, menaces or violence induces or attempts to induce any person, whether or not he is the person threatened, accused or menaced or to whom violence is shown, to do anything or cause anything to be done.
