Saturday, December 27, 2025

A Truck Driver, the 'Black Hand' and a Murder in Cleveland, Ohio


This is a rather dark story about an immigrant who was trying his best to better himself and his family, but he ended up as a homicide victim killed by the 'Black Hand' in Cleveland, Ohio.

The year, 1920. The place, Cleveland. The person, Francesco Misseri / Messeri (aka Frank Massario or Frank Messario, or even Frank Messaria). (Throughout the rest of this article, Francesco's Americanized name, Frank, will be used, which was the name he went by during his life in Ohio).

Just to give you a little background history, for those that don't know, the ‘Black Hand’ was an Italian criminal group that usually committed extortion crimes, demanding money in exchange for safety from bodily harm or personal property. To make matters worse, the 'Black Hand' usually perpetrated their crimes against other Italians.

Now back to our story. Born on 19 May 1879 (his parents were Cesare Misseri and Domenica di Lisi) in Carini, Italy, Frank immigrated to the United States seeking a different but hopefully a better life for himself, like so many other Italians. The actual year when Frank came to the United States is unknown. (Several family members have searched high and low for the ship manifest document showing when he arrived in the United States.) Frank's wife, Vincenza (known as Jennie or Jeannie in the U.S.) Giovanna Catalano, and their young son, Cesare (known as Jerry in the U.S.), immigrated to Cleveland in February 1915. Jennie was born on 14 Nov 1875 in Montelepre, Palermo, Sicily, Italy & Jerry was born on 18 Jun 1907 in Carini, Palermo, Sicily, Italy. A family photo of Frank and his son, (along with a woman) was taken in Cleveland in late 1915 or 1916 so that confirms the whole family was in Cleveland around that time.


Frank was a truck driver, making deliveries in and around the Cleveland area. A descendent of Frank says he worked delivering products to and from the West Side Market just west of downtown Cleveland. Frank owned his own truck, so he was making his own destiny in the new world he immigrated to just a few years earlier. Assuming Frank knew very little English, he was learning the new language "on the job" and one of the first order of things he needed to learn were the street names and addresses so he could make his deliveries. His cargo were fruits and vegetables, along with meats and cheeses all picked up from the West Side Market from the various vendors.

Frank must have been making a name for himself because he obviously caught the attention of some 'not-so-good' individuals because on his 41st birthday, on 19 May 1920, he was shot when he was passing through the intersection of East 9th Street and Decatur Court S.E. (Webster Avenue S.E. and Decatur Court S.E. were in the area just south of Progressive Field [home of the Cleveland Guardians baseball team], where I-90 was built with entrance and exit ramps to access Ontario and East 9th Streets from I-90).



At least two men jumped out and fired pistols hitting Frank in shoulder, arm and ankle (a later articles says he was hit in the head too). Frank spent time recovering at Huron Road Hospital from his injuries. This was a pretty serious event and the Cleveland Police Department got involved, but when questioned about the shooting, Frank was very reluctant naming the individuals who shot him. It's not clear whether the two people were actually trying to kill him or if the event was to scare him so that they could extort money (or extra money) from him. Obviously, there was something going on with the men before the shooting and if seems like Frank definitely knew who the individuals who injured him during the assault. Looking back on all the events that unfolded in the months to come, maybe Frank should have named the individuals that first shot and wounded him on his birthday.



The following article is from the Cleveland Hungarian newspaper, America, that re-ran the article that first appeared in The Cleveland Press on May 20, 1920 (see above). Unfortunately, the article in at the very bottom of the left column and continues to the top of the right column. The second article is from a Cleveland Czech newspaper, called SveÌŒt (meaning the "World") from 28 July 1920 after the murder. The Czechs and Hungarians were probably a little concerned for their safety, since they were a minority like the Italians in Cleveland.





After looking at and reading the different newspaper articles surrounding Frank's killing, what struck a chord was the type of 'journalism' that was in place during the 1920s. As it has been more than a hundred years after the news coverage of the murder, historians have labeled the style of newspaper reporting during that time period as "1920's Jazz Journalism." During the 1920s, journalism changed because The Great War had ended and things weren't so sober anymore across the world. The newspapers started to push the limits of their reporting and spiced their stories up by making the news gossipier and more sensational (much like social media of today). Some of the key characteristics of the 1920's Jazz Journalism were sensationalism (murder stories to attract attention, like "BLACK HAND BUSY"), tabloid format (small, easy-to-quickly read sized stories with big photos and huge headlines for newsstand sales), entertainment type of stories (celebrities, sports, and crime replaced more serious news stories) and provocative language (headlines were written to make a quick impact and entice the reader, like the article below "BLACK HAND KILLS MAN IN SECOND TRIAL"). When re-reading the news articles, the stories about Frank's death definitely fit right into journalism of the time period.

