DARING ESCAPE OF BRIGANDS IN SICILY.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 70, 1 February 1879, Page 2

DARING ESCAPE OF BRIGANDS IN SICILY.

The arrangements made by tho Mafia to insure the escape of the three chiefs among the captive brigands at Palermo may certainly be described as masterly ■ and most efficiently carried out. No one can be certain that his bosom friend is not a Maticso. The affiliated are found as • much in the upper as in the lower ranks i of society, so much so that the former is called tho high Matia; and yet, while it has this wide extension and almost unlimited influence, the authorities took no more trouble to safely guard the sixteen desperate instruments of this evil they had in their hands than was shown in their being confided to the care of three carbineers only. It is true tho brigands wero handcuffed and in a prison van divided iutu cells supposed to be locked ; but the Mafiosi interested in the rescue, know how to reduce the value of these precautions to a minimum. The controling power of Italian thumbscrews and manaoles has often boen described ; and yet it is evident that when these confederates of Mr. Rose's captor, Leone, left the prison, their handcuffs were as much within their individual command as so many ladies' bracelets. Moreover, each brigand had a part assigned to him which he carried out with the precision of an actor upon a stage. When tho prison van, with its sixteen occupants, reached tho Vir Lungazim, a somewhat unfrequented street, from which several narrow alleys open, a loud noise or explosion was heard; the van came to a standstill, its door and those of two of the cells flew open, and out dashed four of five of the brigandß who tumbled the carabineer within the door on, the ground and took to flight. In a moment the carabineer at the further end of the corridor along the length of the van, sprang out after the fugitives, uud the other carbineer and the bystanders following, there was a regular hue and cry. But the brigands who hod bolted were merely decoys. If they could manage to get away, so much tho bettor for them, but there duty was to draw off tho carabineers, an operation thoy perfectly succoed in achieving. The coast having thus boen cleared, the threo chiefs—Salpietra, Randozzo, and another, whoso nam© is differently given—all slipped quietly out of their oells, modo good their escapo, and have not boon heard of sinco. Tho Liberia, coinmonti ing this ovoning soverely upon the occurrence and upon tho fact that no traces of the fugitives havo yet been found, Bays that it is clear a numbor of persons

an t in all probability functionariesamong them, were p.ivy to this affair ami enfaged in it. It w stated that the carainers had unloaded carbines with them, and were without their revolvers.—English Paper.