Two Women Murdered

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1922, Page 4

Two Women Murdered

A REAL DETECTIVE STORY. ROME, Dec. 19. The finding in a flat in Turin of the dead bodies of Miss C'ogo, 61, the mistiess, and her adopted daughter, Rita Bordon, 21, Iras led to the arrest of iliree brothers, nephews of the older woman, and her maid. On December 6 the maid, Marglicrita Palermo, told the police that she had found lied mistress and the girl dead. I lie police immediately went lo the house with Palermo and found in the dining-room the bodies of Miss Cogo, lolly dressed, sitting on llie soil, while I!'la Bunion, also dressed, was lying on lhe floor. it was supposed that the two women lad been poisoned by carbon dioxide fumes from the stove. The case,appeared perfectly plain until the maid was questioned. She declared that during the night she heard a cry, went into the passage* outside the dining-room, noticed nothing, and went back to bed. The next morning she took from the kitchen the can in which she usually fetched the milk, opened the dining-room door, saw the girl’s legs under the table, and rushed downstairs in a great fright and fetched the police. FOUR DEADLY FACTS. This story was utterly unlike the story told by a servant in a flat above Miss Cogo’s, who .said that she saw Palermo returning with the milk and go out again a few minutes later. Also the police could not understand why Palermo had not immediately called Carlo and Agostino Cogo, nephews of tjie dead woman, who were living on the same floor o! the same house.

Their suspicions thoroughly aroused, the police began to make closer investigations, and they discovered the following facts: — First, the two women were badly dressed, the old woman lacking her corsets and the heavy woollen garments she always wore. The girl’s' clothes also were badly- Imttnnod and she lacked a shoe. Secondly, near tho • noses and mouths were marks which a doctor declared might be caused by an attempt at anaesthetising. Thirdly, there were recent marks of blood on the pillows of both women. Fourthly, the jersey of the girl was caught under the stove, therefore it was impossible that she could have fallen there but must have been placed there, the stove being moved later. These considerations led the police to believe that the two women had been anaesthetised, stifled in bed, then dressed and placed in the dining-room in such a position as to lead people to believe it was an accident. The police arrested Palermo, who next morning declared she had opened the door after midnight to two men who murdered the women. Later she confessed that the two men were Carlo and Agostino Cogo, who were immediately arrested. The post-mortem revealed that the women had been stifled and that the murder occurred at 11 p.m. Marks on tile girl’s body showed that three men were implicated, wherefore the eldest brother, Giacinto Cogo, who was in Turin at the time and was unable to prove an alibi, was also arrested.