HISTORY
From his youngest days, Giuseppe DiCaprizzi had been associated with the Black Hands, an ambitious Sicilian streetgang in Brooklyn. He worked his way up the ranks, from sneak-thief and conman's shill through soldiering and finally into a position as 'Consigliare' ("Advisor") to the Capo. He had been a party to the earliest efforts to organize the disparate Sicilian gangs in New York and elsewhere, and had also oversaw the first diversification of the gang's proceeds into legitimate businesses that helped make him a millionaire before he was 25 (in 1899).

By 1904, Giuseppe had become Capo after the death of his mentor during an ambush by a rival gang, and after he lead a vendetta against them, he was content to fade into the woodwork and control the activities of his Family from a distance. He was married in 1906, and with the birth of his Daughter Seraphina one year later, he seemed to have managed to get out of 'The Business' without significant loss.

That is, until New Years Day, 1926.

Seraphina, fresh from her first semester at Sarah Lawrence, had been out on the town, spending New Years Eve 'slumming' in the clubs in Harlem with her latest fling. He was found beaten half to death in an alley. She had disappeared.

Giuseppe's considerable resources availed him little in Harlem, until he got into contact with a bunch of professors from New York City University (who were friends of Seraphina's boyfriend) who kept spouting off wild stories about voodoo cults and human sacrifice. Giuseppe didn't believe that, but they seemed to be his best chance to find Seraphina, so he helped them with money and muscle, until they found the stronghold of the gang who'd swiped her. They called themselves 'The Cult of the Bloody Tongue', and he thought they were just a bunch of small-time chiselers out to make some dough on their fellow darkies who'd bought into their own propoganda a little too heavily.

Until the night they raided the abandoned building that the professors said was their 'temple'.

Until he saw the Thing with Seraphina's face.

The professors called it a `Chakota': a writhing mass of stench and slime and writhing arms, each ending in a contorted human face. The cultists (that's what the professors called them) 'fed' victims to the thing in return for magical power, and they'd fed Seraphina to it.

His men told him later that he gunned down all the cultists he could see, and personally burned the husk of the creature to cinders before ordering his men demolish the derelict building to its foundations. Even as the building smoldered to its last cracking embers, he swore to both his newfound friends from NYCU and to God that he'd use whatever means at his disposal to fight the men who'd inflicted such vileness onto his daughter, and to all who aided them, no matter where (or what) they were.

ORGANIZATION
The core of the organization (the true 'Five Fingers on the Hand of God') are the five soldiers who accompanied Don Giuseppe on the raid that night: all were tough, loyal men, and all agreed readily to take the solemn oath that their Capo asked of them.

Their job was twofold: their main job was to watch for cult related activities, first in Harlem, then all over New York City. They were given special dispensation by Don Giuseppe to take any action they deemed necessary to stop any such activities they identified, the authorization being in the form of a gold signet ring depicting a spread hand with a crucifix emblazoned on the palm, with the words "Por Seraphina" inscribed on the inside.

Their second job was to act as a special 'hit' team for situations that needed to be taken care of quietly (such as the dispelling of a summoned monster) without alerting the uninitiated. To this end, they studied up on Mythos lore with Don Giuseppe's friends The Braintrust' (his affectionate nickname for the Investigators from NYCU he'd worked with), approaching the subject with a uniquely pragmatic and fuctional mindset.

Apart from his friends at NYCU (who are supported by generous private donations from DiCaprizzi Warehousing), Don Giuseppe also included his cousin Father Louis Pontrillo in his organization. Lou is a Jesuit Priest, and provides not simply a source of Roman Catholic occult lore, but also moral support for the men, acting as their confessor and inspiration in moments when the struggle becomes too much for the Five Fingers, and has accompanied them on 'jobs' on more than one occasion.

The rest of Di Caprizzi's family, (as well as the other NY crime families and the police), think they're simply an elite leg breaking' squad that Don Giuseppe put together as a prelude to resuming day-to-day control of the family's activities. They put the name up to his desire to put his 'hand' back in the pot, as well as his own vanity.

Despite their care, though, rumors of their existence have made it into Occult circles, and on several occasions they have been called upon by desperate groups of Mythos Investigators who had no other recourse. The Five Fingers assist any who call on them willingly, for no remuneration, though they do make it clear at the start of any such arrangement that their methods are severe and extensive. Their repuation for being as honest as they are brutal has stood them in good stead.

RESOURCES
Thanks to the not-inconsiderable resources of the DiCaprizzi crime family, the Five Fingers enjoy access to most anything they need to accomplish their rather straightforward aims: guns, cars, dynamite, manpower for large raids, crooked cops & politicians who are well taken care of not to question their activities, informal information from the mob grapevine that might prove invaluable in tracking things like suspicious shipments from the South Seas coming into Southstreet Seaport.

In addition, they have access to NYCU's facilities through 'The Braintrust', as well as to all but the most sensitive of Archdiocese of New York records through Father Lou to allow them to research the nature of most any threat they come across.

CONSEQUENCES OF WORKING WITH THE FIVE FINGERS
One might think, then, that The Five Fingers are the perfect Mythos hunting organization. They're motivated, well equipped, effective, self supporting and willing to help anyone who calls them

They're also criminals. Nasty criminals who deal with their business associates in the same manner they deal with mad cultists: ruthlessly. Though they do try not to endanger innocents in their singleminded pursuit of Mythos activities, they have on occasion caused collateral damage and even attacked groups or sites based on fragmentary information, and killed innocent (relatively) bystanders, viewing them as unfortunate but necessary casualties in their war.

Any group of investigators who has more than passing contact with The Five Fingers will find themselves the subject of A LOT of unwanted attention from both the cops (who will finger them as potential members of the Mafia and thus ripe for prosecution) and from rival crime families (who may also finger them as legitimate targets for retribution).

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