The grand jury for the Court of General Sessions investigates an alleged conspiracy by officers of the Association of Master Plumbers to commit extortion. Milton Schnaier, a plumbing contractor, believed that Harry Schiff, president of the Essex Construction Company, owed him approximately $7000 for the installation of plumbing in 1914 in an apartment building at 105th Street and Broadway. The assistant district attorney, William De Ford, alleges that Schnaier subsequently colluded with several other contractors in October 1914 to present inflated bids to the Essex Construction Company to install plumbing in a new twelve-story apartment building at West End Avenue and 96th Street. This collusion was an attempt by Schnaier to obtain the money he believed Schiff owed him; but Schiff chose James S. Cully, another plumbing contractor, to install the plumbing. The Association of Master Plumbers, acting on a complaint by Schnaier in December 1914, declared that Schiff was unfair in his business dealings. This decision, when communicated to two locals of journeymen plumbers – Local 480 and Local 498 of the United Association of Plumbers and Gas Fitters – resulted in the withdrawal of all union labor on the construction site at West End Avenue and 96th Street and the Essex Construction Company was no longer able to continue with the new apartment building on that site. See also: “Six Boss Plumbers Indicted for Strike,” New York Times, March 6, 1915.

Vito Morendi, the owner of a pharmacy at 314 East 112th Street, testifies that he had received six anonymous letters, all purporting to come from the Black Hand organization, threatening to destroy his store if he did not hand over two thousand dollars. On August 4, 1913, Lorenzo Colora entered the pharmacy, identified himself as a member of Black Hand and demanded twenty-five dollars. Morendi replied that he did not then have sufficient cash on hand and promised to give Colora the money the next day. Colora returned to the store on August 5. Several detectives, hiding nearby, arrested Colora as he took the money. As the police subdued him, beating him with their blackjacks, Colora shouted out threats against the storeowner. Two detectives, Felix DeMartini and Emile Panevino, assigned respectively to the 29th and 31st precincts, testify that they arrested Colora as he took money from Morendi. Colora, 17, a worker at the Shubert Piano Factory, testifies in his own defense, claiming that the storeowner, Morendi, had asked him to act as an intermediary to give the money to the blackmailers. Colora states that he had had no knowledge of the letters and knew Morendi only because he had previously purchased cocaine at the pharmacy. The jury finds Colora guilty of attempted extortion.

Antonio Lobati, grocer, testifies that the defendant, William Cavanagh, entered his store in July 1910 saying that he, Lobati, had received fifty boxes of macaroni that had previously been stolen. Cavanagh had demanded sixty dollars with the threat that he would close down the store if he did not receive the money. A second witness, Lorenzo Lombardi, testifies that he had sold the macaroni to Lobati and that he had known that the macaroni had been stolen. Thomas McKay, a police officer, said he had arrested Cavanagh on the basis of a complaint by Antonio Lobati. The defendant claims that he had never met Lobati and that he had no knowledge of the macaroni. The jury returns a verdict of not guilty on the indictment for extortion.