A ROMAN MURDER.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 364, 12 October 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

A ROMAN MURDER.

The Rome correspondent of the Londoxx Times writing under date May 29, says : —“ A remax-kable trial for murder, which, has drawn crowds to the Court of Assizes and completely . absox-bed the atleixtioxx of the Roxxxaxx public dxu-ing the last three days, was brought to an abrupt axxd most draxxxatic tex-xxxixxation yesterday. Tlxe jxxry had retired to coxxsider their verdict; the prisoner had been taken back to his cell; the crowd within the coxxx-t, afraid of losixxg their places, were waiting patiently to hear the result; half an hour had passed, when the attexxtioxx of evex-y one was suddenly aroused by the souxxd of axx intense commotion; the Judges, the Public Prosecutor, and the advocate for the defence were summoned in haste, axxd almost before one could ask “ What is it ; what is the matter ?” the news flashed through the court that the prisoner was ixx a state of ravixxg xxxadxxess.

The story of the mxxrder is ixx all essential points the same as that of Othello. The framework, of coux-se, was diffex-eixt ; tlxe wife—alas ! as appeared in the coux-se of the trial—was xxot a Desdexxxona ; tlxe lago xvas a young girl; the supposed lover, as well as tlxe wife, becaxxxe the vxctixxx of the husband's doubts ; but the xvorking of the passion of jealoxxsy ixx the nxan’s mind, tlxe manner in which, he was wrought to a pitch of frenzy, his agony of uncertainty ixx the impossibility of obtaining proof, and the fxxry with xvhich he vented his rage xxpon tlxe objects of his suspicions was, psychologically speaking, the counterpart of the story of the Moor, xvith these additions. The hxxsbaxxd delivers hinxself at oxxce into the hands of jxxstice ; sees his xvife—who recovers from her xvoxxnds while the lover dies —brought forward as a xvitxxess agaixxst him; hears the suspicions xvhich had maddened him fxxlly confirmed in open coxxrt, axxd becoxxxes a raxdxxg xxxaxxiac before sexxtexxce coxxld be pronounced upoxx him. In the year c 1866 Gixxseppe Varani, a tailor folloxvixxg his bxxsixxess in the Via Rosa, close to the Piazza Colomxa, married a yoxxxxg woman named Mariana Jonni. In ISGS he xvexxt to Florence on the occasioxx of Prince—xxoxv King— Humbert’s marriage, and on his return, the Pontificial police, sxxspecting the trxxe motive of his joxxmey had x-eferexxce to political matters, for the man xvas doxvn in their books as a Liberal, arrested hinx, and kept hinx ixx prison for txvo months. After his libex-ation he heax-d thixxgs xvhich led hinx to beliex r e that dux-ing this ixxterval his xvife had been unfaithful. Taxing her xvith the charge, she confessed, pleadixxg her youth, ixxexperiexxce, and unprotected position, and he forgave her, subject, hoxvex’er, to her xvearing moxxrnixxg for three yeax-s, to her never leax-ing the hoxxse xxnaccoxxxpanied, and to her folloxvixxg prescribed routes xvlxexx she xvent oxxt. Shortly afterxvards a child xvas box-n xvhich Yerani had xxo reason to doxxbt xvas his oxxm, and this ex-ent brought aboxxt a complete reconciliation between tlxe parents. Years passed, and, xvith the exception that the child, xvho xvas devotedly loved by her father, died, nothing fxxx-ther occxxrred to interfere xvith Varani’s happiness until the month of Septenxber last. A number of xvitnesses testified to the intensity of his grief at the death of his little daughter and to his passionate attachment to his xvife. He proxfided her xvith every possible comfort ixx his poxver, and at an expense his meaxxs barely permitted managed each summer that she should spend a fexv xveeks in the couxxtx-y or at the sea-side. In August last he sent her xvith some acquaintances to Recanati, near Ancoxxa, axxd xvith the party xvas an intimate friend of his, a joiner xxaxxxed Exxrico Fiorentini. Shortly after her x-etxxrxx Vax-axxi had occasion to reprove a yoxxxxg girl they kept as a serxraxxt for sonxe lexdty of condxict she had been gxxilty of. “I have done no hax-nx,” she replied, and thexx with a significaxxt expressioxx added, “ axxd if I have, I axxx xxxxxxxarried ; I have xxo hxxsbaxxd, like some other persoxxs.” Jealoxxs by xxatxxre, and the xxxore so ixx proportion to the ixxtensity of the lox r e he felt for his xvife, these xvords aroused the passioxx his xvife’s good behaviour had kept dorxxxaxxt sixxce he pardoned her texx years ago. He began ixx a covert manner to xxxake ixxqxxiries axxxoxxg his friends as to his xvife’s behaviour. Their axxsxvers xvere sxxch as to ixx crease his sxxspicioxxs axxd lead hinx to believe that xvhile at Recanati she had beexx too iixtixxxate xvith Exxrico Fiorexxtixxi. To put his friexxd to the test he ixxvited hinx to a kixxd of supper party at a trattoria, axxd, havixxg takexx txvo others ixxto his coxxfidence, got the conversatioxx

turned on the subject of husbaxxds betrayed axxd wives sedxxced by bosom fx-iends, bxxt xxo chaxxge caxxxe over the coxxntenaxxce of Fiorexxtixxi axxd he betrayed no emotion beyond what was shown ixx expressixxg his opixxioxx of the dire pxxxxishnxent traitors of that kixxd merited —of what he hinxself woxxld do ixx axxy sxxch case. Yerani was alnxost reassxxred by Fiox-entixxi’s fx-ank, opexx look axxd loyal words, whexx the xxext day Sara Negrixxi, tlxe servaxxt girl, dropped other insinuations, axxd Varani’s sxxspicioxxs returned xvith redoxxbled fox-ce.

