In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Black Hand Society, a loosely organized group of Italian criminal groups who extorted (placed the black hand on) fellow immigrants, operated in Western Pennsylvania (notably Hillsville and Canonsburg) and Eastern Ohio, as well as elsewhere in the Northeast and Midwest. Some consider it the nation’s first organized crime group.
When Angelo Cappabianca, a successful 30-year old Italian-born Braddock fruit merchant, resisted extortion and went to the police for protection, Georgio Quagenti and Giovanni Graziano, two Italian-born hitmen, were brought in from New York City to kill him.
Posing as job seekers, they began by gaining employment with Cappabianca and earning his trust. They then lured him into a remote area near Blair Station, a no longer extant town on the Monongahela River well south of Braddock, on a ruse of buying property to expand his business. There they robbed and shot him on April 5, 1906.
Quagenti and Graziano were apprehended the same day. Money that Cappabianca had recently withdrawn from the bank was found in their possession.
Pittsburgh Daily Post, April 6, 1906
At trial, Cappabianca’s partner was able to identify the defendants. A woman who happened to be in the area of the shooting also testified for the prosecution. The New York Times and Washington Post covered the proceedings.
Quagenti and Graziano were convicted on July 18, 1906. It was the first significant legal blow against the “reign of terror” inflicted by the Black Hand.
Quagenti subsequently confessed, claiming he and Graziano were paid $40 each for the killing by the jealous husband of a woman who had an affair with Cappabianca. He denied any connection to the Black Hand.
Their motion for a new trial was denied and the two men were sentenced to death on December 1, 1906.
No appeal effort was mounted. Their efforts to draw on powerful connections to support their pardon requests also failed after Governor Stuart rejected their petition.
In a sensational final chapter of an already sensational case, the Black Hand apparently sent men to Allegheny County to try to disrupt the execution by blowing up the jail, if necessary. Those men were arrested and jailed just as Quagenti and Graziano went to the gallows.
Georgio Quagenti and Giovanni Graziano were hanged on August 8, 1907, prompting the Washington Post to write this eight-column banner headline.
State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh 
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