A DESPOT OF CRIME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 294, 6 May 1911, Page 10

A DESPOT OF CRIME.

110.UANCE 01' A VENDETTA. CAMORKA LEADERS BROUGHT TO TRIAL AT LAST. •150 WITNESSES. Olio of the greatest criminal trials in history is about to take plate here (says a message to London from Viterbo, Naples). The leaders of the dreaded Naples Camorra, the notorious secret society, are to be arraigned, after police, investigations extending over three years, ami involving the hearing of -150 witnesses. The trial, which is expected to last a year, is the result of laborious investigation by a few courageous police officials. They were stirred to action by a mysterious murder which was discovered at Torre del Greco, a suburb of Naples, on June 7, 1900. The body of a good-looking man was found with wounds oil his head, caused by some heavy weapon, while the chest and abdomen bad been pierced by thirtytwo wounds, some of which had a triangular form, characteristic of a certain knife used by professional Neapolitan criminals. Examinations showed that the wounds were made by three different weapons, proving that there must have been at least tliree persons who inflicted tliern. The murdered man bad iri his hand a new kitchen knife. A curious circumstance impressed the magistrates, and that was that the shoes of the murdered man were spotlessly clean, with 110 trace of the Vesuvian ash, which at the place where the body was discovered is knee deep. It was thus evident that the victim had not been attacked there, but had been carried there already dead, by a considerable number of persons, as be was a man of extraordinary corpulence, and that the kitchen knife had been purposely placed in his hand to mislead justice.

BODY [DI'.XTrFIKD. The identification was difficult. Finally the Cavalicrc Cuocolo. a rich tanner, recognised the body as that of Genarro Cuocolo. his brother's son. who had previously led a dissipated life. His father had died of a broken heart, and Gennaro soon dissipated his large fortune and almost ruined his younger brother. He was interdicted and given £l2 a month, after which he married a woman of doubtful character, Maria Cutinelli,; called the "Beautiful Rorrcntina," as she came from Sorrento. Gennaro Cuocolo was forty-two at the time of his death, and his wife was about the same age. Tliey lived in the Via Nardones. opening into the Piazza San Ferdinando, in the centre of Naples. The police hurried to the address indicated. and after some time forced the door of the apartment. Tn the bedroom the "Beautiful Sorrentina." clothed only in a. pink silk nightgown, lav on the bed in a lake of blood. She was dead, her body being covered with wounds and bruises. The wounds of the wife as in the husband were of the triangular character inflicted by the tremendous dagger used by the Camorrists, but the most characteristic cut was one given to persons who are spies or who have in some way broken the Camorrist oath. The record of Gennaro Cuocolo showed that in his youth The had been condemned for theft, swindling, resisting the police, etc., and was put under special supervision, hut for ten or twelve years before his death he had not. been before the police, and had apparently been respectable. Cuocolo had once said: "Since my marriage T have been tranquil and homeloving. and have only once risked compromising myself, when in public, in the Galleria T'mberto, T boxed the ears of Enrico Alfano—called Erriconne." DESPOT OF CRIME. Enrico Alfano had been head of all sections of the Camorra of Naples since the death of Ciccio Cappuccio. the most famous of their heads, in ISO 3. Alfano was then just twenty, and an ordinary member of the Camorra, but extraordinarily ambitious. After proving his courage he took up the threads of the old Camorra, reorganising it, and founding it as it is at present, calling it the "Beautiful Reformed Society." From that moment he was all powerful. commander of all the twelve sections of the criminal association, which correspond to the twelve districts of the city. Although Alfano, or Erricone, was several times accused of direct complicity or responsibility for crimes, among them burglary, breaking into churches, white slave traffic, thefts of jewels, electoral dishonesty and corruption, he either escaped, or, if convicted, got a very light sentence. It seemed very remarkable that this dangerous and violent person, having quarrelled with Genarro Cuocolo to the point of having his ears boxed in public, should neither have retaliated nor tried to be revenged by "eating his heart," as they say, and had even consented to make up the quarrel through a common friend. The blow proved to be the clue which, in the hands of a clever detective, one Jppolito, led him to investigate if the murders might not have been due to the hatred of Erricone and his companions. Ippolito found that Cuocolo and his wife had great fame among criminals as clever organisers, while there are papers in the police archives which show that on various occasions they acted as police spies. CLUES FROM A BANQUET. While working on the double murder case the police of Torre del Greco made a discovery of capital importance. They found that on the night of the murder of Cuocolo, Erricone was diniii" lightheartedly in an inn at Torre deHJreco. At the banquet there was also Ciro Alfano, Erricone's brother (who later died in prison), known to belong to the Camorra, Gennaro Ibello, head of the Camorra in the Vesnvian villages (who had jurisdiction over the "operations" which were accomplished in the surroundings of Naple.s, while Erricone's empire was in the metropolis), and Giovanni Rapi. nicknamed "The Teacher." because he had taught in the municipal schools of Naples, and in his old age was known as the keeper of a gambling house. These three men were accompanied by the sisters Esposito. Erricone did not, deny bavin" been at the inn, saying he was an habitue of the place. ITe gave it as his opinion that Cuocolo went there thinking he was to organise a haul, and was attacked by his confederates, who thought he was asking too large a share. The argument did not satisfy the magistrate, and Erricone and all his companions of that evening, and also his groom; were arrested. The two girls were almost at once set free, hut great ' astonishment was expressed when Idler 011 Erricone and his companions were liberated on the plea of want of evidence. The police were openly accused of unwillingness to strike the Camorri as they shared the profits of their crimes. The complaints of the respectable part of the population reached, such a point that the Government was forced to decide that a