About two months after the initial attack on 19 May 1920. Frank appears in the Cleveland newspapers again, but this time, the story turns even darker. The news story reports Frank (they really butchered his last in the newspaper as "Messario," "Massario," or "Messaria" instead of "Messeri") has been murdered by four individuals just outside his home at 1245 Webster Avenue in Cleveland on 26 July 1920 just after 8 o'clock in the evening.



The four assailants chased Frank from in front of his home through the neighborhood firing 30 shots at him while killing him in front of his wife. Jennie witnessed the last four rounds being fired from one of the men as her husband fell to the ground and died. Neither Frank nor Jennie were armed during the shooting, and it was definitely a planned hit. One can only image how traumatic it must have been for Frank's wife to witness the entire event that unfolded on that summer evening. The Cleveland police immediately suspected the 'Black Hand' was the cause of Frank's death

The following articles are a collection from different newspaper across the region documenting the murder. The articles were researched from the Newspapers.com website.







In the article about his death, Frank mentions that he knew who the assailants were in the first shooting. The following newspaper articles lays out the full story of Frank telling his only child, Jerry, who the men were that shot at him the first time. Frank sounds like he was scared for his life but was extremely smart by having his son write down the names of the 'Black Hand' members. Research has shown Frank could not read or write in English, so, he entrusted his English schooled 13-year-old son to take care of business in case something more sinister happened to him. The slip of paper with the names of assailants stayed safe and were tucked behind the family's crucifix on the wall in the living room. When the Cleveland Police came to investigate the killing, the names were given to the police, and the individuals were questioned about Frank's murder. The police were quoted in one newspaper article that "it was an open and shut case." 





Once again, this story about 'Black Hand' murder in Cleveland gets uglier. The killers were never arrested for Frank Messeri's death, and the case was never solved by the Cleveland Police Department. While researching this story, a public records request was submitted to through the official channel of the City of Cleveland to see what police records and files they had since the case was never solved. After a few weeks of waiting on 29 Oct 2025, the official response from the 'Cleveland Public Records Center' was "The City has reviewed its files and has determined there are no records that are responsive to your request."



The story surrounding Frank's death continued to find space in newspapers around Ohio about after two week or so after the first reports appeared in Cleveland. The articles were much less detailed, but they continued to use the word "vengeance" as part of the story, again, it was part of the 1920's Jazz Journalism to shock the readers!



About a year after the killing of Frank, he was included in an article about the unsolved murders from 1920 and the first half of 1921 in Cleveland. This story re-enforces that the crime was never solved by the Cleveland Police department, which is so surprising given the fact that the police had all four names of the assailants and multiple witnesses, including Frank's wife who saw everything that happened on that fateful night. It's great that this time the newspaper finally got the spelling of his name correct. Frank is mentioned about halfway down in the article.



So, the story of Frank Messeri seems to end after the four individuals were released and not charged with his murder, but like so many tragic stories, that 13-year-old son, Jerry, who had to write down the names of his father's killers, went on and had a productive life in the Cleveland area. Jerry had children of his own and those children had more kids. Frank's son, who had to grow up quickly after the death of his father, worked in Cleveland at the 'Cleveland Tank Plant' during World War II. The 'Cleveland Tank Plant' was a massive war production facility making B-29 bomber parts for the Allied Forces and then, after World War II, the factory facility shifted gears and made M41 Walker Bulldog tanks for the Korean War. Jerry mostly liked work on the assembly line, because after the war, he went on and worked at a General Motors factory in Cleveland. According to the 1950 U.S. Census, Jerry was an arc welder. Each set of offspring doing a little better than their parents and each generation living the 'America Dream' that all started with a man born just outside of Palermo, Sicily, in the small town of Carini. Despite Frank Messeri being gunned down outside his home by the ‘Black Hand’ at the age of 41, his hard work paid off for generations to come.


NOTE: Much thanks need to be given to Joanne Messeri, for originally sharing this story with me and being the fact checker / gatekeeper of details regarding this family story. Joanne shared some great insight when reviewing the article. Thank you for everything!
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