This gix-1, appax-ently eighteen years old, xx-as oxxly fourteen, and xvhile ixx Court gave evidexxce of such precocity that the President warned her parents to guard her closely, I must mention here that some thxxe ago Varani had opened a sixxall shop ixx the new quarter for his xvife to keep xvhile he attexxded to his bxxsixxess as a tailor ixx the Via Rosa. The girl told him that his xvife was not unaccompanied on her xvay to and fronx Via Principe Unxberto. I need not, hoxvever, attempt to describe all the phases of Varani’s jealousy ; how bitter it was, how completely it doxxxixxated him, how his sleepless suspicioxx xvas at times ixxcx-eased and at times somewhat calmed, the xvitnesses at the trial bore detailed ex-idexxce.

He got the two friends to whom he con-

fided his doubts to aid him in watcliing her, but they were unable to detect anything, and at last he hit upon the common expedient of a pretended day’s journey into the country, of which also he took care that Fiorentini should know. Having bid his wife good-bye, taken his departure, and ascertained that she had gone to her shop, he returned secretly to the house and hid himself under the bed. The wife returned with the girl Sara to her dinner, and at one moment he thought he was on the point of realising his suspicions, for the girl went out leaving the ■wife alone, but she had only been to fetch something, and after a short time they both set out again for the shop in the Via Principe Umberto. As evening approached he took an opportunity of passing unseen from his house to an nsteria on the opposite side of the way from one of the windows above which he was able to keep watch on his own door.

His wife and the servant girl came back unaccompanied ; everything was just as usual; no one entered the house after them ; at the usual hour the lights were extinguished; and after still sitting at watch until midnight he went to the Locanda of the Biscione to sleep. “Was it possible that he had been tormented by a shadow ; that the suspicions he had been led to entertain were groundless?” were the questions he now put to himself. In the morning these thoughts had almost become convictions, and after repeating them to his friends he saw during the earlier hours, he w r ent to the railway station, that he might come away thence on the arrival of the train by which he was supposed to return. In the Via Quattro Fontane he met the servant girl Sara Isegrini. “ Where was her mistress ?” She did not know ; her mistress had gone out very early, saying she was going -with a friend to the Cemetery of the Campo Verano. On hearing of so unusual an expedition, all Varani’s doubts, which had been gradually subsiding during the morning, came back with redoubled force. He questioned the girl further, and she told him that his wife and Fiorentini had been a long time together the day before. Maddened by the idea that while he was watching at home and becoming convinced of his wife’s innocence as he saw her go quietly in and out and finally retire for the night, she had taken the opportunities of seeing her lover elsewhere during the intervals, he took an instant resolution to place the matter one way or another beyond doubt. Leaving his brother, who had accompanied him from the station and who bore witness to the happier thoughts he had expressed before meeting Sara Negrini, he jumped into a cab and went direct to the Via Principe Umberto. The cabman testified to observing the excited state of his fare.

At the shop he found his wife, and putting her into the cab told her to go home and wait for him there. He then took another cab, and, driving to Fiorentini’s workshop, asked him to come with him at once to his house, for he had something he wanted him to do. At first Fiorentini refused, he could not conveniently leave his work at that moment, blit Yarani insisted, and he consented. As to these particulars the only witness was Yarani himself. He went into the house first, called to his wife to come down with a candle to light him into the cellar and made a sign to Fiorentini to enter. At first his wife, alarmed possibly at his manner at the shop, refused. She did not know what she was to come down for.

“ Are you afraid ? ” he asked, and she came. He made her descend first, told Fiorentini to follow, and then went down himself. As soon as they were in the cellar lie turned upon them and exclaimed.

“ It is time to finish with all this ; tell me the truth and T will forgive you. ” “ It is not my fault,” cried Fiorentini. The wife fell upon her knees, and entreated pardon for the sake of their dead child.

“And then,” said Yarani, “at the name of that angel I had loved so dearly I lost all command of myself ; the light left my eyes. I drew a knife I had in my trousers and fell upon them. I knew nothing else except that I went upstairs, got into the cab that was waiting, and drove to the Quasstura, and gave myself up.”

The wife, as I have said, was found alive, and recovered from the four wounds Yarani had inflicted upon her. On the body of the. lover a letter of hers of the most compromising character was found. When this was read in Court, and when witnesses testified to incidents which had occurred at Recanati which left little doubt of a criminal intimacy having existed there between Varani’s wife and Fiorentini, the agitation of the prisoner was excessive. When his wife was called to give her evidence, he entreated the President to let him be taken away, not to oblige him to see and hear her ; and the final result I have told you. It took eight Carabineers to hold him, until, fastened in a strait waistcoat, he was taken to the hospital.

When the jury came out to give their verdict, which in Italy is decided by the majority, seven out of the twelve were agreed on the question of premeditation. In cases where the majority is no more than seven, Article 509 of the Penal Code provides that the President may, in accord with the other Judges, order a new trial; and this course, the President, taking into consideration the condition of the prisoner, decided to follow. As regards the evidence of Sara Hegrini I may mention that, although there can be little doubt of the nature of the intimacy between Varani’s wife and Fiorentini, this girl had clearly reasons of her own for arousing the husband’s jealousy. In the course of her examination she described incidents of which she said others were also witnesses. But those persons on being called denied all knowledge of what she said and of having been present in the places and at the hours she named. The extraordinary nature of her deposition was such as to call forth a severe reprimand from the President, and as I have said, a warning to her parents to look after her.”