war without quarter should be started again.st the Camorra. Colonel Ramorino, commander of the Legion of Carabineers in Naples, a brave and energetic Piednmntesc, who had been for many years in Naples and knew the city thoroughly, was called to Home and given a free hand to strike the Camorra ill all its ramifications, and in particular bring to justice the instigators and authors of the double Cuocolo murder. Captains Fabbroui and Jovene and .Marshals Capemiti and Ferris are also heroes in this drama, as it is due to them that a nest of the most audacious Camorrists has been broken up and that the criminal.s have been brought to justice. Since this work of purilication began the rates of the crimes against property in Naples has become lower tnan of all the European towns having a population of over half a million. The release of Erricone and ni.s gang was due to the fact entirely new in the annals of the law courts of the intervention of a priest, the famous Father Giro Vitozzi. The scene which this priest organised was most dramatic and effective. Vitozssi is Erricone's godfather, and when he heard that his godson was in serious danger he went to the judge and solemnly said: "I swear in my sacerdotal character before the holy crucifix that you gentlemen are committing an act of the greatest injustice in being about to condemn those who are innocent. I know the real murderers, but I cannot reveal their names, as they came to me with the seal of the confession." „

C'AMORRIST PRIEST. The magistrates were impressed by this, in spite of the fact that the priest bore a bad reputation, because he had a prominent position in the C'amorra. While this was going on, the carabineers were working on their own account, Marshal Capezzuti being especially indefatigable and risking his life continually. Capezzuti disguised himself as a coalheavcr, as a porter, as a peasant, mixing with the worst of the criminals and trying to become a member of thfc C'amorra. The carabineer endeavored to gain an ascendency over a young criminal called Gennaro Abbatemaggio. Abbatcmagsio was sent to prison, and Capezzuti, who posed as ail enemy of the police and the carabineers, visited him. showing himself affectionate and leaving him some money. Eventually he won him over to make a confession, the principal points of which were that Cuocolo was murdered as a revenge of the C'amorra, his death sentence having been pronounced by its tribunal of high justice; that, it was provoked by the fact that Cuocolo had placed himself in opposition to Errieone, Ibello, and the supreme head of the C'amorra. Luigi Fucci; and that Maria Cutinelli Cuocolo was murdered immediately after her husband, as, if she had been spared, she could have denounced the murderers; and also because she and her husband had kept some very valuable jewels, which had been stolen, and had refused to give them up. although great pressure had been brought, to bear by the society. SIX DESPERADOES. The executors of the crime were six desperadoes of the Camorra. Two of them, Morra and Sortino, who were frequenters of the Cuocolo house and were identified by the porter, went after the first murder, which took place near the tram station at about 9 p.m., to the Cuocolo house with the excuse that they were being sent by Cuocolo with a message, and, being allowed to enter, killed the woman and stole everything they could lay their hands oil. While the crime was being carri" 1 out at Torra del Greco the heads of the Camorra were banqueting at the local inn, and about nine o'clock two men came to them in the dining-room, in their shirt sleeves, with their coats folded over their arms because they Were saturated with blood. They approached Errieone and said is done!" whereupon Errieone drew a deep breath and gave each a glass of wine. This latter circumstance was afterwards authenticated'by witnesses, and was so circumstantial that Errieone could not deny it, but he explained it by saying that the men were two poor fellows who had come to salute him, and that he could do no less than give ti, a drink. There was now sufficient evidence in the hands of the police, and about sixty orders of arrest were issued at the beginning of 1007. As soon as the news of the arrests, which the police tried to keep secret, spread, several Camorvifled, among them Errieone, who was In hiding for several weeks in the country near Naples, but eventually got on board a. steamer which took him to New York. ARRESTED AT LAST. This llight, however, was in vain, as within the Same month that he arrived he was discovered by the unfortunate detective Petrosino (who was afterwards murdered) in a house in Brooklyn, and arrested, and as the request for extradition Irom the Italian Government did not arrive time, Petrosino merely put him on Jioard a steamer and he 'was taken back to Europe. Errieone chose to go to Havre, but when he landed he fell into the hands of the Italian police, who had arranged for his extradition with the French authorities, and were thus enabled to take him at once to Italy. There he and the other accused were confronted with Abbatemaggio, and denied in the most violent manner everything. Abbatemaggio renewed his accusations, saying further that, the death sentence was pronounced on Cuocolo when de Marinis received a postcard from Luigi Arena, then undergoing forced domicile in the island of Lampedusa, near Sicily. When the' house of de, Marinis was searched by the police the abovementioned postcard was found, winch proves the truth, so far as it goes, of Abbatemaggio's statements. The priest- Vitozzi was incriminated as having calumniated de Angelis anil Amodeo. All those arrested, to the number of forty-one, arc accused of belonging to criminal associations, and Errieone Ibello. Rapi ile Marinis, and Arena also of instigating the double murder; six others of tlie actual commission of the murder; Maria Stcndardo—the only woman under arre»t—of unnecessary complicity and of receiving the objects stolen. Only one of the many who lied when the arrests were made has succeeded in reallv escaping—one Andrea Attauasio, who look refuge in Buenos Aires.