Stiletto was used by anarchists as well as by members of various "Black Hand" (a method of extortion) organizations to assassinate Italian-Americans and others who either opposed the "Black Hand" or ignored its demands for blackmail. The "Black Hand" even established schools for training its members in the use of the stiletto. The emergence of fierce hand-to-hand combat in the trenches of World War I created a new need for stabbing weapons, resulting in the reappearance of the dagger and the stiletto. Many versions of these stabbing knives exist, some individually made by soldiers, while others were government-procured and authorized. On
The Black Stiletto free teaser short story, "The Black Stiletto's Autograph", and a "Black Stiletto Song" (by Will Arrington), both of which can be downloaded from the official website. The Black Stiletto The Black Stiletto is a thriller novel written by Raymond Benson; it was published in the US in September 2011. The first book in a series, it is the story of Judy Cooper, a young woman in late 1950s New York City, who becomes a masked vigilante. A parallel storyline in the present involves Judy as an elderly Alzheimer's patient being cared for by her grown son, Martin Talbot, who learns