A quiet February morning in 1920 turned deadly in Centerville when a local coal miner was gunned down outside his home in what investigators and historians believe was a Black Hand assassination.
Forty-four-year-old Nicollo Vinceri, a Sicilian immigrant who worked for the Block Coal Company, was fatally shot on February 10, 1920, after stepping outside his home at 1518 South 18th Street to feed his cow.
According to historical accounts, a gunman lying in wait opened fire around 5 a.m. The bullet grazed Vinceri’s arm before striking him in the chest. Despite his injuries, he managed to run several yards while calling for help before collapsing on the porch of a nearby grocery store, where he died.
Appanoose County Sheriff George Elgin and his deputies quickly responded, but investigators found few clues. No witnesses reported seeing the shooter, and neighbors could offer little information about a motive.
Although Vinceri was described as someone who had no known disputes with neighbors, newspapers at the time suspected the killing was connected to the Black Hand—an organized extortion network that targeted many Italian immigrants during the early 20th century. Reports noted that Vinceri’s wife and four children remained fearful and refused to discuss whether the family had received threats, adding to suspicions that intimidation prevented anyone from speaking with authorities.
Vinceri immigrated from Sicily to the United States in 1909 with his wife, Concetta Gagliardo, and their young son. Like thousands of other Italian immigrants seeking work, he settled in southern Iowa’s coal mining region, eventually purchasing a home in Centerville, where a thriving Italian community had formed.
While these close-knit neighborhoods helped preserve Italian language, culture, and traditions, they also became targets of the Black Hand. The criminal organization mailed extortion letters demanding money and often threatened violence—or carried out murders—against those who refused to comply.
Centerville had already experienced Black Hand violence before Vinceri’s death. In 1915, another Italian miner was found murdered after his throat was slit, and in 1916 a local grocer received an extortion letter demanding payment under threat of death.
Despite suspicions that Vinceri’s killing was another Black Hand vendetta, no one was ever arrested or charged. More than a century later, the murder remains unsolved.
Years after the case, one of Vinceri’s granddaughters reportedly said the family rarely spoke about the killing, suggesting fear of the Black Hand lingered long after the gunfire ended.
Source: Nancy Bowers, Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases (written June 2011). Please credit Nancy Bowers as the author and Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases as the original source when using information from this historical case.
