SAVED FROM EXECUTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1996, 28 June 1919, Page 4

SAVED FROM EXECUTION.

MURDERER’S CONFESSION,

INNOCENT MAN ACCUSED,

A dramatic execution scene occurred in Paris at daybreak last month, a murderer saving a condemned fellow-prisoner’s life just before going to the guillotine.,

Two Italians were sentenced to death for the murder of an old woman who kept an hotel. One was called Sacco. The other- gave the name of Sannazaro, but a sister of the real Sannazaro came forward and said the murderer was not her brother, and he was condemned as «x. ,} Both men were to be executed in the morning, and were wakened before dawn. Sacco accepted mass, but Santfazaro refused it, and while Sacco was praying the nameless murderer •*.onf* - ;.;svd that he lied in accusing Sacco at the trial, and said the crime was committed before Sacco heard of it. He said he lied because he thought two men were never executed in France for the same crime. The order for Sacco’s execution was countermanded, and ten minutes after the.hour fixed for the execution the nameless man, deathly pale but courageous, was thrown on the block and expiated his crime. He refused at the guillotine to reveal his identity, saying he belonged to an honourable Italian family, and wished his relatives to believe he died doing his duty at the front.