The Black Hand In Sydney with Adam Grossetti

Walk the backstreets of Kings Cross & Woolloomooloo, circa 1920-1940, and uncover the hidden locations once ruled by Sydney’s early gangster kingpins and operatives of Australia’s notorious Italian crime syndicate, the Black Hand and the Camorra. This tour offers a rare glimpse into migrant life in lower Woolloomooloo, along the docks and wharves where Sydney’s first fish market stood and where newly arrived communities forged lives in the shadows of the waterfront.

Explore the boarding houses, laneways, and bordellos that formed part of a vast underworld network linking Sydney to North Queensland’s sugar belt. Here, sex workers were trafficked, debts were enforced, and loyalties were tested. These streets whispered the threats of murder, extortion, and revenge, under the suffocating code of silence that protected those who lived by the rules of The Black Hand.

About the Guide

The tour will be guided by Adam Grossetti, writer and co-producer of the ABC television documentary The Black Hand, starring Anthony LaPaglia. Adam is a guest speaker at the University of London’s Association for the Study of Modern Italy Conference, Mafia and the Italian State, and the producer and writer of numerous radio documentaries, including ABC Radio National’s two-part Earshot podcast, The Black Hand. His work spans television, radio, and stage, and he is the recipient of the Queensland Premier’s Award for Drama.

Watch The Black Hand documentary by Adam Grossetti here on ABC iView for free: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/black-hand

Tour Highlights:

• Old Sydney Fish Market: See the site of Sydney’s first Fish Market, where waterfront labour and migrant life converged.
• A Gangland Hit: Stand at the location where underworld heavyweight Guido Galletti was murdered in a gangland execution.
• The Camorra: See where the Camorra met and initiated members into the secret society of the malavita. Behold the secret ancient ritual performed in Calabria, New York, and Sydney in the 1920s and 30s.
• The Brothels: Observe the lanes and brothels from where the “working girls” were trafficked to the cane fields of North Queensland.
• The 50 50 Club: Sydney’s most notorious illegal casino, nightclub, and cocaine den of the 1930s, where cashed-up mobsters went to live large.

If you are interested in booking a group of 8 or more for an unlisted date, please email elliot@murdersmostfoul.com or call 0431922619. Mid-week options available.