SON AVENGES FATHER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4523, 5 February 1923, Page 3

SON AVENGES FATHER.

AN ITALIAN EPISODE. A moving story of the heroism of a ten-year-old boy whose father was murdered by highwaymen has been told to the police hi Naples (Italy). A tradesman named Areangelo Pezzullo, accompanied by his son, went, to a neighbouring village to collect a debt, and on the way home called to see his brother, who advised him to leave the money with him, owing to the reported presence of highwaymen in the district. This was done, and the man, with his son, started for home. They had not gone far when four shots rang out from the roadside, and the pony dropped dead. Pezzullo had a revolver, but after replying with a couple of shots he sank back mortally wounded. The boy immediately seized his father’s revolver, and, jumping put of the trap, ran back to his uncle’s with word of what had happened. The uncle and a number of his farmhands, all armed, hastened to the scene with the boy, and found six men searching the trap. Fire was immediately opened by both parties, young Pezzullo himself 'firing several shots at the assailants before he received a bullet wound in the thigh and fell. The raiders, two of whom are believed to be wounded, all escaped, but. the police expect to capture them. The boy is now in hospital, but his condition is not serious.