Frank Longo, Jr. was kidnapped and held for a ransom of $5,000.00. After 6 weeks, his father, Frank Longo was able to negotiate his son's release for $700.00. The ransom was in marked bills and led to the capture of the Black Hand members.
On May 18, 1914, Frank Longo, Jr. was lured from the Grove Street School house by Archillo La Rosa who gave him some candy and 2 pennies. He then took him of Goerck Street under the Williamsburg bridge and held for 6 weeks.
During his captivity he suffered greatly at the hands of his captors. He was horse-whipped from day to day and been underfed to the point of emaciation. When he despaired of not being rescued he tried to commit suicide by cutting an artery in his hand. When that was thwarted, he begged his captors to to beat him to death with a broom.
Frank Longo, his father, was an owner of a bakery. He received 6 threatening letters; the first on May 13 and the last June 27. One of the letters was indicative of the tone: "Do business with honest people. If you go to the police your son will die, and we are ready with our guns. If you do not send the money we will send your son's head by parcel post as a remembrance. This done and we will attend to you." Frank Longo would negotiate a ransom of $700.00, which police marked and would help in the arrest of the Black Hand gang members. It was Frank Longo, Jr. keen observations and quick wit that would provide police with the details of the perpetrators, ability to point out the location of his confinement and his clear recitation of the events that occurred that would break up some of the "the greatest terrorist of the east side." These are the same perpetrators of the kidnapping of his cousin Giuseppe (Joseph) DiFiore 2 years prior.
Frank Longo, Jr.'s statement to police detectives:
The man who took me away said he was a friend of papa. He took me to a house made of wood. He took me up three flights of stairs and shoved me in a room. There was a man and woman there and five children, two little babies.
I tried to play with Joseph, the oldest boy, but he and the others would fight with me. I told the man about is, but he only laughed. The man and the woman didn't feed me much. When I wanted milk and coffee in the morning, they gave me broth.
The man wouldn't let me stand by the window, and I cried very much. I wanted to bleed to death. The woman took the knife away from me, and the oldest boy, Joseph, began to hit me with a broom.
I said to them in Italian: "Yes, hit me on the head with the broomstick. I want to die." I once heard of a little boy who was killed by being hit on the head with a book. I thought I could die if they hit me with a broom. The man slapped me in the face three times when I talked like that, and told Joe hit me with the broom but not hard enough.
Once they made me write to my papa that I would be killed if he didn't help me. They forced me to write. The man who brought me forced me to write the letter. I couldn't understand why papa didn't pay the money to help me, and when they let me go I knew that the money had been paid. The man took me to the Williamsburg Bridge and left me on a corner. I cried and a young man came along. I told him where I lived and he brought me all the way home.
The boy was asked what did you do in that house all that time?
Answer: I tried to learn Joseph to spell. He was a old as I was and was in Class 2A, and what do you think? He couldn't spell 'cat.' I couldn't learn him. He was awful. The man wanted me to learn the children all the time. I never got outside once till they let me go.
